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COPflaGHT DEPOSIT 




THE NOTE THAT RINGS TKUE 



WAR ECHOES 

OR 

Germany and Austria in the Crisis 
Excellent Illustrations and Maps 

Dedicated to Peace and the Fatherland 




PEACE 
<By courtesy of the Open Court) 



A systematic presentation and interpretation 
of the German -Austrian Cause in the 
World War, including many of the best 
Editorials, Articles, Lectures, Addresses, 
Debates, and Comment by the ablest writers 
in the United States and Europe, especially 
dealing with official proceedings in relation to 



THE WORLD WAR 



BY 



GEORGE WILLIAM HAU, A. M. 






Copyright, 1915, 

By Morton M. Malone, 

Publisher 



©Cl.A'iin544 
AUG 21 1915 



General Table of Contents 

PAGE 

Frontispiece .' I 

Title Page I 

General Table of Contents HI 

List of Special Articles and Authors IV 

Table of Contents V 

List of Illustrations VII 

List of Maps VII 

Preface VIII 

First Chapter — Causes — Introduction 1 

Second Chapter — Belgian — Introduction 57 

Third Chapter — Nation — Introduction 95 

Fourth Chapter — War — Introduction 241 

Fifth Chapter — Philosophy — Introduction 313 

Grateful Recognition 346 

General Index 348 



List of Representative Articles with the Names of the Authors 

TRIBUNE GIVES NEW LIGHT ON GERMAN SPIRIT. THE GERMAN-AMERICAN AND THE PRESIDENT'S 

BENNETT DENIES GERMANS INFLICT WANTON NEUTRALITY PROCLAMATION. 

DAMAGE. BISMARCK ON THE PURPOSE AND POLICY OF THE 

CHARGES OF GERMAN CRUELTIES DENIED BY GERMAN EMPIRE. 

U. S. CORRESPONDENTS. Dr. Julius Goebel, Head of the Department of 

-., T ,-^.T-l -D m • Til Germanic Languages and Literature, Uni- 

Me. James O Donnell Bennett, Chicago, III. .^ , ,,,. •' ■ -^ 

■' J u > versity of Illinois. 



THE CAUSES OF THE EUROPEAN CONFLICT. 
A GREAT MAN DEFENDS GERMANY. 
WHY I CHAMPION GERMANY. 



WHAT WOULD BISMARCK SAY? 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 



„^ ,,,T, T^ r.TT^ , , Dr. George L. Schekgee, Professor of History, 

Dr. John W Burgess, Dean of the Department j~,^^ Armour Institute of Technology., Chi- 

of Political Science, Columbia University. ^^^g jn 

THE RUSSIAN ORANGE PAPER. GERMANY AND THE GREAT WAR. 

THE WAR AND AMERICA. ^ t u iV -d r- r ^ ■ , 

Count J. H. Von Bernstorff, German Imperial 

Herman Ridder, Editor, New Yorker Staats- Ambassador to the United States. 

Zeiliing, New York City. 

LESSONS ON THE WAR. 
GERMANY'S DECLARATION. PAN-SLAVISM. 

OUR COUNTRY'S POSITION. r. r. r- cj-, f ^i r^., r * j 

Dr. Paul Carus, Editor of The Open Court and 

Horace L. Brand, Editor, Illinois Staats-Zeitung, The Monist, Chicago, III. 

Chicago, III. 

GERMANY AND ENGLAND REAL ISSUE. 

EMPEROR WILLIAM THE MAN. DR. ELIOT'S ANTI-GERMAN TERRORS. 

MORALS OF THE WAR. „ ,, „ „ _ ^ , . , 

Dr. Bernard Dernberg, Former German Colonial 

Dr. Hugo Muensterbeeg, Professor of Psy- Minister. 

chology. Harvard University. 

GERMAN "ATROCITIES" AND INTERNATIONAL 
AN APPEAL FOR A FAIR JUDGMENT. LAW. 

Hon. Peter S. Grosscup, Judge of the United Psof. James G. McDonald, Professor in 

States Circuit Court, Chicago, III. Indiana University. 

GERMANY'S FATEFUL HOUR. COREY DECLARES BRITISH CENSORS FORGE DIS- 

PATCHES 
Dr. Kuno Francke, Head of the Department of 

the Germanic Languages and Literatures, Mr. Herbert Corey. 

Harvard University. 

RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY AND THE WAR. 

Dr. James Westfall Thompson, Professor of 
Dr. George Stuart Fullerton, Professor of History, University of Chicago. 

GERMANY AND THE PEACE OF EUROPE. 

Dr. Ferdinand Schevill, Professor of History, 
Dr. Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of Chicago. 

GERMANY OF TODAY. 

Charles Tower, Professor in the University of 
Dr. Herbert Sanborn, Professor of Philosophy, Chicago. 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GERMAN MILITARISM 

George Stuart Fullerton, Pre 
Philosophy, Columbia University. 

GERMANY'S PLACE IN THE SUN. 

Benjamin Ide Wheel; 
University of California. 

WHAT THE TEUTON DEFENDS 

Ierbert Sanborn, Pt 
Vanderbilt University. 



THE DUTY OF PREPAREDNESS. 



GERMA'NY'S ENEMIES. 



Dr. C. R. Henderson, Late Professor of Political 
Dr. Alfred E. Meyer, Chicago, III. 0"d Social Sciences, University of Chicago. 

THINKS GERMANY WAS FORCED INTO THE WAR. GERMAN RACE WARS FOR LIFE. 

Raymond E. Swing. Mr. Joseph Medill Patterson. 



Table of Contents 



Page 
FIRST CHAPTER— Causes of the World War 1 

INTRODUCTION— The Root of the World War- 
Doctor Paul Rohrbach — An Address to the Protestant 
Union of Hamburg, Germany 3 

LOOKING DEEPER AND BEYOND CASUAL AP- 
PEARANCES FOR REAL CAUSES OF THE 
WAR 3 

More Remote Causes of the War — German Ideals and 

Their Realization — Bismarck 3 

Early Distinction and the Rise of Prussia — Recent 
-t History of the German People — The Confedera- 
tion of the German States 3 

^ What This Conflict Means to Germany, Just Coming 

Into Its Highest National Maturity 8 

The Problems of the Balkans— The Balkan Policy— 
On This Principle Rests the Justice of Their 

Cause 13 

The Serbian-Russian Balkan Policy, Backed Up by 

Russia — Pan-Slavism 15 

The Balkan Policy of Many of the Slavonic 
Peoples in South Central Europe — Their 
Policy Directly or Indirectly Supported by 

Great Britain, France, Japan 16 

The Central Empires — Austria and Germany — Their 

Balkan Policy 19 

The Austrian-German Policy Supported by Tur- 
key — Sympathy for Their Cause also by the 

Teutonic States and Bulgaria 20 

The Great European Problem of the Twentieth Cen- 
tury for the Whole of Europe — Pan-Slavism; 

Can It be Justified ? 20 

Playing the Greatest Game of World Politics Ever 

Played — Great Britain and the Entente 23 

Fairness and Impartiality, the Plain Duty of All 
Intelligent Neutrals 30 

Immediate Causes of the War — From the Time of 
THE Assassination of the Archduke and Duchess 
of Austria '. ZJ 

The Real Immediate Cause of the War— The Russian 
Mobilization ! 37 

Modern Diplomacy, Especially "Secret" Diplomacy — 
Discussions on General and Special Diplomatic 

Questions 43 

The Special Diplomatic Correspondence, from the 24th 

of July Until the 5th of August, 1914 45 

The Philosopher of History on Modern Ultra-Prag- 
matism in this World PoHtics — Vital Cause of the 
War — The Mystery of Diplomacy and Inter- 
national Politics 47 

Further Causes of the Great War— The Nations Are 
All to Blame and All Are Right from a Certain 
Point of View 49 

Additional Evidence of the Work of the War-Makers 53 
Great Britain and Germany — Their Principles and 
Attitude in the Manly and Peaceful Pursuit of 

Industry and Progress 54 

Causes and the Occasions of the War 54 

SECOND CHAPTER— "The Case of Belgium" 57 

INTRODUCTION— Belgian Neutrality— Doctor John W. 
Burgess, Dean of Political Science and Philosophy, 
Columbia University 59 

A "SCRAP OF PAPER"— What the German Chancellor 
Meant by Thus Describing the Belgian Neutrality 
Guarantee 59 

The English-French-Belgian Position and Their 

Consequent Attitude 59 

The Popular Notion that There Was Still a Belgian 
Neutrahty to Violate— That the English-French 
Were Duty-Bound to Protect Belgium 59 



Page 
Making a Fuss Over a Virtue Long Since Surren- 
dered — Belgian Neutrality a Myth 60 

The Heroic Deed of Protecting a Neutrality That 
Was Not— Good Will and Ability to Protect 
Belgium ! 67 

The Extension of the Entente— The Case of Belgium 70 
Colossal Machinations and Intrigue Against the Aus- 
tro-Hungarian Empire — Consequently Against 
Germany — Why This Is So 72 

The German Position and Her Consequent Attitude 74 
Germany's Honorable Proposal to Belgium — Even 
After Belgium Had Broken Faith with Her 
Neighbor 74 

The Case of Belgium and Other Nations — Neutrality 
Guarantees — Treaties Made and Broken 75 

A Sketch of Belgian History — Belgian Vicissitudes 
for a Century — Neutrality and International Law 78 

Belgium's New Life Since That Nation's Recognized 
Independence from Holland in 1839 85 

The Teutonic Nations and Belgium 91 

The Non-Teutonic Nations — Except Bulgaria and 
Spain 91 

"The Case of Belgium" and the United States 91 

The Deeper Meaning of the Alignment of Nations 
in the War 91 

THIRD CHAPTER— All the Civilized Nations Vitally 
Concerned 95 

INTRODUCTION — The Big Human Family, Grouped 
Into Many Large, Vital, National Families — Vital 
Self-interest— Vital Inter-Relations 95 

The Belligerent Nations— Inter-Relation of Bellig- 
erent Nations — Their Ambitions, Ideas, Ideals, 
Mutual Interests and Welfare — Life: Competi- 
tion — Grow or Die ! 97 

Great Britain, the "Triple" Entente, and Other Allies 97 
Introduction— Why We Are at War— J. Ramsay Mc- 
Donald, Prominent English Statesman-Scholar.. 97 
The Underlying Vital Causes of England's Participa- 
tion in This Conflict 97 

Great Britain in the World War 97 

England's Domestic Troubles and Outlook — 
British Policy and Its Character in the Mak- 
ing — England, France, Russia — Belgium, 

Japan, Portugal ' 104 

British Principles and Character in Action 110 

The Enghsh Nursing Hatred Toward the Kaiser. 115 
Enghsh Suspicion and Hatred of the Germans.. 115 
British War News — The Press Must Assist Us in 

Fighting Our Battles 118 

Great Britain and International Law 119 

Great Britain's Position — Some Remarkable Con- 
fessions 121 

Bits of News on France in the Great War 122 

Russia and the "Triple" Entente 126 

The Liberation of the Jewish People by Russia.. 127 
Great Britain's and Russia's Part in the World 

War 131 

Anglo-Japanese Machinations and American Safety 133 
Serbia's Cause, Her Position, and Her Part in the 
World War 13S 

Germany, the "Triple" Alliance, and Other Allies- 
Germany, Austria, Italy — Turkey in the War on 
Her Own Account — A Bone of Contention : The 
Dardanelles — The Central Empires and the Neu- 
trals 137 

Introduction — Defending the Fatherland — The Under- 
lying Causes of the Great War — The Part Ger- 
many Had in Its Advent — By Rev. Alfred E. 
Meyer 137 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



' Page 

Germany in the World War 137 

The German Government and the German People 139 
Attacking and Defending Germany in the Crisis. 143 
German Character and the German Cause in the 

War ISO 

German Ideals and German Character in Action. . 156 
German Militarism and the Evolution of the 

Empire 165 

The German Menace as Seen Through British 

Eyes 1' 3 

The Kaiser— What Great Men Know of His Char- 
acter, Motives and Ability 182 

Germany's Moral and Sacred Trust to Posterity — 

Patriotism and Duty 186 

Germany's Moral and Sacred Trust to Posterity— 

Her Defense 194 

Germany's Moral and Sacred Trust to Posterity- 
Spiritual Values 199 

A Word from Emperor Francis Joseph to His 

People 201 

Italy and the War— An Ally, a Neutral, a Belligerent 201 

The Neutral Nations— Their Interests and Rights 203 

European Teutonic Nations Loyally Neutral — 

England Excepted 203 

Teutonic Nations Generally Not Firm in Their 
Neutrality — Some Laudable Exceptions: Spain, 

Greece, Bulgaria 203 

The Official and Popular Neutrality of the United 

States — Uncle Sam and His Children 207 

The Popular Neutrality of the United States in the 

World War 207 

The Official Neutrality of the United States in the 

World War 217 

Neutrality of the United States of a Semi-Popular 

and Semi-official Nature 228 

On the Fence — Nations with Very Vital Interests, in . 
Relation to the German-Austrian-Italian Alliance 

—Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy 234 

In Regard to the English-French-Russian Alliance — 

Japan, Portugal, Roumania 234 

The Horizon Darkens — The European Situation Has 

Come to a Crisis 237 

Hostile Acts Before a Declaration of War 237 

Germany in the Crisis — The Kaiser's Speeches 237 

FOURTH CHAPTER— By the Laws of War 241 

INTRODUCTION— Germany in the Great War— Count 
Von Bernstorff, Imperial German Ambassador to the 
United States 243 

WHAT IT MEANS TO WAGE WAR ON SO LARGE ■ 
A SCALE AGAINST SO MANY ENEMIES— Con- 
cerning the Use of Weapons in Modern Warfare, 
Especially the Submarine and Airship — Some Cate- 
gorical Questions Answered by the Imperial German 
Ambassador to the United States 243 

Evolution By the Law of War — Progress and the 
First Law of Nature — Life : An Eternal Compe- 
tition 243 

The Western Campaign — Belgium and France the 
!r. Battleground — Germany's Geographic Position 

'7'^ Among Her Neighbors — Consequent Strategic 
■'^■■'<' Movements of Vast Importance of the German 

■*^ Armies ■ 243 

! The First Month of the War— The Dash Into Bel- 
gium and France 243 

With the German Army and the German People 

in France and Belgium 245 

German Atrocity Reports Libelous ; They Are a 
Most Infamous Crime of Political World 

Machinations and Intrigue ! 258 

France and Her Lost Provinces — Alsace-Lorraine . . 265 

How France Has Behaved for a Century 265 

The "Entente" Becomes an "Alliance" — Stand or 
Fall Together! 265 



Page 

Laws of War, Progress, and the First Law of 
Nature 268 

The Sweep Along the Coast — Antwerp 268 

Contrary to the Laws of War 268 

The Eastern Campaign — Russia — The Second Colossal 
Military Move, According to the German Strategic 
Plans— What Will the Coming Century Bring 

Germany from Russia ! 274 

The Central Empires — Germany and Austria — The 
Seriously Threatening Enemy in the East — 

Gahcia and East Prussia 278 

The Co-Operation of Austria— Turkey in the War 

on Her Own Account 278 

Italy in the Great War— The Street Pulls Italy Off 
the Fence — Italy's Harvests from Her Sowing as 

an Ally, a Neutral, a Belligerent 281 

Italy Behold the Text: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye 

Also Reap ! 281 

The Bone of Contention — Adriatic Provinces 281 

Modern Naval Warfare — Cutting the German Cable 
and Capturing the Enemy's Merchant Marine — 
"The German Submarine Will Win the War," An 

•American General 286 

Precedent and Modern Naval Warfare — The Block- . 

ade and the Submarine 286 [ 

Naval Warfare — Cruisers and the Enemy's Ship- 
ping — Neutral Shipping — Naval Battles — Sub- 
marines — Blockades 286 ; 

Colonial Campaigns — Eastern Considerations — Japan, 
India, Persia — Great Britain in Africa — The 
Boers, Morocco, the Sudan 293 

Aerial Warfare — Zeppelins, Aeroplanes, Hydro-Aero- 
planes — Progress and International Law 295 

The Use and Effectiveness of Air-Craft in the War 

— International Law on the Use of Aerial '. 

Weapons and Present Necessities 295 

Press Room Campaigns at Home and Abroad — With 
Magnificent First Line Forces and Plenty of 

Dum-Dums ! 299 . 

The Pen is Now Indeed Mightier Than the Sword 
— Especially in England and France ! How 

Strange ! 299 

Press Room Campaigns in England and France — 

Plenty of Dum-Dums ! 299 

The Press Room Campaign in the United States — 
With Now and Then a Dum-Dum ! 305 

FIFTH CHAPTER— On the Philosophy of the War 313 

INTRODUCTION— Lessons of the War, Doctor Paul 
Carus, Editor; The Open Court, Chicago, Illinois 315 

WE MAY BE OBLIGED TO EMPLOY FORCE TO 
PROTECT VIRTUE AND PROGRESS, BUT 
WOE TO THE NATION THAT WOULD STAY 
THESE VIRTUES BY FORCE! 315 

Peace and War — Interesting and Helpful TiIoughts 
AND Suggestions on the Philosophy of War — 
Moral or Immoral, Depends on the Righteous- 
ness OF the Cause 315 

National Ideals — Morality and the Justification of 

Force — Diplomacy and Politics in the War 325 

Sincerity of Purpose of the Nations in the War — 

The War Spirit 325 

It Is Immoral for a Nation to Allow Criminal Neigh- 
bors to Prostitute Its Sacred Trust — Reasoning 

on the War 328 

No Nation Without Laws ; No Law Without Conflict 

and Force — Ergo : The Tail-End of Ever}' Law | 

is a Whip ! 336 

• Strategy and Sacrifices of the War 336 

Interesting Comment and Speculation Concerning ' 

Results of the War 342 

Victory in the War 342 

Results of the War 342 



List of Illustrations and Maps 

ILLUSTRATIONS 



Page 

Admiral von Tirpitz 286 

Albert, King of Belgium 74 

Also a Volunteer — Picture by Courtesy of "Chicago 

Abendpost" 140 

Amazone, An — Picture by Courtesy of the "Chicago 

Abendpost" 279 

A Squadron of the German Staff Under Cover Near 
Grudusk, Russian Poland — Photograph by the Inter- 
national News Service 176 

Austrian Motor-Battery on the Way — Picture by Courtesy 
of "Illinois Staats-Zeitung" 280 

Before the Days of Militarism — Picture by Courtesy of 
"Open Court" 125 

Bismarck — Picture by Courtesy of "Chicago Abendpost". . 5 

Breathing Spell, A — Picture by Courtesy of the "Illinois 
Staats-Zeitung" 153 

Busy Bertha 86 

Captured Russian Cannon in Vienna — Picture by Courtesy 
of "Chicago Abendpost" 201 

Count Ferdinand Zeppelin — Picture by Courtesy of "Open 
Court" ' .295 

Cousin to "Busy Bertha" — Picture by Courtesy of "Chi- 
cago Abendpost" , 202 

Dangerous Lookout, A Rather — Picture by Courtesy of 

the "Chicago Abendpost" 249 

Dress Parade, On 187 

Duchess of Brunswick, The Kaiser's Only Daughter, The 
— By Courtesy of the "Open Court" 138 

Emperor William II — From "The Chicago Tribune," Oct. 
23, 1914 161 

First Aid 245 

Field Dentist, The — Picture by Courtesy of "Chicago 

Abendpost" 

Fort Loucin of Liege — Picture by Courtesy of the "Koel- 

nische Zeitung" 88 

Franz Joseph — Austria-Hungary 278 

French Prisoners of War 199 

Front, To the 142 

Furthering German "Kultur" — Picture by Courtesy of 

"Chicago Abendpost" 61 

Game at "Skat" in the Catacombs at Bandesincourt, A 
Quiet — Picture by Courtesy of the "Illinois Staats- 
Zeitung" . . 

General Von Hindenburg — Photograph by the Inter- 
national News Service 274 

George V., King of Great Britain 105 

German Army in Belgium, The — Photograph by the Inter- 
national News Service 141 

German Crown Prince Inspecting His Victorious Regi- 
ment of Massiges, The — Picture by Courtesy of the 

"Illinois Staats-Zeitung" 158 

German Crown Prince, The Sons of the 195 

German Crown Princess, The, to the Right — Picture by 

Courtesy of the "Open Court" 

Germans Distributing Food to the Belgians — Picture by 

Courtesy of the "Open Court" 92 

German Emperor, The 141 

German Emperor and His Six Sons, The 196 

German Ordnance Officers in Poland — Photograph by the 

International News Service 270 

German People, Leaders of the 244 



Page 
German Regiment Crossing Pontoon Bridge, The — Photo- 
graph by the International News Service 155 

German Trenches Against Russia, In the 268 

God for Our Fatherland, With ISO 

Hermann von Eichhorn — Picture by Courtesy of "Illinois 

Staats-Zeitung" 259 

Home, At 156 

Home Circle Strategy 330 

India Pacata by Verestchagin — Picture by Courtesy of the 
"Open Court" Ill 

In the Prisoners' Camp at Ohrdruf — Picture by Courtesy 
of the "Chicago Abendpost" 179 

Iron Cross, The 184 

Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, The — Picture by Courtesy of the 
"World's Work" 190 

King Albert in German Uniform — Picture by Courtesy 
of the "Open Court" n 

Lincoln — Picture by Courtesy of "Chicago Abendpost" . . . 230 

Lord Roberts Inspecting Recruits in Langley Park, 
England — Picture by Courtesy of the "Open Court". . 100 

Loyal Comrades in Arms — Picture by Courtesy of "Chi- 
cago Abendpost" 278 

Lunch Time of the German Army — Photograph by the 
International News Service 247 

Machine-Gun Division in Russian Poland Ready for Ac- 
tion — Picture by Courtesy of the "IlHnois Staats- 
Zeitung" 275 

Monument of the Battle of Leipsic — Picture by Courtesy 
of the "Open Court" 17 

M. Poincare, President of France — Photo by the Inter- 
national News Service 123 

New Belgian Bank Commission, The — Picture by Courtesy 

of "Chicago Abendpost" 78 

Nicholas II, Czar of Russia 127 

Nothing Neglected— Photograph by the International 
News Service 253 

Ouspinski Church as a Stable, The— Picture by Court- 
esy of the "Open Court" 126 

Peace — Picture by Courtesy of the "Open Court" 

Peter I — King of Servia 135 

People Waiting in the Streets of Lodz for Food from the 
German Army— Photograph by the International 
News Service 277 

Riding Infantry — Picture by Courtesy of "Chicago 
Abendpost" 147 

Ruins of Heidelberg Castle— Picture by Courtesy of the 
"Open Court" 124 

Taking Departure after Recovery— By Courtesy of the 

"Chicago Abendpost" 343 

The German Emperor 237 

The Note that Rings True 

To the Front 238 

Uncle Sam's Officers in Germany— Picture by Courtesy 
of "Chicago Abendpost" 219 

Victor Emanuel, King of Italy (Picture) 282 

Von Hindenburg and His Staff— Picture by Courtesy of 
"Chicago Abendpost" 144 

William II — Emperor of Germany 182 



MAPS 



CENTRAL EUROPE— From "The Navy," Washington, 

September, 1914 16 

EUROPE — From the Geographic Publishing Corapan)'.. 283 
EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN— From "The 

Navy," Washington, September, 1914 20 

ITALY AND THE ADRIATIC— From the "National 

Geographic Magazine" 284 

KAISER WILHELM CANAL— From "The Navy," 

Washington, September, 1914 194 



NORTHERN EUROPE— From "The Navy," Washing- 
ton, September, 1914 18 

THE DARDANELLES AND THE AEGEAN— From 
the "National Geographic Magazine" 287 

THE EASTERN WAR ZONE— From the "National 
Geographic Magazine" 276 

THE WESTERN WAR ZONE— From the "National 

Geographic Magazine" 251 

THE WORLD AT WAR— From "The Literary Digest," 
New York, October 17, 1914 293 



PREFACE 



WHAT THIS BOOK IS. 

"Behold the true warriors; they are not quick to shrink, are 
not defiant, nor eager for fight, but when they 'are forced to 
fight, then have a care, they are in earnest." — Luther. (From 
the Fatherland, New York, April 28, 1915.) 

War Echoes gives you a systematic presentation and 
interpretation of Official Documents, Newspaper and 
Magazine Articles, Addresses, Lectures, Debates, Dis- 
cussions, Editorials, a thoroughgoing Preface with con- 
tributions from the Editor, with articles, discussions, 
comment, etc.; with comment on subject-matter in- 
cluded — and all, of course, in connection with the pres- 
ent European conflict, from the time of the assassina- 
tion of the Archduke and the Duchess of Austria; the 
book is well illustrated, includes many good Maps, an 
analytical Table of_ Contents, an alphabetical List of 
Contributors, showing their choicest articles, and a 
complete Index. This book is the one, dnd only 
complete answer to the many questions asked and dis- 
cussed throughout the civilized world on this subject. 



HOW THE TASK WAS CONCEIVED. 

The tremendous power of the American press, cre- 
ating, and feeding upon popular notions and senti- 
ments concerning the aims and conduct of certain Euro- 
pean nations, and, I very much fear, only too often 
stooping to policies working to the great injury of cer- 
tain persons and institutions for private gain through 
the misfortunes of others, which was especially so dur- 
ing the first months of the present conflict — impelled 
me to throw all my energies and spirit into the work 
of defending a people whose reputation and character 
we well know, in whom we have always had and still 
cherish a splendid Faith and in which Faith we shall 
abide until sufficient evidence compels us to give this 
Faith up as not well founded. I say we advisedly, be- 
cause I regard my task in this connection as merely 
that of a collaborator with the many staunch defenders 
of the same cause and Faith which I cherish and cham- 
pion. For instance, note what the Chicago Abendpost 
says of this : 

"WAR ECHOES or GERMANY AND AUSTRIA 
IN THE CRISIS should be in the home of every 
American citizen who still holds to the idea of fair 
play in politics." — The Abendpost, Chicago, January 23, 
1915. 

It is very simple and clear to me how this task was 
plainly forced upon us through the overwhelming mass 
of untruthful, insulting and calumnious reports of a 
people whom we know too well to accept the hasty, 
nervous accusations, in the light of the spirit and cir- 
cumstances of the evidence ! 



THE MISSION AND PROMISE OF THE BOOK. 

Its Mission. 

This suggests the Mission of the book, which is 
clear, and frankly to defend Germany and Austria in 
the present crisis, a high privilege and plain duty, as 
I see my relation to the situation, which has very plainly 
been forced upon all of us who believe in fair play, 
honor at home and justice abroad! We cannot escape 
this duty until every American citizen will be ready to 
grant to all belligerents the same open and generous 
hearing alike, and until we will be persuaded to strike 
a plane of a high moral and spiritual attitude in deal- 
ing with belligerents now and hereafter. I appreciate 
the technical position that we cannot very w'ell pass a 
law now since the trouble is on, that would not work 
to the inevitable detriment of one of the contestants in 
the war, which would be equivalent to an ex post facto 



in common law; I am now appealing for a standing 
policy for my country in the future. Yet, why could 
we not do what Jefferson did with England and France, 
and what President Wilson did with Mexico a year 
ago? I am not criticizing, I am honestly asking for 
information. At any rate, we should at least not con- 
demn a people or a nation until we have given all the 
witnesses in the case an opportunity to be heard if we 
must judge and condemn! It is with an open mind, 
a good conscience, and a glad heart that we are looking 
forward to the fulfillment of this important Mission of 
the undertaking! 

Can you give a clear account of the German-Austrian 
and Serbian-Russian Balkan Policies, the Principles 
upon which the present heart-rending calamity was 
precipitated? Can you discuss the Historical Back- 
ground of these Policies, the recent European History, 
especially that of the nations at war, the interests of 
the several nations that led to the present political 
alignment in Europe and elsewhere, the attitude of the 
neutral nations and the so-called neutrals? This book 
meets this demand absolutely. 




My Fatherland First 

My Fatherland First, the only possible meaning of Deutsch- 
land, Deutschland Ueber Alias. 

This idea is further well expressed by the beautiful and 
strikingly patriotic Spirit of the Poem and Song, and also in 
the evident meaning of — "* * * from the Maas clear to the 
Memel, from the Etsch on to the Belt * * *" 

This truth, as the very essence of poetry and song, must be 
experienced psychologically, not logically. My Fatherland First, 
is the real meaning of the poem, and I feel certain the author 
would confirm this conviction. Is there a man so dull as to 
find fault with his neighbor because of his neighbor's sentiment 
attached to his family, when he eulogizes the many virtues of 
the mother of his happy children : "She is the best and most 
beautiful creature God ever created!" Certainly nobody in his 
right mind would call him either a fool or a conceited, am- 
bitious neighbor ! We must know how to make allowances for 
expressions from so deep a source ! And this is precisely a 
parallel case, as against the stupid, ugly rendering of this song, 
which we have seen so often recently, "Germany Above All" ; 
both of these expressions have their life in spirit and love, the 
one in the love of Home, the other in the love of Country! 



PREFACE 



The Promise. 

The book was to be ready to be sent on its important 
Mission soon after May first, but practical problems 
over which the Editor and Publisher had little con- 
trol, have prevented this until the latter part of July; 
and now we cherish the hope that it will meet with a 
hearty welcome ! For our good German and Austro- 
Hungarian sympathizers we need no argument to point 
out the importance of the undertaking; for these of 
our good citizens, suffice it to say that in this book 
we meet with the first and only serious attempt to 
assist the "Fatherland" more by disparaging her enemies 
less, but also by bringing her side of the story to the 
good people, the rank and file of Americans in the 
American Language! Moreover, by going into the 
various factors of the subject extensively, systemat- 
ically, and scientifically ! Civilized people cannot sys- 
tematically believe in vilification, but it's just the best of 
physicians who use strong medicine at times, when in- 
temperance and abuse have sent their poison coursing 
through a body ; the enemy must be met in his own lair 
by the employment of his own methods and weapons. 
We do not delight in giving a rascal of his own medi- 
cine, but sometimes this seems to be the only recourse. 
Germans, Austro-Hungarians and their sympathizers do 
not require an argument; all they have been expecting 
is factSj truths, fair play, justice! 

Now to those good Americans who sympathize with 
the European alignment of the opposition, permit me 
to say this solemn and serious word : the cause of your 
hearts — and the people in Europe that represent this 
cause in a last human effort to force their will, have 
had easily ninety per cent of the attention of American 
periodicals, England having been in a position to reap 
the benefit of this, whether it was justly earned or not. 
Capital and diplomacy go far in such crises, especially 
so when they can be employed in the language of the 
country, in a country having similar institutions, having 
the same political ancestry, etc. Then consider the 
first offices of the nation that have easily a thousand 
social-political and family bonds in the United Kingdom 
to one in Germany or Austria ! How many of German 
and Austrian birth or near lineage are in our Congress, 
in the Cabinet? You have the further tremendous 
advantage in the fact of your faith in democratic ideas 
and institutions, viewing all types of Socialists with a 
sense of sympathy, fear, or pity! 

Money, power, prestige, the popularity of the cause 
of the democratic alignment, with which you most nat- 
urally sympathize, the Talleyrand type of diplomacy, 
the more or less popular or catchy character of demo- 
cratic literature, and finally, but by no means of less 
importance, the many things you know (?) and feel of 
what has happened and still is going on in Europe on 
the subject in question, which have neither foundation 
in fact nor truth ! Therefore, let us be considerate and 
generous, and let us reason with you and appeal to 
you ! Read at least such portions of the book as deal 
with the character and honor of the enemy ! Let us 
show with a genuine pride that we have real chivalry! 
At least let us read the most excellent articles from 
Dr. Burgess, Dr. Schevill, Dr. Henderson, Dr. Fullerton, 
Dr. Sanborn, Judge Grosscup, and many others from 
equally prominent and worthy American scholars, and 
then let us talk the question over again, quietly! Read 
especially Chapter I on the Causes of the War, and 
look carefully into Germany's recent History. Let us 
show these nations at war that we Americans can at 
least show a spirit of Fair Play in an hour so trying 
to them ! Not one of us would even have his personal 
enemy maligned or condemned without a fair trial! 
I venture to say that German sympathizers in America 
have learned much by having been obliged to content 
themselves with but a very meager sympathetic atten- 
tion on the part of the American press, public utter- 
ances and the public spirit, and that they have had 
these things constantly before their eyes ; it is not un- 
likely that you would reap a similar benefit by showing 
your good will and your spirit of fairness toward this 
question ! 



This book promises to meet the requirements of the 
American public for honor at home and justice abroad, 
as suggested by Herman Ridder: 

"The feeling against Germany in this war in the 
United States is largely sentimental. It had its begin- 
ning in the violent utterance of British writers against 
the personality of the Emperor and in the greater pity 
for Belgium — harped so largely upon by England." — 
Herman Ridder, in the New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 
Jan. 4, 1915. 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR. 
Our Neutrality — Official and Popular. 

We have been most solemnly enjoined by the Pres- 
ident to remain neutral during the European conflict, 
especially in^ that nobler, finer, subtle, spiritual neutral- 
ity. Accordingly we should refrain from speaking, yea, 
even from feeling and thinking partially on the subject, 
while many may be permitted to send munitions of 
war, when it is evident that only one side of the con- 
testants can take advantage of such shipments ! And 
this may be done while our foodstuff, clothing and 
shelter materials receive but shabby protection on their 
way to the civiHan population of some of the belliger- 
ents ! First, an element of the American press, pseudo- 
democratic and pro-British, did untold damage toward 
poisoning the innocent heart and mind of the American 
masses, and then, to cap the climax, we cannot prevent 
war munitions from going to the very maligners of a 
people whose case is still in court, and thus use us to 
add injury to insult to a people who have not yet had 
a full opportunity to be heard, and that is all they expect 
from a "Neutral" country I I often wonder if our 
American newspaper writers have ever read this procla- 
mation I H they have, they certainly have not taken 
the President seriously. Of course, to send munitions 
of war, in the face of this proclamation, is, technically 
not unneutral, but hardly chivalrous, noble, American ! 
But, to cap the real climax, that is reserved for an 
Englishman, a great rhetorician of fantastic figures of 
speech and a mental gymnast. Hall Caine : this man 
has the audacity to take it upon himself to reprove the 
President for his plea for strict neutrality and attempts 
to show Mr. Wilson, according to the reports of the 
local papers, how to work for justice, righteousness and 
humanity, by joining the British fighting forces! 

It is furthermore my plain duty to state here, now, 
and in unmistakable terms, that I have not been able 
to approve of all that individual and collective German- 
Austrian sympathisers in this country have said or done 
in connection with the war. I shall speak of the various 
debatable questions in their proper, respective places in 
the Preface and also in the notes and in my articles in 
the book. 

The People and their Governments. 

Let us regard it our Moral Duty to try to understand 
that the People, especially in a non-democratic country, 
are much less or often very little to blame for govern- 
mental conduct: this applies especially to the People 
of Belgium, since I have it on good authority, from 
several sources, and from my own observations in Bel- 
gium, that the People were not to blame, for not even 
the general officials of all the three countries were "let 
in on the deal" of the secret "conversations." In one, 
a most flagrant case, not even a member of the British 
Parliament knew of the obligation to France, much less 
to Belgium ! Are we surprised, therefore, when we 
hear of the resignations of high officials ! I feel mor- 
ally certain that, had it been left to the Belgian People 
to decide for themselves whether or not they should 
place their fate into the hands of Great Britain, they 
would have preferred to continue as they were, or at 
least consult Germany and Holland in regard to her 
course. Perhaps the German People would have done 
likewise, under ordinary circumstances, but once they 
understood the meaning of the alignment against them, 
without quibbling or exhortation, the German People 
would have voted war to a man ! That is the differ- 
ence ; there is a reason ! 



PREFACE 



We Don't Want Germany to Win. 

One of the strongest reasons why people favor the 
sending of war materials to Germany's enemies, while 
dissatisfaction is heard everywhere because of the poor 
protection American shipments of food supplies for the 
German civilian population receive, is, as they say, "We 
don't want Germany to win" ! Of course, they call 
that neutrality! The poll of the American press can- 
vassed and reported by the Literary Digest showed the 
same spirit and results ; it is the spirit of the country 
and the people, reflected by the press. 

Here neutrality ends ; I do not want to be found 
guilty of this spirit and deed. I am merely trying to 
do justice; this is our plain duty, not to take sides, 
beyond championing fair play and justice ! Whatever 
our efforts, then, they must make for honor at home 
and justice abroad! We would, furthermore, be loyal 
and responsible citizens, and, therefore, we always wish 
to be found in a position in which we can support any 
and every vital government policy without stint, with 
courage, patriotism, and spirit, without fear or favor. 
But as there is filial, so is there also parental responsi- 
bility. A democratic government must certainly expect 
its people to take part in shaping its policy in such 
a way that the people may support it loyally, at all 
times, without question; as a faithful citizen, I want 
to be in a position to say at any time that nothing will 
stop me from supporting my country ; that is why I am 
making sacrifices with this study for our common good ! 
Is this clear to you? It is American First, and if no 
declaration is made to the contrary, this policy should 
always be supported without question ! 

This partisanship and the private interests at work 
in this country, making money by feeding the ivar-fire 
for more victims to the ghastly holocaust, have pro- 
longed the frightful slaughter, and will continue to do 
so; many sensible people are now beginning to see 
that it is becoming more and more urgingly our duty 
to discontinue this sort of war-fare as neutrals, indi- 
vidually as zvcll as collectively, since the inevitable re- 
sult is becoming clearer from day to day! 

Why Our Position is DifEcult. 

Let me mention some plain, practical reasons why 
~ the people of the United States have generally sym- 
pathized with the Democratic Alignment; certainly not 
because of, but assuredly in spite of our repeated dis- 
appointing experiences with Great Britain ; compare, 
for instance, our relation with Germany, in history, 
with that of Great Britain ! Consider the advantage 
of our common language, and consequently the power 
of the American press, though this is, in my humble 
judgment, not the only reason for the conduct of the 
press! Compare the similarity of our institutions and 
our governmental ancestry ; in other words, democ- 
racy, and hence our sympathy, especially for France. 
But out of this grows also the peculiar democratic 
faith in numbers, majorities! The statement is general: 
"Why would so many be against Germany, if she were 
not wrong?" This is a question often asked in good 
faith. You know this is no uncommon argument, either 
in war between nations or political wars within the 
very borders of democratic countries. Of course, these 
people never heard of the great American Statesman 
who preferred to be right to being President! Then 
comes the natural, practical problem of getting some- 
thing good for the papers ! The American likes to be 
with the winning side, being an opportunist, hence here 
he can make it count, there being much at stake ! Don't 
shudder because of purely business interests involved, 
for the press : our domestic political relations, right 
here at home, are not even free from these consider- 
ations, how do you expect love to extend beyond na- 
tional boundaries when we don't even find it at home ; 
love as charity begins there ! 

The Difficult Position of the Third Party. 

The careful manipulation of the series of events on 
the part of Germany's enemies, to bring her to a place 
where it was certain she would protest, and that by 
force, if need be, and to try to make out that she 
sought war, when she was seeking self-protection and 



the protection of her ally, only, ought to convince even 
the most prejudiced ! The situation is always pre- 
sented by Germany's enemies that Germany could have 
conciliated the question of Austria's rights and duties, 
as if to say, we are always ready to compromise or 
arbitrate any question in dispute with our neighbors. 
If this were sincere, why did not England call a halt 
on Russian mobilization ! That would have settled it 
all, in one stroke, and England could have done this 
as easily as Germany, dealing with Austria in connec- 
tion with Serbia, accomplishing the same end. And 
what offense had Germany committed in comparison 
to the Russian trick in mobilization ! Or, why did 
France or Russia not arbitrate? There is one alterna- 
tive : England's cause for war was just, Germany's 
not ! Don't say Belgium ! It is now common knowl- 
edge that England would not remain neutral, by her 
own admission in the Diplomatic Correspondence, even 
if Belgian territory were not invaded; and again, as 
for the respect for Belgian neutrality, which was by 
this time registered on a mere "scrap of paper," Great 
Britain made it clear in the famous "Conversations" 
that her 160,000 troops would land on the continent, 
Belgium willing, or not, as anyone may see for him- 
self in Chapter II of this book. What noble or right- 
eous impulse has urged France into the war, anyway? 
Revenge ; what more ! And if Germany and Austria 
do not look after their own interests, which no one 
can understand better than they do themselves, who 
would? In short, if there was a lack of willingness 
to arbitrate the question, then the Allies certainly have 
enough sweeping to do at their doors ! 

Why I Defend Germany. 

From Germany's reply to Grey, as to Germany's motives: 
"Germany is not figliting to subdue the continent, but for her 
own independence and the freedom of the seas, and for all 
nationals who are bulldozed by the English navy." — From the 
Milwaukee Free Press, who quoted from the Nord Deutsche 
Allgemeine Zeitung, March 27, 1915. 

My defense of the German cause, which is bound up 
with that of the Austro-Hungarian empire, is very sim- 
ple, natural and reasonable ; I am first of all a good 
American and have an honest and deep desire for 
genuine neutrality, according to the Spirit as well 
as the Letter of the Law. At least one American 
manufacturer has made a practical demonstration of 
his genuine neutrality, when he sets the example by 
refusing millions to contribute munitions of war. See 
Stevenson (John J.) — in the Index. This is what Mr. 
Stevenson says of this change in his life : 

"The last time we made war munitions was for the United 
States government about eight years ago. We manufactured 
about 119,000 shells." Then came the conversion, I take it! "I 
then joined Andrew Carnegie's Peace Society — and have been an 
active member ever since. It is so much better to make things 
that are useful to mankind than to make things that destroy 
mankind." — Thus speaks one of the American manufacturers, 
John J. Stevenson, President of the Driggs-Seabury Ordnance 
Corporation. 

See also : "Our Neutrality" in this circular. He is 
the noble President of the Driggs-Seabury Ordnance 
Corporation. Three cheers for Stevenson ! It's a desire 
for Fair Play, for Justice! As usual for me, I am 
with the unpopular cause; and. in this particular I am 
quite un-American for I glory in championing the 
maligned, the insulted, the hated person, institution or 
people, and especially so, when fear, revenge, power, 
ambition, are the Virtues arrayed against them, when 
such is the answer to an invitation to natural normal 
competition between the nations ! What is the use to 
talk about neutrality when the spirit of the press and 
people is arrayed against them, even if we try to "toe 
the mark," according to the letter of the law, at Wash- 
ington. Germans and Germany are human, however, 
and I am not defending them in their errors, wrongs 
or sins : I leave that to the teachers, the government, 
and the priest: to the world-Tribunal, and their God: 
and as for pointing them out, I think I could hardly 
improve upon what has been done during the past eiffht 
months! It is the palpably one-sided situation in Spirit 
that is un-American, unfair, un-neutral ! It is this 
that I deplore and denounce, and this I do as a faith- 
ful American ! 



PREFACE 



This is a move in the right direction; why do not 
our millions of good Christian people who pompously 
talk "Humanity" set for themselves the personal, pri- 
vate, individual task and plain duty to convert more 
of these individuals to a full' sense of the realisation 
of what their business in the anvmunition traffic means! 
The government cannot now well pass a specific en- 
actment dealing with this question for reasons above 
stated, but we can make it a private question which 
will work as far, at least, as it works. A law by the 
Federal government, indicating the future policy on 
this point, will certainly be duly considered when the 
war is over. It is a little inopportune to discuss what 
we might have done or could do in the future. But 
very clearly and plainly we must see our present duty 
and responsibility. 

A great Mass-Meeting of Sympathizers for Ger- 
many and Austria in their present critical situation was 
held in Chicago, at the Auditorium, on the evening 
of August 5, 1914, for the purpose of calling upon the 
press and public to suspend judgment with respect to 
the responsibility for the present war until all the facts 
were learned. It was apparent that many Americans, 
through an anti-German press, had become prejudiced 
and, therefore, believed it was Germany, and especially 
the German emperor, that stirred up this great con- 
flict. One of the speakers at this meeting said that the 
German sympathizers in the United States could best 
help Germany by spreading the truth concerning the 
war and its underlying causes among the American 
people. 

How was this to be done most effectively? 

Our book is so far the only satisfactory reply to this 
question. The meeting voiced the conviction that a 
book should be prepared in which would be presented 
articles selected from a mass of literature, choosing 
only that which would most adequately set forth the 
facts before our American audience. 

Unfortunately the German side of the great issue 
has not been generally understood owing to the fact 
that a large proportion of the Anglo-American press 
has given the causes and news of the war almost 
wholly from the English standpoint. This has been 
simply the continuation of a campaign of misrepre- 
sentation extending over many years. 

As Herman Ridder says, in the New-Yorker Staats- 
Zeitung: "We should be a great deal better off and a 
great deal wiser if the press, instead of feeding us with 
the events and arguments of the moment, had gone 
back some thirty or forty years and reprinted the hap- 
penings which have intervened between then and now. 
The gradual development of Germany as a world 
power — the coincident and resultant growth of British 
jealousy — the last phase of Russia's aspirations — the 
play of French pride and chagrin— are all written 
therein." 

The Necessity of Our Efforts With This Book. 

Our efforts, then, with this undertaking are intended 
to throw weight into the balance, to even up our rela- 
tions with the belligerents while at war. It is high 
time that the average reader have an opportunity to 
study an unprejudiced, systematic account of the series 
of events preceding the war as well as of the progress 
of it. Where would they go to obtain such an analysis 
if we did not assist them in this plain duty! 

The Task of Championing an Unpopular Cause. 

I am by no means unmindful of the seriousness of 
championing an unpopular cause ! It is all the worse 
that the very people and nations that have made this 
cause unpopular are those same people that have been 
unwilling to see Germany prosper ! But I have also 
great faith in the fundamental well-meaning of the 
American people at heart; therefore, I can approach 
them with perfect confidence in my appeal. What 
revelations when fact and truth of the case are known ! 

/ champion Germany's cause, moreover, because 1 
now feel convinced more than ever that most of the 
cardinal sins of the calendar are at the bottom of her 
trials — jealousy, fear, revenge, ambition, conceit; ignor- 



ance, ignoble spirit, sentimentality, short sightedness, 
and many others, but first and last jealousy! The ugly 
politics in tile British-French Press Room Campaigns 
tltat represent a nation thus forced' to fight for hearth 
and home as the aggressor, aiming at nothing short of 
world control, and to present her thus, when isolated 
and her very existence _ threatened, to ignorant and 
credulous mobs proclaiming a pseudo-democracy, when 
she is not in a position to defend herself — will ever be 
branded in History as among the meanest and dishon- 
orable acts in International politics! 

Our Faith. 



But where is our well-tried faith in Germany? Have 
the millions of Germans in this country and the thou- 
sands of American Students and scholars of German 
life, of German ideas and ideals, of German science 
and art, deceived us for all these years? Are the Ger- 
man civic pride, order, cleanliness, righteousness, ef- 
ficiency only a sham, a make-belief? Are their domestic 
virility, their love for home and song, their science and 
philosophy, _ their unity and courage in trying hours, 
for the nation, their skill and patience in research, all 
a mere hallucination, a trick of civilization ! 

If, on the other hand, our faith in the German people 
is abiding because of the eternal values in their ideas, 
thoughts and ideals, as we now know them for many 
generations, cap we imagine that their kin in the father- 
land are so different! To be sure, I must recognize 
one vital cause for a difference : owing to the neces- 
sity of unusual compromises in democratic countries, 
his more socialistic cousin in Germany has a decided 
advantage over him, as long as he has the good fortune 
of competent and honest public servants. Count this 
against them, if you like, but don't abuse them ; wait 
until you know them to be worthy only of hate and 
scorn, by personal experience with them. Where then, 
is our faith in the honest, the sincere, the industrious, 
the idealistic, the music-loving, the patient, plodding 
German? Which do you think will be more abiding, 
the half-century of vital, real, first-hand experience with 
Germans and German life, or the reputation Germany's 
enemies have given her through unspeakably abusive, 
insulting and even heinous accusations, during the heat 
of passion, many of which have been found to have 
been malicious lies, still more inflamed by many hys- 
terical and fanatical war-news-garblers ? Take your 
answer to your God ! 

Therefore, above and beyond all clamor of the press- 
ing hour, I pray God that I may retain my Faith in 
Germany, at least until the Historian, all the witnesses, 
the judge and a God-fearing jury and God, with them 
all, have passed on her case, instead of her bitterest, 
most self-interested enemies, and their American con- 
freres alone! 

Yet, in the meantime, is it not our plain duty to see 
to it that they do not get entirely away with the 
scheme, resorted to at the expense of millions of inno- 
cent sufferers, of men, women and children! 

Note what Dr. Burgess has to say of the situation : 
"This is no time and no subject, when or upon which, 
one should speak lightly, ignorantly, or with prejudice. 
It is one of the world's most serious moments and the 
views and sympathies now formed will determine the 
course of the world's development for many years to 
come. Heavy indeed, is the responsibility which he 
incurs who would assume the role of teacher at this 
juncture,^ and it is his first duty to present the creden- 
tials which warrant his temerity." — From the article, 
"WHY I CHAMPION GERMANY," bv John W. Bur- 
gess, Ph. D., LL.D., J.U. D. Dean of the Faculties of 
Political Science, and of Philosophy, Pure Science and 
Fine Arts at Columbia University. 

How the Problem of the Working Out of the Idea 
Was Conceived — What the Object Was. 

I finally conceived my problem to be the editing — 
chronologically, systematically, and from point of view 



PREFACE 



of the evolution and meaning of important world-events 
in connection with the present European crisis and the 
poHtical life related to it, since July 24th, 1914 — that is, 
from the time of the assassination of the Archduke and 
the Duchess of the Austro-Hungarian empire — the 
choicest articles, Editorials, Comment, Reflections of 
the press, from Social and Political Life, etc. ; also from 
the Lecture Hall, Debates, including my own articles 
on various topics. Preface, Notes, Comment, etc., and 
from every available source — with the one hope of pre- 
senting the German-Austrian cause, to the end, as out- 
lined in the preceding paragraph. 

Our readers will find the European problems pre- 
sented in War Echoes quite tip-to-date, up to the first 
week in July — therefore, including the Lusitania Litera- 
ture, Italy coming into the war, and the other important 
current events up to that time. 

The plan of the book is simple and unique. The first 
part deals with the Causes, the second with Belgium, 
the third with the Nations, the fourth with the War 
and the last chapter with Reflections or Philosophy. 
Expanded we have : The Causes of the War, the Case 
of Belgium, The Nations Concerned, By the Laws of 
War, and On the Philosophy of the War. 



THE MAIN FEATURES AND 
METHOD OF THE BOOK. 

The book has a beautiful and most appropriate cover- 
picture of the Kaiser and Francis Joseph together; it 
has also a beautiful Frontispiece, a "Barbarian" feed- 
ing Belgian children; an extensive analytical TaWe of 
Contents; a special List of Contributors; Subjects indi- 
cated at top of Pages; a General Table of Contents of 
parts of War Echoes; a complete Index, hy title, author, 
and subject or subjects; it is beautifully and exten- 
sively Illustrated; has plenty of good Maps. There 
is also a list of sympathetic periodicals listed at the end 
of the book. 

The special Features are highly commendable to our 
patrons for convenience and assistance in the use of 
the book, and I am certain they will be appreciated. 
The analytical Table of Contents, for instance, shows 
at a glance the field covered, the nature of treatment, 
method and the relative value given to various subjects, 
etc. The extensive Index may be consulted for reading 
special topics, or it may be employed for reference pur- 
poses only. On the other hand, the book contains some 
of the choicest creative literature by some of the ablest 
men in the country ; these articles are arranged to assist 
in carrying out the idea of the book, as made clear in 
other paragraphs of this circular and leads naturally 
other paragraphs of this Preface and leads naturally 
at the top of the pages. In short. War Echoes is a 
kind of Year-Book on all of the big questions relative 
to the war since July, 1914. The entire selection and 
arrangement of Illustrations and Mo^j have been made 
from the point of view of reinforcing appeals and 
arguments, and adds to the value of the book as a 
study and as literature. 

Many attacks on Germany have appeared in Amer- 
ican publications of general circulation. A number of 
the articles dealing with these attacks have been in- 
cluded in War Echoes, and the reader, referring to 



footnotes, will be directed to passages in the book 
which successfully refute these charges. By following 
these cross references the reader will be assisted in his 
efforts to clarify many European questions. 

In regard to responsibility for Facts, Sentiments, 
Truth, Data, Places, Authorship, Omissions, Additions, 
etc., the Editor can only speak for his own articles, 
discussions, notes and comment in War Echoes; 
outside of this, the responsibility ends with the faith- 
ful reproduction of articles from others, by giving full 
credit; and wherever exact reproduction was impracti- 
cable, he has duly explained any deviations from this 
principle. 



HOW TO USE THE INDEX. 

A word in regard to The Use of The Index may not 
be amiss here : You may turn to The Index in perfect 
confidence when in quest of any of the vital topics or 
questions that have occupied our attention in regard 
to the war most of the year; follow the alphabetic 
order strictly. 



ON THE USE OF WAR ECHOES. 

Besides serving the evident purposes of a book of 
this kind, and those already indicated, War Echoes 
will also serve well as a Reference Book, because of 
an exceptionally well-worked-out Index and other tabu- 
lated and analyzed synopses of parts or phrases of the 
book. There is also much creative and recreative 
literature in our War Echoes that is simply invaluable, 
because it could not be produced under any other cir- 
cumstances, for fame or money, than those under which 
it came about. The Reader also has a record of cur- 
rent events of the year, or a year book on the war, 
as one may say. 



INDEBTEDNESS. 

Besides our acknowledged indebtedness in other sec- 
tions of the book to all special sympathizers with our 
efforts, such as all the German publishers in the 
United States or in Europe, whether the publications 
appear in their native tongue or in the American lan- 
guage, the Editor of War Echoes is more than pleased 
with the way his approaches to other publishers for 
sympathy and co-operation were received. Here are 
also included all the Irish publications he knows of and 
the Milwaukee Free Press. Among the magazine pub- 
lishers, we might especially mention The New Repub- 
lic, The Literary Digest, Collier's Weekly, The Open 
Court; among the newspapers. The Chicago Tribune 
and The Chicago Evening News. The Editor is sorry to 
state that in many cases publishers failed to respond 
to his repeated inquiries on this point. 

Our patrons will render us an especial service by 
reporting anything in connection with the book that 
ought to come to our attention for explanation or cor- 
rection. 

THE EDITOR, 

George William Hau, 

Chicago, Illinois. 



FIRST CHAPTER 

CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 
POPULAR NOTIONS AS TO THE CAUSE 

CAUSES MORE REMOTE AND RECENT— SUBTLE AND APPARENT CAUSES 

OCCASIONS AND CAUSES 



MORE REMOTE CAUSES 
THE EARLY DISTINCTION OF PRUSSIA 

SKETCHING THE EVOLUTION OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE— BISMARK 

The Balkan Situation — Pan-Slavism 
Here we find the Crux of the Frightful Cataclysm of the War 
The Austrian-German Position — The Serbian-Russian Attitude 



IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF THE WAR 

From the Time of the Assassination of the Archduke and Duchess of Austria 
The Real Immediate Causes of the War — The Russian MobiHzation 



MODERN DIPLOMACY 
ESPECIALLY "SECRET" DIPLOMACY 

Discussion of General and Special Diplomatic Correspondence 
Further Causes — Less Directly Related to the War — Popularly not suspected of being Causes at all 

Wars are Inevitable on Earth 



MORE REMOTE CAUSES OF THE WAR 

Early Distinction of Prussia — Recent History of the German People 
The Rise of Prussia — The Confederation of the German States 



THE CENTRAL EMPIRES— AUSTRIA AND GERMANY 

THEIR BALKAN POLICY 

The Balkan Policy of many of the Slavonic Peoples in South Central Europe 

Backed up by Russia — Pan-Slavism 

Their Policy directly or indirectly supported by Great Britain, France, Japan, Portugal, Italy 

Also by most of the so-called Democratic World 



THE ROOT OF THE WORLD WAR 

Looking Deeper and beyond Casual Appearances for Real Causes of the War 



INTRODUCTION 
DOCTOR PAUL ROHRBACH 



THE ROOT OF THE WOBIiD WAR. 



Address by Dr. Paul Rohrbach to 
the Protestant tTnion of Hamburg. 

The present war has three roots. The 
one we can despatch quickly, that is 
the French. For more than forty 
years France has expressed the desire 
to renew the combat with us. The 
national Chauvinism has driven her to 
war. That is truly very foolish, but 
not dishonorable. We can not prop- 
erly harbor hostile feelings against 
France for this. 

With regard to Russia and England, 
we must proceed from two dates, 1890 
and 1902. In the year 1890 the trans- 
fer of Helgoland from England to 
Germany took place. At that time 
England entertained no mistrust re- 
garding Germany's development. The 
German-English conflict still lay be- 
yond the horizon. In the year 1902 
England formed a treaty with Japan, 
in order to force Russia out of the 
Far East and to direct its policy again 
toward the Orient. As Germany in the 
meantime became politically engaged 
in the Orient and in Turkey, her in- 
terests began to conflict with those of 
Russia. Germany's interior conditions 
had during this period undergone radi- 
cal changes and the development of its 
foreign trade, which amounted in 1880 
to flve and one-half billions — in 1913 
to a round twenty-two and a half bil- 
lions, and as a result of the quality 
of our industrial productions, which 
brought in a seven-fold, yes, even an 
eight-fold proflt, grew at such a rate, 
that England began to anticipate the 



time when we would equal or even 
surpass her. This was unbearable to 
the English. In the year 1898, when 
the German emperor was in Jerusalem 
and gave utterance to the dramatic 
words regarding his friendship with 
entire Islam, when German diplomacy 
supported the plan of the Bagdad rail- 
way, the chief interest of Germany 
and England was that the railway cut 
through Asia Minor, passed over the 
Taurus, reached AlepiDO, made connec- 
tion with the Syrian and the Mecca 
railways and extended to a point 
within 300-400 kilometers of the Suez 
Canal and of the crossing of the Red 
Sea. The English believed that the 
German emperor desired to establish 
a basis of attack against England in 
anterior Asia, which was inevitable as 
a result of the economic development 
of Germany. This was a misappre- 
hension — Germany planned no attack 
upon England. But in the two particu- 
lars, the exchange of Helgoland and 
the promotion of advances to Turkey, 
our emperor proved himself an excel- 
lent diplomat. This has been verified 
by existing conditions. 

Now began the policy of encircle- 
ment of Edward VII. France was an 
apt pupil. A treaty was formed with 
Russia regarding the division of Per- 
sia, but the chief feature of which was 
the liquidation of the Turkish inheri- 
tance and thereby the completion of 
England's dominion in the Indian 
Ocean. The outbreak of the Young 
Turkish revolution in 1908 prevented 
the execution of this plan. The pros- 
pect presented itself to English diplo- 
mats of leading the Young Turks and 



new Turkey into the channels of the 
English policies. But these expecta- 
tions met with disappointment as the 
German-Turkish understanding soon 
assumed a firmer character than for- 
merly. In 1909 came Russia's attempt 
to open the Oriental question, through 
the Servian-Bosnian trouble. But this 
was a Russian bluff. As Germany 
placed herself openly by the side of 
Austria, the Russians pulled in their 
horns. In 1910 King Edward died and 
the leadership of the political concert 
passed into the hands of Russia. Since 
then two factions have sprung up in 
England — one advocated the continua- 
tion of the policy of surrounding Ger- 
many and aimed at her destruction. 
The other faction wished for an under- 
standing with Germany. The one 
party looked upon the attempt at an 
understanding with Germany as a 
trick, as a bait — a sleeping potion for 
the Germans. The others meant it 
honestly, honorably. 

During the Moroccan crisis, the ac- 
tual acidity of England was induced 
by a carefully planned French in- 
trigue. It was reported that Germany 
intended to establish a naval station 
on the coast of Morocco, in order to 
have an opportunity of using her fast 
cruisers for the purpose of interfering 
with the course of grain ships, on their 
way from the Argentine, etc., to Eng- 
land, thereby cutting off England from 
this source of food supplies. After the 
settlement of tiie Moroccan crisis, Eng- 
land again made decided advances to 
Germany on her colonial policy. This 
tone was employed until the summer 
of 1914. 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



In 1912, Russia succeeded in bring- 
ing about the Balkan Union. But in- 
stead of turning against Austria, ttiey 
turned against Turkey and the result 
was an incurable enmity between Ser- 
via and Bulgaria. The object of Rus- 
sia's policy against Austria was the 
occupation of Constantinople and the 
realization of the Pan-Slavic idea — 
the union of all Slavs under the scep- 
ter of Russia. An insane idea, but 
one which is from a political-psycho- 
logical point of view comprehensible, 
but which gave evidence of an exag- 
gerated craze for extension which, by 
means of public opinion and the crim- 
inal unscrupulousness of the Russian 
Government, let loose passions which 
must lead either to revolution or war. 

Russia and France had agreed to 
attack Germany in the spring of 1916. 
The question as to why the war ar- 
rived as early as the summer of 1914 
is easily answered. In the beginning 
of August, mobilized Siberian regi- 
ments were stationed on the German 
border. When one considers that the 
transportation of these troops from 
Siberia must require weeks and that 
weeks and months were necessary for 
their mobilization in Siberia, it is 
quite clear that the order for mobili- 
zation must have been quite secretly 



issued as early as May — or in other 
words, previous to the assassination of 
the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, 
which took place in the middle of 
June. Shortly after this deed, the 
Russian Ambassador Hartwig and the 
Austrian Ambassador in Belgrade met. 
Soon after, a stroke of apoplexy ended 
the life of the Russian Ambassador. 
The suspicion will soon become gen- 
eral that his death was probably hast- 
ened by the excitement caused by dis- 
closures made to him by the Austrian 
Ambassador, to the effect that not 
only official Servians, but also officers 
in Russian circles, were implicated in 
the murder. What was Russia to 
gain by this assassination? She had 
enjoyed a series of good harvests and 
had in this way fortified her financial 
condition, but in 1913 a great drop in 
her paying assets occurred, which in- 
creased in 1914 and caused fears that 
the Russian credit would be injured 
to such an extent that the carrying 
on of war would be an impossibility. 
By means of the assassination of the 
Archduke, Russia hoped to cause a 
revolution in Servia — a dissolution of 
the Austro-Hungarian governmental 
relations, and thereby render mobiliza- 
tion impossible in that country. Had 
this taken place, Germany would have 
cringed and Russia could have fallen 



upon Austria. But it all turned out 
differently. Austria did not collapse, 
her mobilization was a success and her 
confederate remained faithful to her. 
But the war had become unavoidable 
for Russia, for the punishment of Ser- 
via by Austria would have cost the 
Czar everything. 

And now comes England's guilt. 
She could not participate in the war 
on account of the Servian assassins. 
But she believed her last opportunity 
had arrived to settle her account with 
Germany. The contemplation of this 
idea was too much for the makers of 
English politics. Not that they ever 
really hesitated to make war ujwn 
Germany, but because at first, the 
proper time did not seem to them to 
have arrived. Therefore they made 
every effort to prevent the war. Eng- 
land never prepared for a war as de- 
cently as she has for this one. She 
told us repeatedly we could not count 
upon her neutrality. That was a very 
plain hint to us. We can only explain 
England's attitude during the last 
weeks before the war in this way : 
that she desired to deter us from 
entering into war, not on account of 
political scruples, but because it was 
to her interest to postpone the day of 
decision. — From the "Hamburger 
Fremdenblatt," Hamburg, Germany. 



German Ideals and Their Realization — Bismark 



THE IRON CHANCEIjIjOR. 



Born April 1, 1815. 



By George Sylvester Viereck. 

Above the grave where Bismarcb 
sleeps 
The ravens screeched with strange 
alarms. 
The Saxon Forest in its deeps 

Shook with the distant clash of 
arms. 

The Iron Chancellor stirred. " 'Tis 
war! 

Give me my sword to lay them low 
Who touch my work. Unbar the door 

I passed an hundred years ago." 

The angel guardian of the tomb 
Spake of the law that binds all clay, 

That neither rose nor oak may bloom 
Betwixt the night and judgment day. 

"For no man twice may pass this 
gate," 
He said. But Bismarck flashed his 
eyes: 
"Nay, at the trumpet call of fate. 
Like Barbarossa, I shall rise. 

"In sight of all God's Seraphim 
I'll place this helmet on my brow, 

For lo! We Germans fear but Him, 
And He, I know, is with us now." 

The dead man stood up in his might, 
The startled angel said no word. 

Thru endless spheres of day and night 
God in his Seventh Heaven heard. 



And answered thus : "Shall man forget 
My laws? They were not lightly 
made. 

Nor writ for thee to break. And yet 
I love thee. Thou art not afraid. 

"Bismarck, from now till morrow's 
sun 
Walk as a wraith amid the strife. 
And if thou find thy work undone 
Come back, and I shall give thee — 
life." 

With stern salute the specter strode 
Out of the dark into the dawn. 

From Hamburg to the Caspian road 
He saw a wall of iron drawn. 

He saw young men go forth to die 
Singing the martial songs of yore. 

Boldly athwart the Flemish sky 
He saw the German airmen soar. 

A thousand spears in battle line 
Had pierced the wayward heart of 
France, 
But still above the German Rhine 
The Walkyrs held their august 
dance. 

He saw the sliding submarine 

Wrest the green trident from the 
hold 

Of her whose craven tradesmen lean 
On yellow men and yellow gold. 

In labyrinths of blood and sand 
He watched ten Russian legions 
drown. 

Unseen he shook the doughty hand 
Of Hindenburg near Warsaw town. 



The living felt his presence when 
Paternal, blessing, he drew nigh. 

And all the dead and dying men 
Saluted him in passing by. 

But he rode back in silent thought. 
And from his great heart burst a 
sigh 
Of thanks. "The Master Craftsman 
wrought 
This mighty edifice, not I. 

"No hostile hoof shall ever fall 
Upon my country's sacred sod; 

Tho seven whirlwinds lash its wall, 
It stands erect, a rock of God. 

"I shall return unto my bed. 
Nor ask of life a second lease. 

My spirit lives, tho I be dead, 
My aching bones may rest in peace." 

Up to his chin he drew the shroud, 
To wait God's judgment patiently, 

While high above a blood-red cloud 
Two eagles screamed of victory. 



"Trust in God and keep your pow- 
der dry," is go«d, militant advice, 
but according to Hudson Maxim this 
country's supply of powder on hand 
is less than one-tenth that of any of 
the great powers now at war, and in 
case of need we could not get an 
additional supply for six months, 
since it takes as long as that for the 
cannon powder for our big guns to 
dry. — From "The Boston Globe," 
September 9, 1914. 



UNDERLYING CAUSES OF THE WAR 




BISMARCK 

(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 



FRENCH PKISONEKS IN '71. 

Bismarck may have objected to the 
taking of prisoners, but his prejudice 
obviously had no effect in the 
Franco-German war. According to 
Moltke, who wrote the official history 



of the campaign, the French prison- 
ers reached the extraordinary total 
of 21,503 officers and 702,048 men. 
But of these nearly 250,000 were the 
Paris garrison, who were only nom- 
inally prisoners, and over 90,000 rep- 
resented the French troops disarmed 



and interned in neutral Switzerland. 
Still, with these deductions, more 
than 380,000 officers and men were 
actually imprisoned in Germany, and 
were released only when peace was 
declared. — From the London Chron- 
icle. 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



WHAT WOULD BISMARCK 
SAY? 



The Chicago Tribune. 

George L. Scherger, Ph. D. 

Professor of History, Armour In- 
stitute of Technology. 

Many have wondered what would 
be the view of the great Iron Chan- 
cellor regarding the present war if he 
were still alive. Would this war have 
occurred if Bismarck had been in 
charge of the administration of the 
German Empire? Would he support 
the Kaiser or would he regard the 
war as threatening to undo his own 
mighty achievements? Though Bis- 
marck died sixteen years ago, many 
of his utterances throw a. flood of 
light on the present imbroglio and 
show his wonderful understanding of 
European conditions as well as his 
almost prophetic insight into the 
future. 

The following remarks, made as 
early as 1875, have been fulfilled 
literally: 

"Mighty Germany has great tasks; 
above all, to keep peace in Europe. 
This is my chief consideration, also 
in the Oriental crisis. I do not in- 
tend to interfere if there is any way 
to avoid it, for such an interference 
might cause a European conflagra- 
tion, especially if the interests of 
Austria and Russia should clash in 
the Balkans. If I should take the 
side of one of these powers France 
would immediately join with the 
other, and a European war would 
break out. I am trying to hold two 
mighty beasts by the collar, in order 
that they may not tear each other to 
pieces, and in order that they may 
not combine against Germany." 

The fear of Bismarck regarding 
the Balkans is likewise expressed in 
this, passage: 

"What may happen in the Balkans 
does not concern Germany but only 
Russia, Italy, Austria and England. 
It has always been my aim to keep 
out of this. For this reason we put a 
stipulation into our treaty with Aus- 
tria that we are not obligated in any 
way in Balkan affairs." 

As regards Russia, Bismarck says 
again and again that Germany would 
not have the least interest in waging 
a war with her nor would Russia with 
Germany, because neither has any 
antagnostic interests. 

Russia's Asiatic interests are not 
in any way dangerous to Germany, 
although they are to England. If 
Russia should defeat Germany she 
could only take from her a strip of 
territory along the Baltic which 
would really be a nuisance to her 
because its inhabitants are very 
democratic. Germany, on the other 
hand, could only hope to increase her 
undesirable Polish territory. He did 
not consider the real Russians to be 
the champions of the Panslavistlc 
movement, but the Poles living in 
Russia, who wished to bring about a 
clash between Teuton and Slav in 
hopes of taking advantage of the fray 
to reconstitute an independent Polish 
kingdom. 

He believed that the Russian could 
not get along without the German in 



Russian affairs, for while the Russian 
might have intelligence, imagination, 
manners, and social talents, no Rus- 
sian would learn in all eternity to 
work eight hours per day for six days 
in the week. 

Bismarck even stated that he 
would have no objection to Russia's 
taking Constantinople, and thought 
that with the possession of this gate 
to the Black Sea she would be even 
less dangerous to Germany than at 
present. Of course, he knows that 
this would endanger England's pos- 
session of Egypt and the Suez canal, 
both of which she needs "as much as 
her daily bread." 

Not less striking are his observa- 
tions concerning France. 

"If the French are willing to keep 
peace with us until we attack them," 
he says, 'then peace is assured for- 
ever. What should we hope to get 
from France?' Shall we annex more 
French territory? I was not even 
strongly inclined in 1871 to take 
Metz because of its French popula- 
tion. I consulted our military au- 
thorities before I reached a final de- 
cision. It was Thiers who said to 
me: 'We will glA^e you your choice 
between Belfort and Metz; if you in- 
sist upon both we cannot make 
peace.' I then asked our war depart- 
ment whether we could give up our 
demand for either of these and re- 
ceived the reply: 'Yes, as regards 
Belfort, but Metz is worth IQO.OOO 
troops;' the question is, whether we 
wish to be weaker by that many men 
in case we should ever have another 
war. Thereupon I said: 'We will 
take Metz.' " 

Bismarck said that since 1870 the 
French realized that another war 
with Germany would not be like a 
sort of excursion to Berlin. He 
thought that the stronger Germany 
is the more unlikely would be an at- 
tack by France. France would strike 
only in case she felt certain of win- 
ning. She would always keep "the 
sacred fire of revenge burning," ac- 
cording to the advice of Gambetta: 

"Do not speak of war, but think of 
it constantly." 

If Germany became involved in 
war with France, it would not be 
necessary to expect Russia to strike 
Germany, but if Russia should strike 
first, France would be sure to join 
her in attacking Germany — a most 
remarkable forecast of what has now 
actually taken place. 

As early as 1887 he said: "Russia 
and France will sooner or later at- 
tack Germany." 

Concerning England, Bismarck 
says: 

"As regards foreign countries, I 
have had sympathy only for England, 
and even now am not without this 
feeling; but those folks do not want 
to be loved by us." At another time 
he remarked: 

"The English are full of anger and 
jealousy because we fought great 
battles — and won them. They do 
not like to see us prosper. We only 
exist in order to fight their battles 
for pay. That is the opinion of the 
entire English gentry. They have 
never wished us well, but have done 



all they could to injure us. This is 
also the position of the crown prin- 
cess (the Empress Frederick, mother 
of Kaiser Wilhelm II.). She always 
thought that she had humiliated her- 
self by marrying into this country. 
I remember how she remarked at 
one time that two or three Liver- 
pool merchants possessed as much 
silver as the entire Prussian nobility. 
'That may be true, your royal high- 
ness,' I answered, 'but we value 
other things much higher than we do 
silver.' " 

Bismarck commented upon the tra- 
ditional English policy of stirring up 
trouble on the continent, according 
the principle that when two quarrel 
the third may be glad. Especially 
desirous had she been to get Ger- 
many and Russia embroiled, so that 
she herself would not need to fight 
Russia. This is the very game Eng- 
land has succeeded in playing in the 
present war. Bismarck acknowl- 
edges that he would do the same 
thing if he could find some strong 
and foolish fellow who would fight 
for him. 

Bismarck thought that England, 
having only a few thousand troops 
of the line, was, when standing alone, 
really a negligible power, which, by 
playing the part of a guardian aunt, 
had gained a certain artificial infiu- 
ence, but ought some day to be lim- 
ited to its proper foundation. If 
England and France should combine 
against Germany, the English might 
destroy the German navy, which at 
the time was still in its infancy, but 
Germany would in that case make 
France pay the bill. 

No statesman ever realized the 
seriousness and the horrors of war 
more than Bismarck. A war should 
be waged, he said, only for the honor 
and most vital interest of a nation 
and not merely for prestige. Any 
statesman who has looked into the 
breaking eye of a soldier on the bat- 
tlefield will hesitate before beginning 
war. 

"German rulers,," he said, "are in 
the habit of leading their armies in 
war so that they may realize its hor- 
rors which would haunt them if they 
should be able to say to themselves, 
this war I could have avoided with 
honor. Germany would never begin 
aggressive wars or wars of conquest, 
as France so often had done, nor 
would she bleed a conquered nation 
as Napoleon had bled Prussia in 
1807. 

"The Germans are like bears in 
this respect; they do not attack of 
their own accord, but they fight like 
mad when they are attacked in their 
own lairs. An appeal to fear will 
never find an echo in the German's 
heart. The German is easily be- 
trayed by love and sympathy, but 
never by fear. The Germans will not 
start the fire. Some other nation 
may, but let any nation that provokes 
Germany beware of 'the furor teu- 
tonicus.' 

"We Germans fear God, but noth- 
ing else in the world; and the fear 
of God Induces us to love and seek 
peace. Whoever breaks the peace 
will soon realize that the same pat- 
riotism which called weak and down- 



IDEALS AND THEIR REALIZATION 



trodden little Prussia to the stand- 
ards in 1813 has today become the 
common property of united Germany, 
and that whoever attacks the Ger- 
man nation will find her presenting a 
united front, every soldier having 
in his heart the firm faith: God will 
be with us." 

The Germany of today is Bis- 
marck's Germany, and no one un- 
derstands her so well as he. The 
Europe of today is likewise un- 
changed. 



BISIMARCK'S VIEW AND THE 
WAR. 

This is the eighth article of a 
series on THE EUROPEAN WAR, 
which appeared in the October Num- 
her of THE OPEN COURT, under 
the title "Bismarck's View," written iy 
the Editor, Dr. Paul Cams. 

Consult the INDEX for the com- 
plete series, and, in order to see where, 
in the varioiis Chapters of the book, 
the different articles of this treatise 
may he found, loolo for EUROPEAN 
WAR (THE). In this way the reader 
may read the entire series of articles 
in their original order, if he chooses 
to do so. while the present arrange- 
inent still gives him the advantage of 
bringing the various articles under 
their proper, respective Chapter-head- 
ings of the ioolc. 

This is a series of exceptionally 
fine articles on the siibject in ques- 
tion, and they hear a unique and inv- 
portant relation to each other. Be 
sure to read them also in their original 
order. — Editor, "War Echoes." 

Bismarck foresaw the origin of the 
Triple Entente and feared the re- 
sults of it. Would he have been able 
to prevent its evil results? 

Here is a discussion of this topic 
by Dr. George L. Scherger, professor 
of History at the Armour Institute of 
Technology. He quotes some pro- 
phetic utterances of Bismarck:* 

"The following remark, made as 
early as 1875, has been fulfilled liter- 
ally: 

" 'Mighty Germany has great tasks; 
above all, to keep peace in Europe. 
This is my chief consideration also 
in the oriental crisis. I do not in- 
tend to interfere if there is any way 
to avoid it, for such an interference 
might cause a European conflagra- 
tion, especially if the interests of 
Austria and Russia should clash in 
the Balkans. If I should take the 
side of one of these powers Prance 
would immediately join with the 
other, and a European war would 
break out. I am trying to hold two 
mighty beasts by the collar, in order 
that they may not tear each other to 
pieces, and in order that they may 
not combine against Germany.' 

"As regards Russia, Bismarck 
says again and again that Germany 
would not have the least interest in 
waging a war with her, nor would 
Russia with Germany, because neither 
has any antagonistic interests. 



• What Would Bismarck Say. See Dr. 
Scherger's entire article in this book, as 
well as one on recent German History. — 
Editor 



" 'Russia's Asiatic interests are not 
in any way dangerous to Germany, 
although they are to England. If 
Russia should defeat Germany she 
could only take from her a strip of 
territory along the Baltic which 
would really be a nuisance to her be- 
cause its inhabitants are very demo- 
cratic. Germany, on the other hand, 
could only hope to increase her un- 
desirable Polish territory.' 

"Bismarck even stated that he 
would have no objection to Russia's 
taking Constantinople, and thought 
that with the possession of this gate 
to the Black Sea she would be even 
less dangerous to Germany than at 
present. Of course he knows that 
this would endanger England's pos- 
session of Egypt and the Suez canal, 
both of which she needs as much as 
her daily bread. 

"Not less striking are Bismarck's 
observations concerning France: 

" 'If the French are willing to keep 
peace with us until we attack them,' 
he says, 'then peace is assured for- 
ever. What should we hope to get 
from France? Shall we annex more 
French territory? I was not even 
strongly inclined in 1871 to take Metz 
because of its French population. I 
consulted our military authorities be- 
fore I reached a final decision. It was 
Thiers who said to me: "We will 
give you your choice between Belfort 
and Metz; if you insist upon both 
we cannot make peace." I then 
asked our war department whether 
we could give up our demand for 
either of these and received the reply: 
"Yes, as regards Belfort, but Metz is 
worth 100,000 troops; the question is 
whether we wish to be weaker by 
that many men in case we should 
ever have another war." Thereupon 
I said: "We will take Metz.' " 

" 'If Germany became involved in 
war with France, it would not be 
necessary to expect Russia to strike 
Germany, but if Russia should strike 
first, France would be sure to join 
her in attacking Germany' — a most 
remarkable forecast of what has now 
actually taken place. 

"As early as 1887 he said: 'Russia 
and France will sooner or later at- 
tack Germany.' He added that in 
this case the Germans could put 
3,000,000 men into the field within 
ten days, 1,000,000 on the French 
border, another 1,000,000 on the Rus- 
sian, and 1,000,000 reserves. There 
would be arms and clothes for 
4,500,000. The next war would 
signify that either France or Germany 
would be wiped out of existence. 

"Concerning England, Bismarck 
says: 'As regards foreign countries, 
I have had sympathy only for Eng- 
land, and even now am not without 
this feeling; but those folks do not 
want to be loved by us.' At another 
time he remarked: 'The English are 
full of anger and jealousy because we 
fought great battles — and won them. 
They do not like to see us prosper. 
We only exist in order to fight their 
battles for pay. That is the opinion 
of the entire English gentry. They 
have never wished us well, but have 
done all they could to injure us.' 

"Bismarck commented upon the 
traditional English policy of stirring 



up trouble on the continent, accord- 
ing to the principle that when two 
quarrel the third may be glad. Espe- 
cially desirous had she been to get 
Germany and Russia embroiled, so 
that she herself would not need to 
fight Russia. This is the very game 
England has succeeded in playing in 
the present war. Bismarck acknowl- 
edges that he would do the same 
thing if he could find some strong 
and foolish fellow who would fight 
for him. 

"Bismarck thought that England, 
having only a few thousand troops of 
the line, was, when standing alone, 
really a negligible power, which, by 
playing the part of a guardian aunt, 
had gained a certain artificial influ- 
ence, but ought some day to be lim- 
ited to its proper domain. If Eng- 
land and France should combine 
against Germany, the English might 
destroy the German navy, which at 
the time was still in its infancy, but 
Germany would in that case make 
France pay the bill. 

"Bismarck said: 'The Germans are 
like bears in this respect; they do 
not attack of their own accord, but 
they fight like mad when they are 
attacked in their own lairs. An ap- 
peal to fear will never find an echo 
in the German's heart. The German 
is easily betrayed by love and sym- 
pathy, but never by fear. The Ger- 
mans will not start the fire. Some 
other nation may, but let any nation 
that provokes Germany beware of the 
furor teutonicus. We Germans fear 
God, but nothing else in the world; 
and the fear of God induces us to 
love and seek peace. Whoever breaks 
the peace will soon realize that the 
same patriotism which called weak 
and downtrodden little Prussia to the 
standards in 1813 has to-day become 
the common property of united Ger- 
many, and that whoever attacks the 
German nation will find her present- 
ing a united front, every soldier hav- 
ing in his heart the firm faith: God 
will be with us. 

" 'Our soldiers are worth kissing; 
every one so fearless of death, so 
quiet, so obedient, so kindly with 
empty stomachs, wet clothes, little 
sleep, torn shoes; friendly to all; no 
plundering and wanton destruction, 
they pay for all they can and eat 
moldy bread. Our people must have 
a deep fund of religion, otherwise all 
this could not be as it is.' " 

It almost seems that the war was 
unavoidable because the three great 
powers, Russia, France and England, 
were determined not to allow Ger- 
many to grow too big. Perhaps Bis- 
marck would have been able to pre- 
vent the Triple Entente. 



"The Germans, thrice beaten back, 
have taken refuge in Antwerp. The 
entire German army, utterly routed, 
is rapidly retreating to Paris." This 
is how the Chambermaid's Own on 
Herald Square, will no doubt chron- 
icle the victory of the German army. 
— From "The Fatherland," New 
York, Aug. 20, 1914. 



According to Paris, the German 
war party has corrupted Europe's 
morals. Should be pronounced 
Krupp-ted. 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



What this ConfHct Means to Germany 
Coming into its Highest National Life and International Importance 



WHY I CHAMPION GERMANY. 



The Boston Evening Transcript. 

John W. Burgess, Ph. D., IiL. D., J. 

U. D., Dean of the Faculties of 

Political Science and Philosophy, 

Pure Science and Fine Arts 

At Columbia University. 

This is no time and no subject when, 
or upon which, one should speak lightly, 
ignorantly, or with prejudice. It Is one 
of the world's most serious moments 
and the views and sympathies now 
formed will determine the course of the 
world's development for many years to 
come. Heavy indeed is the responsi- 
bility which he incurs who would as- 
sume the role of teacher at this junc- 
ture, and it is his first duty to present 
the credentials which warrant his te- 
merity. 

First of all, I am an Anglo-American 
of the earliest stock and the most pro- 
nounced type. I have existed here, po- 
tentially or actually, since the year 1638 
and my European cousins of today are 
squires and curates in Dorsetshire. 
Moreover, I admire and revere Eng- 
land, not only because of what she has 
done for liberty and self-government at 
home, but because she has borne the 
white man's burden throughout the 
world and borne it true and well. 

On the other hand, what I possess of 
higher learning has been won In Ger- 
many. I have studied in her famous 
universities and bear their degrees and 
in three of them have occupied the 
teacher's chair. I have lived ten years 
of my life among her people and enjoy 
a circle of valued friendships which ex- 
tends from Koenlgsberg to Strassburg, 
from Hamburg to Munich and from 
Osnabruck to Berchtesgarten, and 
which reaches through all classes of so- 
ciety from the occupant of the throne 
to the dweller in the humble cottage. 
I have known four generations of 
HohenzoUerns, and of the three gener- 
ations now extant have been brought 
into rather close contact with the 
members of two of them. While as to 
the men of science, and letters, and 
politics who have made the Germany 
of the last half century, I have known 
them nearly all and have sat, as stu- 
dent, at the feet of many of them. I 
must concede that, of English descent 
though I am, still I feel somewhat less 
at home in- the motherland than in the 
fatherland. Nevertheless, I am con- 
scious of the impulse to treat each with 
fairness in any account I may attempt 
to give of their motives and purposes. 

The Real Purpose of Germany. 

It was in the year 1S71, in the midst 
of the Franco-Prussian war, that I 
first trod the soil of Germania, and 
It was from and with those who fought 
that war on the German side that I 
first learned the politics and diplo- 
macy of Europe. Almost from the first 
day that I took my seat in the lecture 
room of the university I imbibed the 
doctrine that the great national, inter- 
national and world purpose of the 
newly created German Empire was to 
protect and defend the Teutonic civil- 



ization of Continental Europe against 
the Oriental Slavic quasi-civilization 
on one side, and the decaying Latin 
civilization on the other. After a 
little I began to hear of the "Pan- 
Slavic policy" of Russia and the "Re- 
vanche policy" of Prance. For a while 
the latter, the policy of France for re- 
taking Alsace-Lorraine, occupied the 
chief attention. But in 1S76, with the 
Itussian attack upon the Turks, the 
Pan-Slavic policy of Russia — the policy 
of uniting the Slavs in the German 
Empire, the Austro-Hungariau Empire 
and in the Turkish Empire, with and 
under the sway of Russia — was moved 
into the foreground. All Western 
Europe recognized the peril to modern 
civilization and the jwwers of Europe 
assembled at Berlin in 1S7S to meet 
and master it. The astute British 
premier. Lord Beaconsfield, supported 
by the blunt and masterful Bismarck, 
directed the work of the congress, and 
the Pan-Slavic policy of Russia was 
given a severe setback. Russia was 
allowed to take a little almost worth- 
less territory in Europe, and territory 
of greater value in Asia; Roumanla, 
Servia and Montenegro were made in- 
dependent States ; Bulgaria was given 
an autonomous administration with a 
European Christian prince, but under 
the nominal suzerainty of the Turkish 
Sultan; and the Turkish provinces of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, then almost 
free zones Infested by bandits, were 
placed under Austro-Huugarlan admin- 
istration, also subject to the nominal 
suzerainty of the Sultan. 

The Slav Peril of the 70's. 

With this the much-respected and 
dreaded activities of Russia were di- 
rected towards Asia, and Russia was 
now for more than twenty years, 
and the Austro-Huugarlan Empire 
from 18S0 to 1902, occupied chiefly 
with the extension of her empire in 
the Orient. The German Empire 
was delivered for the moment from 
this great peril and enabled to pur- 
sue the line of peaceable development 
and progress. The greater security to 
the eastern borders of these great 
States thus established also helped to 
reduce the force of the French spirit of 
revenge, as the prospect of its satisfac- 
tion became more distant. 

It was during this period, however, 
that Germany developed from an agri- 
cultural to a manufacturing and com- 
mercial community — that is, became a 
competitor of Great Britain and France, 
especially of Great Britain, in world in- 
dustry. Her marvelous growth in this 
direction excited soon the jealousy, the 
envy, and then the hostility of Great 
Britain. We in the United States, how- 
ever, reaped great advantage from the 
industrial and commercial competition 
between the two great powers, and we 
were amused at the pettishness of 
Great Britain in representing it as 
something unfair and illegitimate. 

King Edward as a "Peacemaker." 

When Edward VII. came to the 
throne in the year 1901, he saw Great 
Britain's interests in the Orient 
threatened by Russia's policy of exten- 



sion in Asia and her commercial inter- 
ests throughout the world threatened 
by the active and intelligent competi- 
tion of the Germans. He, as all rulers 
at the moment of accession, felt the am- 
bition to do something to relieve the 
disadvantages, to say the least, under 
which in these respects his country was 
laboring. He began that course of di- 
plomacy for which he won the title of 
peace-lover. The first element of it was 
the approach to Japan and the encour- 
agement to Japan to resist the advance 
of Russia. This movement culminated 
In the war between Russia and Japan 
of the years 1904-1905, in which Russia 
was worsted and checked in the realiza- 
tion of her Asiatic policy and thrown 
back upon Europe. The next element 
in the diplomacy of the peace-loving 
king was the fanning into flame again 
of the "revanche" spirit of France by 
the arrangement of the quasl-alllance, 
called the Entente, between Great Brit- 
ain, France and Russia, aimed dis- 
tinctly and avowedly against what was 
known as the Triple Alliance of Ger- 
many, Austria and Italy, which had for 
thirtj' years kept the peace of Europe. 
The third and last element of this pa- 
cific programme was the seduction of 
Italy from the Triple Alliance, by rous- 
ing the Irredentist hopes for winning 
from Austria the Trent district in 
South Tyrol, which Italy covets. 

It is hardly necessary for me to 
call attention to the extreme peril 
involved in this so-called peaceful di- 
plomacy to the German and Austro- 
Hungarlan empires. I myself became 
first fully aware of it on the day of 
June 27, 1905. On that day I had an 
extended interview with a distin- 
guished British statesman in the 
House of Commons in London. I 
was on my way to Wilhelmshoehe 
to meet his majesty, the German em- 
peror, to arrange with his majesty, 
the cartel of exchange of edu- 
cators between uhlversities in the 
two countries. When I revealed this 
fact to my host the conversation im- 
mediately took a turn which made me 
distinctly feel that a grave crisis was 
Impending in the relations of Great 
Britain to Germany. I was so firmly 
impressed by it, that I felt compelled 
to call my host's attention to the fact 
that the great number of American 
citizens of German extraction, the 
friendliness of the German States to 
the cause of the Union during our 
Civil War, and the virtual control of 
American universities by men edu- 
cated at German universities, would 
all make for close and continuing 
friendship between Germany and the 
United States. When I arrived in 
Germany, I asked in high quarters 
for the explanation of my London ex- 
perience and was told that it was the 
moment of greatest tension in the 
Morocco affair, when all feared that 
at Britain's instigation, France would 
grasp the sword. 

The Slav Peril Now. 

The larger part of the next two 
years 1 spent in Germany as exchange 



IDEALS AND THEIR REALIZATION 



professor in the three universities of 
Berlin, Bonn and Leipzig; also, as 
lecturer before the Bar Association 
at Vienna. Naturally I formed a 
really vast circle of acquaintances 
among the leading men of both em- 
pires, and the constant topic of con- 
versation everywhere, at all times 
and among all classes, was the grow- 
ing peril to Germany and Austro- 
Hungary of the revived Pan-Slavic 
policy and programme of Russia, the 
re-inflamed "Revanche" of France 
and Great Britain's intense commer- 
cial jealousy. 

In the month of August, 1907, I 
was again at "Wilhelmshoehe. The 
imperial family were at the Castle 
and somewhere about the tenth of 
the month it became known that 
King Edward would make the em- 
peror a visit or rather a call, for it 
was nothing more cordial than that, 
on the fourteenth. 

On the afternoon of the 13th, the 
day before the arrival of the king, 
I received a summons to go to the 
Castle and remain for dinner with 
the emperor. When I presented my- 
self, I found the emperor surrounded 
by his highest officials. Prince Bue- 
'low, the chancellor of the empire, 
Prince Hohenlohe, the imperial gov- 
ernor of Alsace-Lorraine; Prince Ra- 
dolin, the German ambassador to 
France, Escellency von Luoanus, the 
chief of the emperor's civil cabinet; 
General Count von Huelsen Haesel- 
ler, the chief of the emperor's mili- 
tary cabinet; Fieldmarshal von Pies- 
sen, chief court marshal. Count zu 
Eulenburg; lord high chamberlain. 
Baron von dem Knesebeck; and the 
Oherstallmeister, Baron von Rei- 
schach. The dinner was on the open 
terrace of the Castle looking toward 
the Hercules Heights. At its close 
the empress and the ladies withdrew 
into the Castle and the emperor with 
the gentlemen remained outside. His 
majesty rose from his seat in the 
middle of the table, and went to one 
end of it followed by Prince Buelow, 
Prince Hohenlohe, Prince Radolin 
and Excellency von Lucanus. 

Roosevelt as Mediator. 

His majesty directed me to join 
the group and, so soon as we were 
seated, the chief of the civil cabinet 
turned to me and said that he was 
afraid that our good friend. Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, unwittingly did Eu- 
rope an injury in mediating between 
Russia and Japan, since this had 
turned the whole force of the Pan- 
Slavic programme of Russia back 
upon Europe. All present spoke of 
the great peril to Middle Europe of 
this change. Then both the Ger- 
man ambassador to France and the 
governor of Alsace-Lorraine spoke 
discouragingly of the great increase 
of hostile feeling on the part of the 
French towards Germany, and, fin- 
ally, the part that Great Britain had 
played and was playing in bringing 
about both of these movements was 
dwelt upon with great seriousness 
mingled with evidences of much un- 
easiness. 

King Edward came the next morn- 
ing at about ten o'clock and took his 
departure at about three in the af- 
ternoon. Whether any remon- 



strances were made to his majesty 
in regard to the great peril which 
he wittingly or unwittingly was hop- 
ing to bring upon Middle Europe, I 
have never known. It seemed to me, 
however, that after that date he mod- 
ified considerably his diplomatic ac- 
tivity. But he had sown the seed in 
well prepared ground and the harv- 
est was bound to come. The three 
great forces making for universal 
war in Europe, viz.: the Pan-Slavic 
programme of Russia, "the Re- 
vanche" of France and Great Brit- 
ain's commercial jealousy of Ger- 
many had been by his efforts brought 
together. It could not fail to pro- 
duce the catastrophe. It was only a 
question of time. 

Turkey Brings a Torch to the Burn- 
ing. 

The following year, the year 1908, 
saw the revolt of the young Turkish 
party in Constantinople, which forced 
from the sultan the constitution of 
July, 1908. According to this consti- 
tution all the peoples under the sov- 
ereignty of the sultan were called 
upon to send representatives to the 
Turkish Parliament. Both Bulgaria 
and Bosnia-Herzegovina were nomin- 
ally subject to tkat sovereignity, ac- 
cording to the provisions of the Ber- 
lin congress of the Powers of 1878. 
For thirty years Bulgaria had been 
practically an independent State, and 
during thirty years Austro-Hungary 
had poured millions upon millions 
into Bosnia-Herzegovina, building 
roads, railroads, hotels, hospitals and 
schools, establishing the reign of law 
and order, and changing the popula- 
tion from a swarm of loafers, beg- 
gars and bandits to a body of hard- 
working, frugal and prosperous citi- 
zens. What now were Bulgaria and 
Austria-Hungary to do? Were they 
to sit quiet and allow the restoration 
of the actual sovereignty and govern- 
ment of Turkey in and over Bulgaria 
and Bosnia-Herzegovina? Could any 
rational human being in the world 
have expected or desired that? 

They simply, on the self-same day, 
viz.: Oct. 5, 1908, renounced the 
nominal suzerainty of the Sultan, 
Bulgaria becoming thereby an in- 
dependent State, and Bosnia-Herze- 
govina remaining what it had ac- 
tually been since 1878, only with no 
further nominal relation to the 
Turkish Government. Some Ameri- 
can newspapers have called this the 
robbery of Bosnia-Herzegovina by 
Austro-Hungary, and have made out 
Austro-Hungary to be an aggressor. 
I have not seen, however, the slight- 
est indication that any of these have 
had the faintest conception of what 
actually took place. Europe ac- 
quiesced in it without much ado. It 
was said that Russia expressed dis- 
satisfaction, but that Germany paci- 
fied her. 

Four more years of peace rolled by, 
during which, in spite of the facts 
that Austro-Hungary gave a local 
constitution with representative in- 
stitutions to Bosnia-Herzegovina and 
Alsace-Lorraine was admitted to rep- 
resentation in the Federal Council, 
as well as the Reichstag, of the Ger- 
man Empire, that is, was made sub- 
stantially a State of the Empire, the 



Pan-Slavic schemes of Russia, the 
French spirit of revenge and the 
British commercial jealousy grew 
and developed and became welded 
together, until the Triple Entente be- 
came virtually a Triple Alliance di- 
rected against the two great States of 
Middle Europe. 

Windtog the Alarm-Clock. 

Russia had now recovered from 
the losses of the Japanese War and 
the internal anarchy which followed 
it; France had perfected her military 
organization; Turkey was now driv- 
en by the allied Balkan States out of 
the calculation as an anti-Russian 
Power; Bulgaria, Austro-Hungary's 
ally, was now completely exhausted 
by the war with Turkey, and that 
with her Balkan allies, now become 
enemies; and Great Britain was in 
dire need of an opportunity to divert 
the mind of her people away from the 
internal questions which were threat- 
ening to disrupt her constitution. The 
practical ear could discern the buzz 
of the machinery lifting the hammer 
to strike the hour of Armageddon. 
And it struck. The foul murder of 
the heir of the Hapsburgers set the 
civilized world in horror and the 
Austro-Hungarian Empire in mourn- 
ing. In tracing the ramifications of 
the treacherous plot, the lines were 
found to run to Belgrade. And when 
Austro-Hungary demanded inquiry 
and action by a tribunal in which 
representatives from Austro-Hun- 
gary should sit, Servia repelled the 
demand as inconsistent with her dig- 
nity. Believing that inquiry and ac- 
tion by Servia alone would be no in- 
quiry and no action, Austro-Hungary 
felt obliged to take the chastisement 
of the criminals and their abettors 
into its own hands. Then Russia in- 
tervened to stay the hand of Aus- 
tro-Hungary and asked the German 
Emperor to mediate between Austro- 
Hungary and Servia. 

The Emperor undertook the task, 
hut while in the midst of it he 
learned that Russia was mobilizing 
troops upon his own border. He im- 
mediately demanded of Russia that 
this should cease, but without avail 
or even reply. He protested again 
with like results. Finally, at mid- 
night on the 31st of July, his am- 
bassador at St. Petersburg laid the 
demand before the Russian Minister 
of Foreign Affairs that the Russian 
mobilization must cease within 
twelve hours, otherwise Germany 
would be obliged to mobilize. At the 
same time the emperor directed his 
ambassador in Paris to inquire of the 
French Government whether, in case 
of war between Germany and Russia, 
France would remain neutral? 

The Case of Belgium. 

As France could move faster than 
Russia, the Germans turned the force 
of their arms upon her. They under- 
took to reach her by way of what 
they supposed to be the lines of least 
resistance. These lay through the 
neutral States of Belgium and Lux- 
emburg. They claimed that France 
had already violated the neutrality of 
both by invasion and by the flying of 
their war air-ships over them, and 
they marched their columns into 
both. 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



. Belgium resisted. The Germans 
offered to guarantee the indepen- 
dence and integrity of Belgium and 
indemnify her for all loss or injury if 
she would not further resist the pas- 
sage of German troops over her soil. 
She still refused and turned to Great 
Britain. Great Britain now inter- 
vened and in the negotiations with 
Germany, demanded as the price of 
her neutrality that Germany should 
not use her navy against either 
France or Russia, and should desist 
from her military movements 
through Belgium, and when the Ger- 
mans asked to he assured that Great 
Britain herself would respect the 
neutrality of Belgium throughout the 
entire war on the basis of the ful- 
filment of her requirements by Ger- 
many, the British Government made 
no reply, but declared war on Ger- 
many. 

And so we have the alignment, 
Germany, Austria and probably Bul- 
garia on one side; Russia, Servia, 
Montenegro, Belgium, France and 
England on the other, and rivers of 
blood have already flowed. And we 
stand gaping at each other, and each 
is asking the others who did it. 
Whose is the responsibility, and what 
will be the outcome? Now if I have 
not already answered the former 
question, I shall not try to answer it. 
I shall leave each one in view of the 
account 1 have given, to settle that 
question with his own judgment and 
conscience. I will only say that, as 
Burns, the Man of Letters and the 
Man of Labor, that they have rent 
the veil of diplomatic hypocrisy and 
have washed their hands clean from 
the stain of this blunder-crime. 

What Will Come of It? 

Finally, as to the outcome, not 
much can yet be said. There is noth- 
ing so idle as prophecy and I do not 
like to indulge in it. Whether the 
giant of middle Europe will be able 
to break the bonds which in the last 
ten years have been wound about him 
and under whose smarting cut he is 
now writhing, or the fetters will be 
riveted tighter, cannot easily be fore- 
told. But assuming the one or the 
other, we may speculate with some- 
thing more of probable accuracy re- 
garding the political situation which 
will result. The triumph of Ger- 
many-Austro-Hungary-Bulgaria can 
never be so complete as to make any 
changes in the present map of Eu- 
rope. All that that could effect 
would be the momentary abandon- 
ment of the Russian Pan-Slavic pro- 
gramme, the relegation to dormancy 
of the French "Revanche," and the 
stay of Great Britain's hand from 
the destruction of German commerce. 
On the other hand, the triumph of 
Great Britain-Russia-France cannot 
fail to give Russia the mastery of 
the Continent of Europe and restore 
Great Britain to her sovereignty over 
the seas. These two great Powers, 
who now already between them pos- 
sess almost the half of the whole 
world, would then, indeed, control 
the destinies of the earth. 

Is More MiUtarism Coining? 

Well may we draw back in dismay 
before such a consummation. The 
"rattle of the sabre" would then be 



music to our ears in comparison with 
the crack of the Cossack's knout and 
the clanking of Siberian chains, while 
the burden of taxation which we 
would be obliged to suffer in order to 
create and maintain the vast navy 
and army necessary for the defense 
of our territory and commerce 
throughout the world against these 
gigantic powers, with their Oriental 
ally, Japan, would sap our wealth, 
endanger our prosperity and threaten 
the very existence of republican in- 
stitutions. 

This is not time for shallow 
thought or flippant speech, in a pub- 
lic sense it is the most serious mo- 
ment of our lives. Let us not be 
swayed in our judgment by prejudice 
or minor considerations. Men and 
women like ourselves are suffering 
and dying for what they believe to 
be the right and the world is in tears. 
Let us wait and watch patiently and 
hope sincerely that all this agony is 
a great labor-pain of history and that 
there shall be born through it a new 
era of prosperity, happiness, and 
righteousness for all mankind."* 



GERMANY'S STRUGGLE FOB 

EXISTENCE. 



H. C. G. Von Jagemann, Professor of 

German Philology at Harvard 

University. 



*"The Fatherland," New TorJc, 
luhich in its issues of September 7 and 
IJi, also reprinted this article, inalces 
the following coinment in the numier 
corresponding September I4, wherein it 
was concluded: 

"We publish hereicith the concUid- 
ing part of Prof. John Burgess's states- 
manlihe analysis of the great war 
against civilisation waged hy England 
and her allies. Lilce Ex-President 
Eliot, Prof. Burgess is an Anglo-Ainer- 
ican. Unlike Eliot, he has a clear 
grasp of the underlying factors of Ger- 
many's gigantic struggle against Pan 
Slavism." — Editor, War Echoes. 



"BUT THIS WAS TO BE A WHITE 
MAN'S WAR." 

On page 42, of chapter 4, of Sir 
Arthur Conan Doyle's famous book 
"The Great Boer War" (Revised and 
enlarged edition printed in December, 
1902), we read this: 

<< * * * From all the men of 
many hues, who make up the British 
Empire, from Hindoo Rajahs, from 
West African Houssas, from Malay 
police, from Western Indians, there 
came offers of service. But this was 
to be a white man's war, and if the 
British could not work their o\va sal- 
vation then it were well that the em- 
pire should pass from such a race." 

"The magnificent Indian army of 
150,000 soldiers, many of them sea- 
soned veterans, was for the same 
reason left untouched. England has 
claimed no credit or consideration 
for such abstention, but an irrespon- 
sible writer may well ask how many 
of those foreign critics whose respect 
for our public morality appears to 
be as limited as their knowledge of 
our principles and history would 
have advocated with self-denial, had 
their own countries been placed in 
the same position." 



It is estimated that 5,750,000 men 
are fighting in Europe, of whom to 
date only 7,456,678 have been 
killed, wounded or captured. — From 
the "Boston Evening Transcript," 
September 15, 1914. 



The Outlook. 

Popular imagination demands for 
every great historical event a hero 
or a villain. So it has tried to fix the 
responsibility for the present cruel 
war upon one man; and, in view of a 
particular sequence of events, the 
German Emperor has been singled 
out as the scapegoat. No student of 
history or of politics, however, be- 
lieves that any one man nowadays 
could cause such a clashing of forces 
as is going on at present in Europe, 
or that such a war could be due to 
anything but deep underlying causes, 
altogether beyond the control of or- 
dinary statesmanship. The real 
causes of the war are three: France's 
desire to win back her military pres- 
tige and the provinces lost to Ger- 
many in 1870; Russia's desire to 
eliminate Germany as the ally of Aus- 
tria, her opponent on the way to 
Constantinople; England's jealousy 
of Germany's growth as a commercial 
and naval power. Let us consider 
these three causes in the order indi- 
cated. 

Prance and Germany. 

In 1870 France, in order to pre- 
vent further unification and internal 
strengthening of Germany, used a 
slight pretext to declare war against 
the North German Federation, hop- 
ing thereby to extend her own terri- 
tory by the conquest of the left bank 
of the Rhine. France was defeated, 
the new German Empire established, 
and Alsace and a part of Lorraine an- 
nexed. France has never forgiven 
Germany for this defeat. American 
sympathy has generally been with 
Germany in this matter; only Ger- 
many's annexation of Alsace and Lor- 
raine is often criticised in this coun- 
try, and, in view of certain wrong im- 
pressions concerning it, requires ex- 
planation. These provinces belonged 
to Germany from the time of di- 
vision of Charlemagne's Empire in 
843 to 1648, when Germany, ex- 
hausted by the Thirty Years' War 
and torn by internal dissensions, was 
forced to cede the greater part of 
them to France; Strassburg and the 
surrounding territory was seized by 
Louis XIV in time of peace in 1681. 
The people of Alsace are almost en- 
tirely of German stock, belonging to 
the Alemannian tribe, from the name 
of which the French name for Ger- 
many, AUemagne, is derived. That 
their native speech is German will 
appear even to the uninitiated from 
such names as Mulhausen, Breisach, 
Strassburg, Weissenburg, Saarburg, 
etc. Similarly the population of Lor- 
raine is for the most part closely re- 
lated to that of the adjoining part 
of Prussia. For a hundred years after 
their forcible annexation to France, 
the population, especially of Alsace, 
remained essentially German in char- 
acter, speech, customs, and intellec- 
tual sympathies. No proof of this is 
needed for any one who is familiar 
with the story of Goethe's student 



IDEALS AND PRACTICAL ISSUES 



time in Strassburg in 1770 to 1771, 
and of his love for Priederike, the 
parson's daughter, of Sesenheim near 
Strassburg, with whom he sang the 
old German folk-songs of the neigh- 
borhood. Politically the provinces 
then were under the rule of France; 
in every other respect they were a 
part of Germany. Political sense and 
national feeling, however, were in- 
significant among the population, as 
they then were all over Germany. Not 
until the French Revolution, more than 
a hundred years after their annexation 
to France, did Alsace and Lorraine be- 
come French in feeling to any con- 
siderable extent ; then the great wave 
of national enthusiasm proceeding 
from Paris swept over the two prov- 
vinces and separated them from Ger- 
many, where the national spirit was 
not aroused till much later. 

Germany had not forgotten her just 
claims to these provinces ; but even 
after the terrible effort to shaking off 
the Napoleonic dominion in 1813-15 she 
was still too disunited and weak to 
win them back. So they remained with 
France until 1S70, and during this long 
period their political attachment to 
France became very strong, while 
nevertheless the great mass of the pop- 
ulation retained its old German speech. 
France during this period looked upon 
the provinces with the superiority of 
the conqueror ; the Alsatian speaking 
his German patois was regarded as 
far inferior to the genuine French- 
man. 

After her victory in 1870 Germany 
exacted the return of the lost prov- 
inces. She did this partly for mili- 
tary reasons, in order to erect a bul- 
wark between herself and France, 
which had for centuries taken every 
opportunity to interfere in German's 
affairs and to disrupt Germany's unity ; 
partly for the sentimental reason that 
these provinces belonged originally to 
Germany, that their population was of 
German stock, and that, even though 
the sympathies of the people at the 
time were largely with the French, it 
was hoped to win them back to Ger- 
many, to which they naturally belonged. 
In this last, endeavor, it is admitted. 
Germany has only partially succeeded; 
but, if it be remembered that it took 
over a hundred years and the French 
Revolution to Gallicize the provinces, 
Germany has no reason to be ashamed 
of what she accomplished in forty- 
three years. The jingo press of Paris 
and London inveighs against the so- 
called German tyranmy in Alsace-Lor- 
raine; but what are the facts? The 
regrettable Zabern incident, greatly 
exaggerated as it was by a sensation- 
loving press, has been absolutely uniciue 
during an occupation of more than four 
decades ; compared with what has oc- 
curred in Ireland in the way of mur- 
ders, land riots, evictions, etc., during 
this period, all the clashes between the 
authorities and the people in Alsace- 
Lorraine fade into insignificance. Un- 
der a really tyrannical government the 
people generally emigrate as fast as 
they can, as they did from Ireland for 
many years ; in Alsace Lorraine the an- 
nexation was immediately followed by 
an Increase in emigration, but this in- 
crease ceased in a few years, when the 
rate of emigration fell below that of 
the neighboring states. It is true that 
a good many Alsatians might be found 



in Paris, but so there might be in Ber- 
lin, as everywhere in the world the 
population from agricultural and 
mountain districts has flocked to the 
large cities. Between 1875 and 1905 
the population of the provinces in- 
creased from 1,531,000 to 1,814,000, or 
18.4 per cent, while during the same 
period that of France increased by 
only 6.4 per cent; from 1885 to 1905 
the population of the industrial city of 
Mulhausen increased from 69,759 to 
94,488 — that is 35 per cent. The 
growth in material wealth has been sim- 
ilar ; and what the German Government 
has done in the provinces for education 
may be inferred from the fact that after 
the definite annexation of the provinces 
almost the first thing was the re-es- 
tablishment of the famous old Uni- 
versity of Strassburg, which has since 
taken its place among the prominent 
centers of learning in the world, and 
to which numerous American students 
have resorted. Furthermore, Germany 
has allowed the provinces an amount 
of autonomy which Ireland even now 
does not enjoy ; for several years their 
affairs have been administered by a 
Governor-General appointed by the 
Emperor, and a Diet elected by uni- 
versal suffrage ; for years many of the 
civil offices, including some of the high- 
est, have been filled by natives of the 
provinces, who thus showed their wil- 
lingness to co-operate with the new 
government. A large part of the popu- 
lation was content to abide by the re- 
sults of 1870, and the sentiment was 
overwhelmingly against another war 
over the possession of the provinces, 
from which these would naturally be 
the worst sufferers. If it had not been 
for the continuous agitation by the 
Paris jingo press we should probably 
have heard little about German ty- 
ranny in Alsace, for there was no sub- 
stantial basis for the assertion. 

But France was not content to abide 
by the decision of 1870, and not only 
the jingo press, but the most infiuential 
public men, with few exceptions, have 
more or less frankly encouraged the 
popular demand for another trial of 
strength with Germany. For this pur- 
pose the armaments were carried to an 
extent in proportion far beyond those 
of Germany, and in 1912 the time of 
active compulsory service was raised 
from two to three years, while at the 
same time the recruits of the follow- 
ing year were called to the colors, thus 
practically doubling the army at one 
stroke. For this same purpose the 
alliance with Russia was more and 
more firmly cemented, France lending 
Russia billions of money to reorganize 
and vastly increase her army after her 
defeat by Japan. It was only a ques- 
tion of time when France and Russia 
would find an opportunity to strike at 
Germany, and it was an open secret in 
military and diplomatic circles that 
such an opportunity would occur in 
1914 or 1915, when both French and 
Russian armaments would be complete. 

Kussia and Germany. 

Germany has long recognized Russia 
as a most powerful neighbor with whom 
she had to be on good terms for her 
own sake. The two nations have not 
seriously clashed for a hundred and 
fifty years, for Prussia's participation 
in Napoleon's campaign in 1812 was 
compulsory, and the very next year 



Prussia and Russia fought side by side 
against Napoleon at Leipzig. Since 
then Germany has made every effort, 
especially in recent years, by com- 
mercial sacrifices to retain Russia's 
good will, and the two nations might 
be at peace now if it were not for Rus- 
sia's hostility to Germany's friend and 
ally, Austria. Russia's ambition for 
more than a century has been to extend 
her dominion over the Balkans and to 
win Constantinople. She might prob- 
ably have done so long ago had this 
been in accordance with the designs of 
England and France. In order to win 
Constantinople, Russia must first dom- 
inate the southern Slavic states, Servia 
and Bulgaria, and she has for a long 
time arrogated to herself the part of 
their patron and protector. That Rus- 
sia has a prior right to this position 
Austria does not admit, for she too is 
a great Slavic power, and her com- 
mercial interests demand an open route 
to the sea and to the Orient as much as 
Russia's. Indirectly Germany's com- 
mercial interests are at stake, for 
through Austria lies Germany's land 
route to the Orient, and it is an im- 
perative necessity for her to keep this 
route open ; neither Austria nor Ger- 
many can afford to have it blocked by 
an unfriendly Power. This is so clear 
that prominent Russian writers have 
stated in recent years that Russia's 
way to Constantinople lies through 
Germany. As it cannot be to England's 
or France's interest to have Russia in 
possession of Constantinople, except 
under conditions to which Russia would 
never submit. It seems as if the present 
alliance between these Powers could 
only serve the immediate purpose of 
eliminating Germany from European 
affairs. 

England and Germany. 

Until the Franco-German War the re- 
lations between Germany and England 
were generally friendly. The two na- 
tions had never seriously clashed, and 
on the field of Waterloo the English 
and Prussian armies fought side by 
side. The English view of the German 
people, as it crops out in the literature 
before 1870, is that of a people, given 
largely to sentimentalism, philosophy, 
music, and beer-drinking; beyond that, 
the Germans might be useful in keep- 
ing France in check, which England 
then still regarded as her chief enemy, 
but otherwise they were a negligible 
quantity. Germany's inferiority to 
England in engineering, manufacturing, 
and commercial enterprise was so great 
that as late as 1880 water works, gas 
works and street railways in many 
German cities were constructed and run 
by English engineering skill and Eng- 
lish capital, while the steamships of 
the two feeble German transatlantic 
lines were built in England and Scot- 
land. But now a rapid change took 
place. In 1876 the German Commis- 
sioner to the Centennial Exhibition at 
Philadelphia reported to his Govern- 
ment as his verdict concerning the pro- 
ducts of German industries there ex- 
hibited, "Cheap and inferior;" twelve 
years later, "Made in Germany" had 
become a badge of excellence for a 
great variety of Industrial products; a 
few years later again, Germany built 
ships which for size, swiftness, and 
comfort surpassed those of the great 
English transatlantic lines, and which 
carried German products to all parts of 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



the globe. Then England suddenly 
recognized Germany as a dangerous 
competitor for tlie world's trade, and 
her feeling toward her changed from 
friendly condescension to jealousy and 
hate. 

The matter was aggravated when 
Germany began to strengthen her navy 
in order to protect her coasts, trade 
routes and outlying possessions. Other 
nations likewise greatly strengthened 
their navies — the United States, 
France, Russia, Italy, Japan — but only 
German's efCorts in this direction were 
frowned down by England, although 
Germany never attempted to build a 
fleet anywhere near the size of the 
English fleet, while even if she had 
done so England's superior geograph- 
ical position and her dominions and 
naval bases all over the globe would 
always have assured her an incompar- 
able advantage over Germany. The 
reason for this was that England had 
begun to look upon Germany, of all 
countries, as her chief rival in trade; 
and her policy from the time of her 
own rise as a commercial and mari- 
time power had always been to con- 
centrate all her efforts on the elimi- 
nation of her foreinost commercial rival 
— a. policy which had resulted suc- 
cessively in the destruction of the 
maritime power of Spain, Holland 
and Prance. 

Germany had before her the example' 
of these countries ; she remembered the 
bombardment of Copenhagen, in which 
the British destroyed the Danish fleet ; 
and she also remembered that when, 
in 1849, a single warship was built in 
Germany by i)opular subscription. Lord 
Palmerston, then Prime Minister of 
England, declared that if such a ship 
dared to show on the high seas the 
German flag he would order it to be 
treated as a pirate ship. Under these 
circumstances modern Germany had 
to choose between leaving its growing 
maritime trade to the tender mercies 
of England till the latter should take 
an opportunity to wipe it off the globe, 
and arming herself to protect it; and 
Germany chose the latter course. 
Since then England has taken every 
opportunity to thwart the efforts of 
Germany at legitimate growth and ex- 
tension of her influence, and she has 
done this with an air as if she were 
fighting for a moral principle. She 



herself might conquer the Transvaal 
and sacrifice in the effort the lives of 
myriads of brave Boer farmers and 
of her own soldiers ; she might enter 
into an arrangement with France ac- 
cording to which England retained 
Egypt and France took Morocco ; she 
might enter into an arrangement with 
Russia, dividing Persia into spheres 
of English and Russian influence, to 
the utter disregard of the rights of 
Persia ; Italy might grab Tripoli ; 
Japan and Russia might quarrel about 
Manchuria, and settle the matter be- 
tween them ; all this was legitimate 
and in the interests of civilization. 
But let Germany .say as much as that 
she too had commercial interests in 
Morocco, or that she would like to 
purchase a coaling station within a 
certain sphere where England and her 
allies had a dozen, then a howl went 
up about "intolerable German ag- 
gression" and "unwarrantable en- 
croachment on English interests." 
Even such a strictly non-political 
commercial enterprise as the build- 
ing by German capital of the Bagdad 
Railway was not permitted except 
after years of negotiations, and after 
English capital had been allowed to 
participate and the terminals ar- 
ranged to suit English interests. 
Germany has submitted to this in- 
justice for a number of years, but it 
is clear that a nation of 65,000,000 
people needing employment and 
means of support could not forever 
endure such a thwarting of its legiti- 
mate aspirations. 

Could the War Have Been Avoided? 

So it appears that each one of 
these three great Powers now mak- 
ing war on Germany had her own 
reasons for wishing to crush her; 
Germany, on the other hand, had no 
corresponding designs against them. 
She wanted no French territory, 
knowing well that it could not be 
Germanized for a long period, and 
would only weaken her. Nor was 
she so foolish as to think that she 
could wrest anything from the Rus- 
sian colossus. Her geographical posi- 
tion, the relative weakness of her 
navy, and her lack of naval bases 
and coaling stations made it incon- 
ceivable that she could inflict very 
serious damage upon England's fleet 



or her world-wide dominion. Noth- 
ing more absurd than the assertion 
that Germany aimed to rule Europe 
as France did in the time of Napo- 
leon. The only thing Germany de- 
sired was to be treated by the other 
nations on an equal footing, and not 
to be constantly shut out by their 
combinations from newly arising op- 
portunities for expansion and for the 
extension of her cornmercial influence 
— opportunities such as the other na- 
tions have seized in recent years time 
and again. This was not only her 
right, but a physical necessity in view 
of her rapidly growing population. 
She has submitted to many a slight 
and has suffered one setback after 
another. If she has struck now, it 
is because she felt sure that she could 
not later defend herself against the 
mighty combination of her oppo- 
nents with the slightest chance of 
success. When the Kaiser, in order to 
preserve the peace of Europe, offered 
to mediate between Austria and Ser- 
via, and Russia nevertheless ordered 
the mobilization of her giant army, 
the whole German people realized 
what was in store for them. Ger- 
many was in the position of a man 
who sees a deadly enemy reach for 
his pistol, and whose only possible 
salvation lies in shooting first. 

The war could have been avoided 
if France had foregone her desire for 
revenge and for the reconquest of 
Alsace-Lorraine, which she did not 
need in view of her almost stationary 
population and her own wealth and 
that of her extensive colonies. The 
war could have been avoided if Rus- 
sia had been content with her vast 
and undeveloped empire, and had 
curbed her desire to strike down Aus- 
tria as an obstacle on her route to 
Constantinople. The war could have 
been avoided if England had been 
more generous to Germany and had 
allowed her the same share as the 
other nations in new opportunities 
for colonization and for extension 
and protection of commerce. Finally, 
the war could have been avoided if 
Germany had been willing to sit back 
and let these three great Powers di- 
vide up Europe, Asia, and Africa be- 
tween them, and content herself with 
the crumbs from their table. 



GERMANY IN SOCIAL-POLITICAL EVOLUTION 

A More Extensive Account of the Evolution of Germany since Luther 
Present Situation of the Empire 



THE EVOLUTION OP THE GER- 
MAN EMPIRE. 



Copyrighted by George L. 
1915. 



Scherger. 



By. Dr. George Ii. Scherger. 

Professor of History and Politics, 
Armour Institute of Technology. 

The German people are not of 
yesterday. Their authentic history 
covers a period of almost two thou- 
sand years. During this long inter- 
val of time they accomplished won- 
derful things. They overthrew the 
Roman Empire of the West, A. D. 
476 and established Teutonic king- 
doms throughout Western and Cen- 
tral Europe from the Desert of Sa- 
hara to Scotland, from the Atlantic 
to the Vistula River. They worked 
their way out of barbarism to the 
highest type of civilization. They 
evolved the Holy Roman Empire and 
the Reformation. They gave to the 
world Charlemagne and Otto the 
Great; Luther and Bismarck; Goethe 
and Schiller; Bach and Beethoven; 
Kant and Fichte; Leibnitz and Helm- 
holtz. Why was such a people so 
slow in achieving unification? Why 
is the German Empire the youngest 
of the great nations of Europe? It 
shall be my purpose to show briefly 
what agencies hindered the Germans 
from forming a united empire, as 
well as to explain why this unifica- 
tion resulted in the end, after so 
long a delay. 

The Holy Roman Empire. 

Though the early Teutons were 
separated into many different tribes 
which could only with the greatest 
difficulty be induced to combine in a 
common undertaking, they were 
nevertheless held together loosely by 
the bond of a common language, re- 
ligion, race, and customs. Charle- 
magne was the first to form a great 
Teutonic empire, having received 
the crown as Roman Emperor of the 
West from the Pope in 800 A. D. 
While this was supposed at the time 
to be merely a restoration of the old 
Roman Empire that had gone to 
pieces in 476 A. D., it was really a 
new creation which, after another 
century, came to be called the Holy 
Roman Empire and which lasted un- 
til 1806, covering a period of over 
a thousand years. 

Louis the Pious, the son of 
Charlemagne, tried to keep the vast 
Empire together, but his sons, after 
a long quarrel, divided this territory 
among themselves in the famous 
Treaty of Verdun of 843. Charles 
the Bald received the western por- 
tion, soon after called France; Louis 
the German took the countries on 
the east of the Rhine which came to 
be known as Germany; while Lo- 
thair received the crown as Emperor 
together with Italy and the "Middle 
Kingdom," the latter consisting of 
the narrow strip between the king- 
doms of his two brothers and ex- 



tending from Italy to the North Sea. 
This treaty thus marks the beginning 
of the three nations: France, Ger- 
many, and Italy. 

After the death of Lothair strife 
arose concerning his lands which be- 
came the bone of contention between 
the French and the Germans from 
that day to this. Lothair's name sur- 
vives in the name Lorraine (Ger- 
man: Lothringen). Charles the 
Bald held Lorraine for a few years 
after Lothair's death, but Louis the 
German obtained Alsace, Treves, 
Metz, Friesland, and Lorraine in the 
Treaty of Mersen, 870, and still 
more of Lothair's lands nine years 
later in the Treaty of Verdun-Ribe- 
mont. Alsace-Lorraine remained 
under German rule for seven hun- 
dred years, until France, taking ad- 
vantage of Germany's weakness 
aftei- the Thirty Years' war, between 
1648 and 1681 appropriated this sec- 
tion. In 1871 the Germans recov- 
ered Alsace-Lorraine, maintaining 
that they simply took back what was 
rightfully theirs. 

Not only the lands of Lorraine 
eventually passed under German 
control but also the imperial crown. 
King Otto I. of Germany conquered 
Italy and was crowned Emperor by 
the Pope at Rome, in the year 962, 
thus instituting the Holy Roman 
Empire of the German Nation. For 
the next few centuries Otto's suc- 
cessors regularly, after having been 
elected king of Germany by the 
nobles, made .the trip across the 
Alps, to add to their German crown 
the crown of king of Italy and the 
imperial crown which latter could be 
conferred only by the Pope at Rome. 
This union of Germany and Italy 
proved detrimental to the interests of 
each country. It meant to the Ger- 
man King only an increase of glory 
rather than of power. It encour- 
aged disorder in both countries and 
contributed much to their eventual 
disintegration. When the Emperor 
was in Italy his nobles in Germany 
would seize the occasion to rebel; 
when he was in Germany the Italian 
cities would start a revolt. Had the 
German rulers remained at home they 
might have kept their nobles under 
control and instituted a strong cen- 
tral government as did the kings of 
England and France. By attempt- 
ing to hold together a vast realm 
.with many diverse nationalities that 
could not be assimilated, the emper- 
ors eventually became rulers in 
name only. Many of them such as 
the three Ottos, Frederick Barba- 
rossa, and Frederick II. were men of 
extraordinary ability, but the forces 
that made for disunion were too 
strong to be overcome even by them. 

The strongest of the disintegrat- 
ing forces with which the German 
rulers had to contend was the tribal 
division of the German people. The 
Bavarian felt that he was first a Ba- 
varian and only secondarily a Ger- 
man. The same was true of the 



other tribes. Local patriotism mili- 
tated against national patriotism in 
the same manner as among the 
Greek cities, among the various In- 
dian tribes in America, and among 
the American colonies. This partic- 
ularism has not been entirely over- 
come to this day and tended to pre- 
vent the unification of Germany 
more than any other infiuence. It 
was intensified by the spirit of Indi- 
vidualism which has always charac- 
terized the Germans, as well as by 
the separate political organization of 
each tribe. The kings of France and 
England found the task of consoli- 
dation so much easier, because their 
subjects were more homogeneous. 

Disunion was likewise fostered in 
Germany by the feudal system, es- 
pecially since the great fiefs came to 
coincide with the old tribal divisions. 
The German nobles had a golden op- 
portunity of wresting privilege after 
privilege from the king, all the more 
so because they had the power to 
elect a new king and might condi- 
tion their support of his candidacy 
upon his making concessions to them. 
The kings of France and England 
ruled by hereditary right and were 
therefore far less dependent upon 
the nobles. For all these reasons 
Germany became more and more 
hopelessly disintegrated, while in 
England and France strong central- 
ized governments developed as early 
as the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 
turies. 

The Rule of the Hapsburgs. 

During the Interregnum (1250- 
1273) foreign princes without influ- 
ence contested the imperial title 
which now seemed almost worthless. 
The Interregnum was brought to an 
end by the election of Rudolph of 
Hapsburg who wisely refrained from 
mixing in Italian affairs and curbed 
the German nobles with an iron 
hand. Rudolph had been chosen 
king because he seemed the least 
formidable of all candidates, for his 
family at that time had only small 
possessions in Alsace and Switzer- 
land. Rudolph's great energy and 
ability proved a surprise to the 
nobles who became uneasy at the 
growing power of the Hapsburgs 
and therefore preferred, after his 
death, to elect their rulers from the 
Luxemburg family. After the year 
1437, however, the Hapsburgs once 
more came into power and remained 
in control from that time until the 
overthrow of the Holy Roman Em- 
pire in 1806. 

Realizing that the imperial crown 
conferred but little actual power, 
since the German princes had now 
become almost independent of the 
emperor and regarded him merely as 
a sort of over-lord who was ruler 
in name only, the Hapsburg rulers 
now began to make conquests out- 
side of the Empire in Hungary, Aus- 
tria, Styria, and elsewhere, thus 
building up what they called their 
house-lands. Here they could do as 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



they pleased for these possessions 
were under their immediate rule. 
They conquered more and more terri- 
tory from Slavs, Magyars, Chechs 
and other nationalities, until their 
authority and power in the house- 
lands far exceeded that within the 
Empire. Thus they became untrue 
to their trust as German rulers and 
Germany suffered from their neglect 
and became more and more hope- 
lessly split up into petty principali- 
ties, secular and ecclestiastical, the 
heads of which did practically what 
they pleased. 

The tragic effects of this condition 
manifested themselves especially 
during the period of the Reforma- 
tion, in the early part of the six- 
teenth century. This movement was 
the greatest of all the products of 
the German spirit. It shook the Ger- 
man nation as that nation had never . 
been shaken before. The eyes of the 
world were now centered upon Ger- 
many. The monk of Wittenberg be- 
came the greatest German of all 
times. Under proper leadership the 
Germans might then have become a 
united nation and might have ac- 
complished what did not take place 
until 1871. But, unluckily, Ger- 
many was ruled at that time by a 
man who did not understand the 
German people, because he was more 
of a Spaniard than a German, and 
because Germany was only one of 
the many lands under his scepter. 
The Emperor Charles V. built up a 
great empire and became the most 
famous of all the Hapsburg rulers, 
but Germany lost an opportunity 
that was not to present itself again 
until over three hundred years later, 
simply because Charles failed to see 
this opportunity. He ruled over 
Spain, the Netherlands, most of Italy, 
as well as over Austria and Germany. 
Had he been a German ruler exclu- 
sively, he would have placed himself 
at the head of the nation, over- 
thrown the princes and nobles, and 
successfully completed the union of 
the German principalities into one 
great state. 

Unfortunately, the policy which 
Charles V. adopted, instead of uni- 
fying Germany, split her up still fur- 
ther by adding to the other forces of 
disunion that of religious division. 
Some of the states became Lutheran 
or Calvinist, while th^ rest remained 
Catholic. During the terrible Thirty 
Years' War Germany became the 
battling ground of all Europe. The 
disastrous effects of this long war 
were not overcome for one hundred 
and fifty years. After the Treaty of 
Westphalia in 1648, the map of Ger- 
many looked like a crazy quilt made 
of hundreds of different patches. 
Some of these German principalities 
were almost microscopic in size. Yet 
in each one the power of the prince 
was practically absolute. The Em- 
pire had become a farce, although 
the name was kept up until 1806. 

Napoleon rendered one undeniable 
service to Germany: he simplified 
her map. He rewarded his faithful 
vassals among the German princes by 
giving them every now and then ad- 
ditional patches of territory. The 



House of Hapsburg was either too 
powerless or too indifferent to pre- 
vent these changes. Whenever de- 
feated by Napoleon, the Hapsburgs 
preferred to sacrifice German terri- 
tory rather than their house-lands. 
The changes made in Germany by 
Napoleon were so numerous that the 
Holy Roman Empire was dissolved. 
In 1806 the Roman Emperor Francis 
II. dropped his old title and called 
himself Francis I., Emperor of Aus- 
tria. Germany was now a conglom- 
eration of many principalities, with- 
out a real head. Austria still main- 
tained a certain leadership over the 
German states, but her own em- 
pire represented such a chaotic mix- 
ture of nationalities that her influ- 
ence became more and more in- 
jurious and hindered any tendency 
toward unification in Germany. In 
the very nature of the case the di- 
verse interests of Austria made her 
unfit to be the champion of German 
interests. If the German states were 
ever to be united some other leader 
must appear. Clearly this had to be 
a state whose interests were purely 
German. There was no other so fit 
to play this part as Prussia. 

The Rise of Prussia. 

The nucleus from which the King- 
dom of Prussia developed was the 
Duchy of Brandenburg which, under 
House of Hohenzollern, had since 
the able rule of the princes of the 
the tenth century, through steady 
additions of territory and the hus- 
banding of its limited resources, be- 
come more and more prominent. 
The duke of Brandenburg was one 
of the seven electors to whom since 
the twelfth century belonged the 
right of choosing the Emperor. Prus- 
sia was originally a small territory 
along the Baltic, conquered by the 
Teutonic Knights in the thirteenth 
century and by them won for Chris- 
tianity and Germanic culture. The 
Introduction of the Reformation into 
Prussia had led to the dissolution of 
the order of Teutonic Knights. In 
1618 Prussia came under the rule of 
the House of Hohenzollern. It was 
at that time separated from Branden- 
burg by a broad expanse of territory. 
The Great Elector Frederick Wil- 
liam, by securing Pomerania in the 
Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, and 
by winning additional territory from 
the Swedes in 1675, rounded out his 
lands and made his territory con- 
tinuous. Through great internal re- 
forms and the perfection of his army, 
the Elector Frederick William laid 
the foundations of a great state and 
mapped out a policy which his sue- ' 
cessors followed with singular ten- 
acity and success. In 1702 his son, 
Frederick I, took the title King of 
Prussia. When Frederick the Second, 
afterwards called "the Great," as- 
cended the throne in 1740, he found 
himself at the head of a compact and 
prosperous state with a well-filled 
treasury and an army second to none 
In Europe. 

Under the rule of Frederick the 
Great, Prussia became one of the 
five great powers of Europe and dur- 
ing the Seven Years' War, from 
1756-63, was able to hold her own 



against the combined powers of Rus- 
sia, France, Austria, and Saxony 
which had formed a conspiracy to 
dismember her. It was by her mili- 
tary strength alone that Prussia es- 
caped the fate of Poland. Open on 
all sides to invasion and surrounded 
by jealous foes, she could save her- 
self from destruction and work out 
her destiny only by the maintenance 
of a strong army. 

Not only as a general but also as 
a statesman Frederick the Great 
ranks with the greatest men in his- 
tory. The reforms he instituted 
were widely praised and imitated. 
He became the type of a benevolent 
despot. His statement, "The King is 
the first servant of the State," shows 
his devotion to the welfare of Prus. 
sia.* But while he did everything 
with an eye to the good of the people, 
his system was paternal. He did not 
give the people a share in the govern- 
ment. Though he believed in liberty 
of thought and in religious freedom, 
he did not believe in democracy. 
There was no other state, however, 
in which the people were so well 
cared for as in Prussia. 

It was Napoleon who brought 
upon Prussia the greatest reverse 
she ever experienced. When his at- 
tempts to make her his ally were un- 
successful, he determined to cripple 
her so that he would not need to fear 
her. He goaded her into war, and 
after his great victories at Jena, 
Eylau, and Friedland imposed upon 
her in 1809 the crushing terms of 
the peace of Tilsit. He took from 
her half her territory, forced her to 
pay an enormous war contribution 
of 150,000,000 francs, but really 
pressed out of the people two bil- 
lions, and would not permit her to 
have an army of more than 40,000 
men. Indeed, Napoleon would have 
annexed Prussia entirely, had it not 
been for the intervention of Czar 
Alexander who had been the ally of 
Frederick William III and whom 
Napoleon was at that time anxious 
to please in order that he might 
form an alliance with him. 

Prussia never forgot the bleeding 
which Napoleon administered to her. 
Certainly no conquered nation had 
ever suffered greater Injury from the 
iron fist of the conqueror than she 
did from that of Napoleon. 

Yet Prussia was never so great as 
in the days of her deepest humilia- 
tion. Phoenixlike, a regenerated 
Prussia emerged from the ashes of 
the Napoleonic conflagration. 

The very greatness of Frederick 
the Great's system was the cause of 
Prussia's debacle after his death. 
Prussia was like a complicated ma- 
chine that only the great engineer 
Frederick could operate. Benevo- 
lent despotism broke down under a 
mediocre king. It was necessary to 
call on the people to help regenerate 
Prussia. Momentous reforms were 
now instituted by Frederick William 
III in the interval between 1809 and 
1813, the king being advised and as- 
sisted by such men as Baron vom 
Stein, Hardenberg, Boyen, Scharn- 



*Emphasized by the Editor of War 
Echoes. 



GERMANY IN SOCIAL-POLITICAL EVOLUTION 



horst, Gneisenau and others. Serfdom 
was abolished. In the municipalities 
government was put in the hands of 
the people. Above all, the army was 
now reformed and made a thoroughly 
democratic institution by Boyen and 
Scharnhorst who became the fathers 
of the German military system of 
today. Compulsory military service 
made the army the nation in arms. 
The peasant's son now served along- 
side of the son of the prince. No 
one able to serve was exempt. 
Ability, knowledge, and bravery were 
made the only titles to advance- 



ment. All the able-bodied men were 
trained. While there could not be 
more than 40,000 men in the army 
at any one time, because Napoleon 
so ordered, each installment was 
drilled night and day and then dis- 
missed to make room for new re- 
cruits. As in the days of the Great 
Elector, of Frederick William I, and 
of Frederick the Great, there was a 
deep conviction that Prussia's wel- 
fare depended upon her army. When 
the moment came to strike she was 
ready. A storm of patriotic enthusi- 
asm swept through Prussia after Na- 



poleon's defeat in Russia. The Prus- 
sia of 1813 seemed a radically dif- 
erent state from the Prussia of 1807. 
This transformation was due to the 
popularization of her institutions, es- 
pecially of her army. This was the 
birth of Prussian militarism. It was 
the people of Prussia that backed 
the movement. It was Prussian 
militarism which in large measure 
brought about the overthrow of Na- 
poleon and won the battle of Water- 
loo. In that great battle England 
furnished the general, but Prussia 
furnished the men. 



Anti-Macchiavelliism and the New Civilization 
How will the Historian Settle Accounts with the Nations at War 

BY THE EDITOR OF WAR ECHOES 



The remainder of Dr. Scherger's 
excellent sketch of the vital incidents 
in Prussia and Germany in the Making, 
follows immediately after this discus- 
sion on Diplomacy as adopted and 
practiced by the rising Prussia under 
i'rederick the Great, bringing out 
" more in detail some of the important 
events sketched by Dr. Scherger. 

I am especially interested in a bet- 
ter understanding of this changed or- 
der of things in European politics as 
later exemplified by the notoriously 
infamous MacchiavelU and Talley- 
rand statecraft, dating very definitely 
all the vFay back to the ardent ad- 
mirer of the reformers, especially 
liuther — the Election of Saxony, 
Frederick "The Wise" — ^who prom- 
ised protection to Iiuther when he 
was threatened to be given to the 
flames, to meet the fate of his col- 
leagues in France, England, Spain, 
Italy and elsewhere! That the great- 
est German and the one who has had 
more to do with a modern interpreta- 
tion of Christianity than perhaps any 
other reformer, was not given to the 
flames as were his associates, we owe 
to the early Prussian principle of 
common sense and directness in di- 
plomacy and universal, practical edu- 
cation! That these principles Were 
cherished by the young Elector was 
not an accident, but was to be ex- 



pected from the leaders of the Ger- 
man people, in view of their leader- 
ship and in new thought and prog- 
ress long before the time of liUther. 
This also accounts for the magnifi- 
cent record of the Teutonic peoples 
in regard to Anarchy, Rebellion, Re- 
ligious and other Persecution, and 
Revolution. No European nation has 
such a record on this score as Ger- 
many and the other Germanic peo- 
ples. Take for illustration the Dutch 
at the hands of Spain! The "Heret- 
ics" that went up in flames in Eng- 
land, France and Italy! 

I promise my good readers that I 
shall analyse in a future effort this 
most glaring parallel between the 
present European struggle, following 
the breaking down of autocracy and 
a pseudo-democracy in ignorance, of 
some of the nations at war, the 
masses sympathising with the ivrong 
alignment, as usual, and as history 
proves to us from the time of the 
Reformation; well-meaning, but ig- 
norant, and slavishly directed, they 
opposed the marvelous thought and 
work of the Reformers, at that time 
— and later, the results of their la- 
bors, by force; at that time it was a 
question of an understanding of 
Christianity in the light of a mod- 
em, a New Civilization, approjdmately 
from the years of 1450 to 1550, 
when the work of the Reformers be- 



gan to bear fruit in some of the Eu- 
ropean countries, but it is very note- 
worthy that precious meagre was this 
harvest among non-Teutonic peoples, 
where the most courageous of the 
Reformers were generally given to 
the flames without mercy. 

Now it is a question of fighting 
for stupid, inefficient, self-seeking 
pseudo-democracy and commerce, as 
against an intelligent, efficient, dis- 
interested, centralized, socialistic 
government, of which Germany is un- 
questionably the leading exponent, 
an understanding and appreciation of 
which in behalf of Progress, the mil- 
lions upon millions of her enemies 
are as innocent as the average Rus- 
sian or Turco now fighting Germany 
is of Civilization! 

Should it come to the worst for 
Germany, after all, which does not 
seem likely at present, I assure you 
that we shall see another (rusto/vus 
Adolphus coming to the rescue of the 
New Principle to be defended by force 
in the SOth Century, if need be, 
as was the New Principle of a Mod- 
ern Interpretation of the Great Chris- 
tian Idealism in the 16th Century 
finally defended by force by the same 
Teutonic Europe, leading to Victory 
on the field as well as at home, mak- 
ing for greater justice, equity, and 
speedier progress! — The Editor of 
War Echoes. 



ANTI-MACGHIAVEIiliUSM AND 
THE WAR. 

This is the seventh article of a 
series on THE EUROPEAN WAR, 
which a-ppea/red in the October num- 
ber of THE OPEN COURT, imder 
the title "Anti-MacchiavelU," written 
dy the Editor, Dr. Paul CarUs. 

Consult the INDEX for the cowr 
plete series, and, in order to see where, 
in the various Chapters of the took, 
the different articles of this treatise 
may 6e found, IboTc for EUROPEAN 
WAR (THE). In this way the reader 
m,wy read the entire series of articles 
in their original order, if he chooses 
to do so, while the present arrange- 
ment still gives him the advantage of 
bringing the various articles under 
their proper, respective Chapter-head- 
ings of the book. 



This is a series of exceptionally fine 
articles on the subject in question, and 
they bear a unique and im/portant re- 
lation to each other. Be sure to read 
them also in their original order. — 
Editor, "War Echoes." 

Some centuries ago statecraft was 
deemed an intricate and profound 
science and was assumed to have an 
ethics of its own. The men in power 
were either voluptuaries by God's 
grace or crafty intriguers, and the 
principles which guided the latter, 
the successful princes, were pre- 
sented by Macchiavelli (1469-1527) 
in a book entitled "II Principe," 
which has been, and in certain circles 
is still regarded as the primer of 
statecraft, and every statesman was 
expected to follow its precepts. 



According to Macchiavelli a prince 
should keep up quarrels between the 
factions of his own state in order to 
preserve his dominion, and he should 
also stir up war between other states 
in order to profit by the difficulties 
and perplexities thus caused; or as 
the Latin formula runs : Divide et 
impera, that is to say. Cause dis- 
sensions and keep the balance of 
power. 

A piece of practical statecraft in 
perfect agreement with Macchiavelli's 
unscrupulous maxims, is preserved 
in the testament of Peter the Great* 
from which we will here reproduce 
a few specimens to show our readers 
what it means to support Russia and 
how little any one can rely on RuS- 



•1725.t 

tSee Jourdaln in the Index for the 
complete Reference. — Editor. 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



sian faith. The clauses 9-11 read 
thus: 

"Clause 9. — Russia must inces- 
santly extend herself toward the 
north along the Baltic Sea, and to- 
ward the south along the Black Sea. 
Our kingdom must advance as far 
as possible toward Constantinople 
and the East Indies. Whoever shall 
reign here will be the true master of 
the world. Therefore we must ex- 
cite continual wars, sometimes with 
Turkey; sometimes with Persia; cre- 
ate dockyards on the Black Sea; take 
possession, little by little, of that 
sea, as well as of the Baltic, which is 
a point doubly necessary for the suc- 
cess of the project; we must hasten 
the downfall of Persia; penetrate as 
far as the Persian Gulf; re-establish, 
if possible, the ancient commerce of 
the Levant through Syria; and ad- 
vance as far as the Indies, which is 
the emporium of the world. When 
once there we can do without the 
gold of England. 

"Clause 10. — Russia must carefully 
seek and keep up the alliance with 
Austria; apparently second her de- 
sign for future domination over Ger- 
many; and we must excite underhand 
against her a jealousy of the princes. 
We must incite each and all of these 
to seek succor from Russia, and exer- 
cise a sort of protection over the 
country, which may prepare our 
future domination. 

"Clause 11. — ^We must interest the 
House of Austra in the expulsion of 
the Turk from Europe, and neutral- 
ize her jealousy after the conquest 
of the conquest, to retake it from 
a war between her and the old states 
of Europe, or by giving up her part 
of the conquest, to retake it from 
her afterward." 

The last will and testament of 
Peter the Great, proposing the plan 
to expand Russian influence, to Rus- 
sify the whole world, and make the 
Czar supreme on earth, is Russia's 
sacred heirloom, but Russia accepted 
also the Triple Entente, not with ain 
idea of benefiting England or Prance, 
but because she discovered a plan of 
thus using France and England for 
the enhancement of the grand Rus- 
sian ideal. How shortsighted was 
Edward VII not to understand the 
situation, nor to suspect that he gave 
Russia a chance to further the Czar's 
ambitions! 

Russian policy has been and will 
continue to be directed mainly 
against England, and the English 
know it; but the recent fear of grow- 
ing Germany caused Edward VII to 
form the Triple Entente, a coalition 



based on Macchiavelli's principles of 
statecraft. English people are hon- 
est, but they do not seem to realize 
that the English government is 
guided by the policy of Macchiavelli, 
that they are befriending a dangerous 
enemy with which they will later 
have to reckon. 

In the thirties of the eighteenth 
century, a new view of statecraft, first 
proclaimed anonymously under the 
title "Anti-Macchiavelli," proposed 
the principle that a prince would hold 
his own best if he performed his 
duty, if he made himself indispensa- 
ble to his subjects by giving them the 
best possible service, and soon the 
secret leaked out that the author of 
the tract was Frederick, the brilliant 
young crown prince of Prussia. The 
news created a sensation in the Euro- 
pean courts, for Prussia, a small up- 
start state of Germany, had just 
aroused wide-spread suspicion on ac- 
count of its vigorous militarism. But 
now all fear was allayed; the world 
became convinced that the Prussian 
crown prince was a visionary; he 
loved art and science and manifested 
literary — especially French literary — ■ 
interests; he believed in honesty in 
politics; he wished to be honest to 
other states and also to his own sub- 
jects, and indeed, in his later life as 
a king, he regarded himself as the 
first servant of the state, "le premier 
domestique de V6tat. How silly that 
principle must have appeared to the 
admirers of the grand and pompous 
Louis XIV, who is reported to have 
said "L'itat c'est moif" 

It is noteworthy, however, that 
Frederick's principle of honesty in 
statecraft included militarism in the 
proper sense of the term, i. e., the 
obligation to keep a country in a 
state of strong defense and to be 
prepared to fight enemies who might 
grudge its growth and attack it. The 
first act of his government consisted 
in maintaining his claim to Silesia 
in two wars against Austria. 

In 1756 Austria, Russia, France 
and the German empire united to 
crush him and wipe Prussia from the 
face of the earth. The situation 
seemed absolutely hopeless for the 
young king. How could he defend 
himself against the whole world? 

At that time Saxony was implicated 
in the alliance, and so Frederick 
broke the neutrality of Saxony be- 
cause he saw the necessity of an- 
ticipating the crushing onslaught of 
his enemies. The result is known. 
He remained victor, and history 
honors him by calling him Frederick 
the Great. There is no need to tell 



the story of his life, his difficulties, 
his occasional defeats and his final 
triumph. 

The spirit of Frederick the Great 
has not yet died out; on the con- 
trary it has grown; it spread all over 
Germany; it founded the German 
empire and it animates the German 
people of to-day. It Is Frederick's 
spirit which is now branded by the 
enemies of Germany as "militarism." 

The Kaiser's idea that he is king 
of Prussia and emperor of Germany 
by God's grace may be based on an 
antiquated and superstitious notion 
of his divine dignity, but we must 
grant he interprets it in the sense 
that as king and emperor he is re- 
sponsible to God for his government 
and even the Social Democrats do 
not doubt that he acts according to 
his conscience. 



Anti-Macchiavelli. 

And here is Mr. Jourdain's reply to 
the Editor's discussion of this subject. — 
Editor of War Echoes, 

The Editor quotes a few clauses from 
the testament of Peter the Great, who 
ruled from 1689 to 1725, "to show our 
readers what it means to support Rus- 
sia and how little any one can rely on 
Russian faith."= The dates alone make 
this contention precarious ; one could 
as soon attribute to M. Poincarg the 
ruling ideas of Louis XIV, or to King 
George V the methods and aims of 
James II. To counterbalance Peter 
the Great's "testament" the Editor 
draws attention to Frederick the 
Great's "Anti-]\Iacchiavelll,"' issued by 
Voltaire at the Hague in 1740, and con- 
taining not Frederick's own ideas but 
a reflection of the generous French 
philosophy of the eighteenth century 
respecting the duty of sovereigns, which 
may be summed up in the sentence: 
"The prince is not the absolute master 
but only the first servant of the peo- 
ple." It is however worthy of note 
that the great Frederick who joined in 
the partition of Poland was no believer 
in honesty in politics. Of statecraft 
popularly called Macchiavelllan I have 
found the most remarkable expressions 
in German authors such as Bernhardl, 
who in speaking of Germany's future' 
war with France, says "As soon as we 
are ready to fight, our statesmen must 
so shuffle the cards that France shall 
appear to be the aggressor,'" — a sen- 
tence that might have been written by 
the ingenious author of "II Principe." 



pub- 



»"Ibid," p. 620.' 

'"Ibid.," p. 621. 

^ "Germany and the Next War,' 
llshed in 1911. 

"■•Ibid.," p. 280. 

■• See Jourdain in Index for complete 
Reference. — Editor. 



The E\x)lution of the Oerman Empire, 
Continued, 

Germany and the Holy Alliance. 

The government of Prussia did not 
keep faith with the people after the 
overthrow of Napoleon by granting 
constitutional government, but it 
joined Austria and Russia as a mem- 
ber of the infamous Holy Alliance 
and thereby entered upon a policy of 
reaction. Metternich, the Austrian 
minister of foreign affairs, was the 



moving spirit of the Holy Alliance 
and as such became the evil genius 
of Europe for the next thirty years. 
Especially baneful was his influence 
over the princes of the German states 
who readily adopted his system. The 
darkness of the Middle Ages seemed 
to have settled down upon Germany 
after 1815. The press was placed 
under the strictest" censorship. Even 
the universities which had always 
prized their Lehrfreiheit and Lerrv- 
freiheit were supervised, because the 



liberal ideas had taken hold especial- 
ly of the sudent organizations or Bur- 
schenschaften. Every manifestation 
of liberalism in Germany was at 
once crushed. Thus the people were 
cheated out of the promise which 
had been made by the Articles of 
Confederation of 1815, that consti- 
tutions should be granted as soon as 
practicable to the various German 
states which had in that year formed 
a loose union. Karl August of Wei- 
mar, the friend and patron of Goethe 






GofeboF'/rt, 







GOTUCnd 
iLAND 

'h^ (^ A Gof 

3 BORNHOLM ^_,,-,.~^<3nz/9 



^fi^'jf^ \ ^ „.._,/> Lodz 








CENTRAL EUROPE 

(From "The Navy," Waahington, September. 1914) 



GERMANY IN SOCIAL- POLITICAL EVOLUTION 




MONUMENT OF THE BATTLE OF LEIPSIC 

(By Courtesy of the "Open Court") 



and Schiller, had granted constitu- 
tional government to his people in 
1816; Baden and Bavaria in 1818; 
Wiirtemberg in 1819; but Prussia 
would not imitate their example and 
thus failed to seize the opportunity 
of placing herself at the head of the 
reform movement. Only very slowly, 
as a result of the revolutionary 
movements of 1830 and 1848, did 
Prussia and the other German states 
gradually yield to the liberal move- 
ment. In 1851 the new Prussian 
constitution went into effect. That 
state was now prepared to take up 
its mission of bringing about a unifi- 
cation of the German states under 
her leadership. 

Austria, however, blocked the way. 
Even after the dissolution of the 
Holy Roman Empire, in 1806, the 
German princes looked to Austria as 
their leader. 

The national uprising which had re- 
sulted in the overthrow of Napoleon 
had everywhere in Europe kindled a 
new patriotism and a new interest in 
the history of each nation. Nowhere 



was this growth of the historical 
spirit or the interest in the past 
stronger than in Germany. It is not 
to be wondered at that the people 
took up the unification idea with as 
much enthusiasm as they made the 
demand for liberal government. The 
leader in this movement for the for- 
mation of a strong and united Ger- 
many was the famous Baron vom 
Stein. However, nothing came of 
this save the formation of a loose 
Confederation of the German states, 
known as the Deutsche Bund, with 
an organization somewhat like that 
of the American Confederation before 
1787. Each state retained its sov- 
ereignty. The Parliament meeting 
at Frankfort had little authority to 
enforce its decrees. There were 38 
members of the union. Austria was 
the chairman. They were separated 
by tariff walls. The entire creation 
had feet of clay. 

The revolutionary movement of 
1848 took hold of the German states 
and led to the calling of a National 
Assembly the members of which were 



elected by the people and met in the 
Paulskirche at Frankfort, May 18, 
1848. Archduke John of Austria 
was chosen imperial regent and ap- 
pointed a ministry to carry on the 
administration. A declaration of 
rights and a constitution were dis- 
cussed which gave the theorists a 
fine opportunity to waste much time 
discussing abstract principles. The 
new political structure was to have 
as its cornerstone the principle of the 
sovereignty of the people. Provi- 
sion was made for the vesting of the 
executive in an hereditary emperor, 
and this office was tendered to King 
Frederick William IV. Though a 
great scholar, the Prussian king was 
weak and conservative. He dis- 
trusted popular movements and 
doubted whether the National As- 
sembly really possessed the authority 
to confer power upon him. More- 
over, he was averse to offending 
Austria, so he refused the offer and 
declared against the new constitu- 
tion. The whole unification move- 
ment thus came to naught for the 
time being. Once more Austria had 
her way. The old diet was again 
instituted and the system of Metter- 
nich was re-established, though only 
for a moment. This much progress 
had, however, been made: Prussia 
had obtained a constitution in 1851 
and she was from this time on re- 
garded as the nucleus of all future 
hopes in the unification movement. 

The Customs Union. 

In the meantime Prussia had 
taken important steps in bringing 
about an economic union which did 
much to prepare the way for an ulti- 
mate political unification. In 1828 
a customs union was entered into 
with Hessen-Darmstadt, also in 1829 
with Bavaria and Wiirtemberg. Jan- 
uary 1, 1834, the German Zollverein 
went into effect which secured free 
trade to all its members, so that 
there were no duties levied on goods 
passing from one state of the Union 
to another. The advantages of this 
arrangement were so apparent that 
state after state entered it. This 
gave a great impetus to the move- 
ment for political unification. Inas- 
much as Prussia had taken the lead, 
the smaller states began more and 
more to look to her as their head. 

Accession of William I. 

A new era in Prussia began with 
the regency of Prince William who 
took charge of affairs when his bro- 
ther, Frederick William IV, became 
insane in 1858, and who became king 
in 1861 at the death of his brother. 
The new king was not as brilliant a 
scholar as his predecessor but he was 
a practical statesman. He had spent 
many years in the army. He was 
not a doctrinaire but combined pli- 
ability and steadfastness of char- 
acter. Never attempting the impos- 
sible, never chasing after phantoms, 
he knew how to adapt himself to a 
change of conditions. Besides, he 
possessed a deep insight into human 
nature and was very quick to detect 
ability in others and thus select the 
right men to help him carry out his 
plans. 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



Especially Important was, in Sep- 
tember, 1862, his selection of Bis- 
marck as minister-president of Prus- 
sia. His choice was violently criti- 
cized at the time, for Bismarck was 
almost universally misjudged. Most 
people considered him a reactionary 
of the most pronounced type. Even 
the great historian Max Duncker 
called him a gambler who was stak- 
ing the very existence of Prussia. 
Never did a man suffer greater criti- 
cism and opposition than Bismarck 
did throughout his career. The 
greatest statesman Germany ever 
produced could not have maintained 
himself for a moment had he been 
dependent upon the support of the 
people. It was only the unfaltering 
support of King William I that held 
him in power and enabled him to 
carry to completion his wonderful 
work. The friendship between the 
king and Bismarck was as beautiful 
as that of Damon and Pythias or of 
Epaminondas and Pelopidas. 

Bismarck's Program. 

Bismarck's political program was 
laid out from the beginning of his 
career as a statesman, and he never 
faltered in his undertaking or 
swerved from his course. He aimed 
at bringing about the unification of 
the German states under Prussian 
leadership. Austria had shown for 
centuries that she was unable to uni- 
fy Germany; in fact, it was only too 
evident that she had tried to keep 
Germany weak and to subordinate 
her to her other dynastic interests. 
Austria must therefore be forced out 
of German affairs in order that Prus- 
sia's way might be clear. Bismarck 
knew that this question could not be 
settled by treaties or persuasion but 
only by "blood and iron." He 
deemed the blessings to be attained 
to be worth the cost. Just as the 
American republic could not come in- 
to existence without the War of the 
Revolution; and just as it could not 
be saved from disruption without the 
Civil War, Bismarck realized that the 
opposition against the formation of 
a German Empire under Prussian 
leadership necessitated war. And for 
this war Prussia must be ready. 

Never did a statesman have a 
more complicated problem to solve 
than did Bismarck. With wonderful 
clearness of vision he was able to 
comprehend this problem in all its 
phases. He knew not only what 
should be done but also understood 
how to do it. His strength of will 
was as great as his insight. Only a 
man of titanic might could become 
the smith who was able to weld the 
many states into one great empire. 

Prussian Militarism. 

For the fourth time in Prussian 
history the necessity of military pre- 
paredness became evident, if the vi- 
tal interests of the state were to be 
furthered. As the Great Elector 
knew that the disjecta membra of his 
dominions, scattered between the 
Rhine and the Vistula, could become 
a real state and thus be delivered 
from the misery of constant friction 
only by building up a strong army; 
as Frederick William I and Frederick 
the Great realized that Prussia, sur- 



rounded on all sides by jealous and 
rapacious neighbors waiting, like 
hungry wolves, for an opportunity to 
fall upon their prey, could save her- 
self only by means of her army; as 
Frederick William III realized that 
Prussia could throw off the iron yoke 
of Napoleon only by regenerating her 
army; so now again, William I in- 
stinctively felt that the interests of 
Prussia were bound up with those of 
all Germany and that these interests 
could be furthered only by a reorgan- 
ization of the army. Not only Aus- 
tria but all Europe would sooner or 
later oppose the formation of a 
strong German Empire, for they had 
for centuries profited from her weak- 
ness and made her the battle ground 
of Europe. It may be said in this 
connection in the light of present 
occurrences that for a fifth time, if 
the Germans are to be saved, it will 
be because of their army. The fore- 
sight of William I and Bismarck not 
only pertained to the period from 
1861 to 1871, but it has been justi- 
fied by the occurrences of 1914. As 
the neighbors of Germany tried to 
keep her divided for ages, so today, 
realizing what an irresistible power 
has come to her through her unifica- 
tion, they have combined to crush 
her. Without her army she would 
have to beg for mercy. Today she 
is able to accept the challenge of the 
most formidable combination that 
has ever been entered into against 
any state. If ever military prepared- 
ness has been justified by its fruits 
it is ill Germany. Anywhere else so- 
called "militarism" would have had 
no other purpose save that of aggres- 
sion. For Germany it has consti- 
tuted to this day the only possibility 
of existence. 

Today every German realizes what 
his country owes to the army and is 
prepared to bring any sacrifice to 
maintain its efficiency. It is not 
a thing set against himself but 
something of which he is a part. 
When Bismarck in 18 62 undertook to 
reorganize the Prussian army nobody 
but he and the king realized what a 
blessing this army was destined to 
be. Bismarck could strengthen the 
army only by opposing the Prussian 
Parliament and by making himself 
guilty of a breach of the constitution 
by raising a loan on his own initia- 
tive. The fury of the attack launched 
against him by his antagonists was 
unbounded. He was the most un- 
popular man in Prussia. 

The SchlesAvig-HoIstein Aflfair. 

Bismarck had to wait only two 
years to see his policy bear fruit and 
to receive at least a small measure 
of praise for his foresight. In 1864 
war was declared by the Confeder- 
ation of German states against Den- 
mark for trying to absorb the two 
German provinces of Schleswig and 
Holstein to which she had no right, 
having been bound to them only in 
a personal union as Hannover had 
been bound to England since the 
days of George I. Prussia joined 
hands with Austria in attacking 
Denmark. The war was short. The 
Prussian army distinguished itself at 
Diippel and Alsen. Denmark sued 
for peace by relinquishing Schleswig- 
Holstein. 



The Seven Weeks' War W^ith 
Austria. 

Bismarck's plan of getting Austria 
and Prussia to co-operate in the 
Schleswig-Holstein affair was a mas- 
ter-stroke of diplomacy. His hope 
that it would lead to difficulties and 
thereby necessitate a final under- 
standing with Austria regarding 
Prussia's German policy was fully 
realized. In the Treaty of Gastein 
it was agreed that the newly liber- 
ated provinces should be jointly ad- 
ministered by both powers, Prussia 
taking charge of the affairs of Schles- 
wig, while Austria took in hand the 
administration of Holstein. Discord 
was bound to come out of this ar- 
rangement. The two systems were 
so different that misunderstandings 
were inevitable. Austria began to 
work against Prussia. While Aus- 
tria had no desire to annex any of 
this territory, she did not want Prus- 
sia to have it either and therefore 
began to think of turning over the 
provinces to the Prince of Augusten- 
burg to whom Prussia was much op- 
posed. Prussia insisted that, inas- 
much as Schleswig-Holstein was con- 
tiguous to her own territory, she 
must safeguard her own interests 
since the Prince of Augustenburg was 
anti-Prussian in sentiment. Both 
sides now prepared for war. 

The Emperor Napoleon III prom- 
ised to permit Austria and Prussia to 
fight the matter out without the in- 
terference of France, intimating that 
France would expect Prussia to allow 
her to appropriate Belgium or some 
other territory on the left bank of the 
Rhine as a reward for his neutrality. 
No definite agreement, however, was 
made on this point and subsequently 
Bismarck was able to say truthfully 
that he had made no promise. Cer- 
tainly Bismarck here outwitted Na- 
poleon, who regarded himself as the 
greatest diplomat in Europe, and not 
only secured an open hand in the 
reckoning with Austria but also 
saved Belgium from being swallowed 
up by France. 

At the same time Bismarck nego- 
tiated a treaty with Italy who was 
carrying out the unification of her 
territory. According to this treaty 
Italy was to win Venetia from Aus- 
tria whilst Prussia was to attack 
Austria from the north. Italy was 
beaten but Bismarck was true to his 
ally and insisted that Austria cede 
Venetia to her. 

The smaller German states all 
helped Austria. Prussia was there- 
fore fighting against great odds, 
since the population of the states 
arrayed against her was three times 
as great as her own. So excellent, 
however, was the reorganized Prus- 
sian army that a brilliant campaign 
of only seven weeks brought the 
smaller German states and Austria to 
terms. The genius of von Moltke, 
who was chief of the Prussian gen- 
eral staff, proved itself in this war. 
The great battle of Sadowa or 
Koniggratz, fought on the third of 
July, 1866, opened the way to Vienna 
and was soon followed by the Treaty 
of Prague. 

The terms imposed upon Austria 
were very moderate. Bismarck only 
wished to have Austria step out of 




NORTHERN EUROPE 

(From "The Navy," Washington, September, 1914) 



GERMANY IN SOCIAL-POLITICAL EVOLUTION 



Germany and allow Prussia to have 
her way in carrying out her German 
program. He took none of her lands 
from her but simply made her pay 
the expenses of the war. She was 
also required to cede Venetia to Italy. 
Austria had every reason to be 
thankful for the self-restraint and 
generosity which Prussia had shown 
and after a few years had so far for- 
gotten her animosity that she was 
ready to form an alliance with Ger- 
many. 
The North-Gei-man Confederation. 

Again Bismarck's policy had tri- 
umphed. A great stride was now 
taken in the direction of German uni- 
fication. Prussia in 1867 gathered 
around her all the German states 
north of the Main River. This union, 
already bound together by the eco- 
nomic freedom of the ZoUverein, in- 
cluded 21 states. It was called the 
North German Confederation and 
added a population of over five mil- 
lions to that of Prussia. While each 
state was to retain control over its 
state affairs, there was instituted a 
Bundesrat or upper house, presided 
over by the Chancellor of the Con- 
federation, and a second legislative 
chamber, the Reichstag, the mem- 
bers of which were elected by the 
people by universal and direct suff- 
rage. The army of the Bund was 
under the supreme command of the 
King of Prussia. This union was 
compact and well organized. All 
that was needed to have it cover all 
Germany was the inclusion of the 
South German states, which still held 
aloof. It was only a question of 
time when they might also be ex- 
pected to join in the unification 
movement. The advantages they 
would have, especially along eco- 
nomic lines, were too evident to es- 
cape them. The consolidation of all 
the German states was hastened by 
the Franco-Prussian war. 

The Franco-Prussian War. 

The Emperor Napoleon III. of 
France had viewed with alarm the 
rise of a great power on the east of 
France. He had been outwitted at 
every turn by the brilliant states- 
manship of Bismarck. As a last re- 
sort he hoped that the south German 
states would form a confederation 
under his protectorate. He now be- 
gan to seek a pretext for war with 
Prussia and counted on the support 
of the south German states as well as 
upon that of Austria and Italy. He 
expected to strike Prussia before she 
was ready and believed that the new- 
ly invented Chassepot gun and the 
mitrailleuse would prove superior to 
the Prussian needle gun. Never did 
a ruler rush so blindly to his own 
doom or force a war upon a more 
trivial excuse. 

The issue Napoleon III. was seek- 
ing was found when the Spanish 
people, having driven out the vicious 
Queen Isabella, tendered the crown 
of Spain to Leopold of HohenzoUern, 
a distant relative of King William I. 
of Prussia, whose brother Karl had 
a few years before been chosen King 
of Roumania. Being a Catholic and 
related on his mother's side to the 
Bonapartists, one would have 
thought that I^eopold would prove 
acceptable to Napoleon III. The 



latter, however, believed that this 
was a plan to increase the prestige 
of Prussia by enabling her to play a 
part in European affairs similar to 
that of the Hapsburgs and the Bour- 
bons in a former age. He therefore 
instructed his ambassador Benedetti 
to call on King William I. at Ems 
and insist that he command Leopold 
to withdraw. The King replied that 
he had no authority to do this since 
Leopold was only his relative, not 
one of his subjects, and might act as 
he chose. When Leopold heard of 
the trouble his candidacy was caus- 
ing, he withdrew of his own accord. 
Everybody thought this would end 
the matter. Even Napoleon had pre, 
viously declared that nothing save 
the withdrawal of Leopold would 
prevent war. Now, however, he de- 
termined to push the matter still 
further and thereby either humiliate 
Prussia so that she would be dis- 
graced before the world, especially 
before the south German states, or 
else to goad her into war. Gramont, 
his minister of foreign affairs, de- 
manded of von Werther, the Prus- 
sian ambassador at Paris, that King 
William write a letter begging the 
pardon of the Emperor Napoleon, in 
which he would state that it had not 
been his intention to insult the em- 
peror and France. Benedetti was 
also instructed to demand a second 
audience with King William and se- 
cure his promise that he fully agreed 
with the withdrawal of Prince Leo- 
pold and would not sanction a re- 
newal of the candidacy of a Hohen- 
zoUern prince. 

Benedetti presented this demand 
on the morning of July 13 th when 
he met the King at the public pro- 
menade before the springs at Ems 
and received the firm but courteous 
reply, that the King had fully ex- 
pressed himself in this matter an(} 
that any further information might 
be obtained from his ministry. Then 
came the demand for a written letter 
which had been sent from Paris 
through the Prussian ambassador. 
"Who ever heard of such insolence?" 
wrote King William to his wife. He 
refused Benedetti's request for a 
third audience. France thereupon 
considered this an insult and de- 
clared war on the 19th of July, 1870. 

Napoleon urged on by the war 
party at Paris, had committed a 
fatal blunder. Retribution for this 
unwarranted attack on the honor of 
another state came with the greatest 
rapidity. 

Bismarck had followed closely the 
machinations at Paris. Von Moltke 
and von Roon, who were in charge 
of the Prussian army, assured him 
that if France desired war at any 
price she would find Prussia ready. 
Bismarck and von Moltke were dis- 
cussing matters in Berlin when a dis- 
patch had been written by Abeken, 
one of Bismarck's subordinates, at 
the suggestion of King William and 
empowered Bismarck to give the 
news to the press in case he saw fit 
to do so. The Chancellor had full 
authority in this matter. The origi- 
nal dispatch was lengthly and poorly 
expressed. It reads as follows: 

"His Majesty writes me: 'Count 
Benedetti stopped me at the prome- 



nade, and demanded in a very pre- 
sumptuous manner, that I authorize 
him to telegraph immediately, that I 
obligate myself for all time, never 
again to give my consent if the 
HohenzoUern resumed their candi- 
dacy. I finally rather earnestly re- 
fused since one must not or can not 
ever enter into such obligations. Of 
course I told him that I had not yet 
received anything and that since he 
had been notified by way of Paris 
and Madrid sooner than I, my gov- 
ernment was again not involved.' 
His majesty has since then obtainecj 
a letter from the prince. Inasmuch 
as His Majesty told Count Benedetti 
that he is expecting news from the 
prince, the King decided, in reference 
to the above demand and the report 
of Count Eulenburg and myself, not 
to receive Count Benedetti again, but 
to inform him through an adjutant, 
that His Majesty has now received 
from the Prince the confirmation of 
the news which Benedetti had al- 
ready received from Paris and has 
nothing further to say to the ambas- 
sador. His Majesty leaves it to your 
excellency to decide whether or not 
you will inform the press of this new 
demand of Benedetti's and its re- 
fusal." 

It will be seen from this that Bis- 
marck alone had the power ancl 
right to put this information into the 
newspapers in any manner he chose. 
He decided to shorten the dispatch 
without changing its meaning, so 
that it was given to the papers in the 
following form: 

"After the news concerning the 
withdrawal of the Prince of Hohen- 
zoUern was sent to the imperial 
French government by the royal 
Spanish government, the French am- 
bassador demanded of His Majesty 
the King at Ems that he be author- 
ized to telegraph to Paris that His 
Majesty the King obligate himself for 
the future never to consent to a re- 
newal of the HohenzoUern candidacy. 
His Majesty the King thereupon re- 
fused to receive the French ambassa- 
dor again and informed him through 
an adjutant of the service, that His 
Majesty had nothing further to say to 
the ambassador." 

A storm of indignation at the in- 
solence of France swept not only 
through Prussia but through all the 
German states, even those of south 
Germany, and all of them placed 
their armies at the disposal of the 
Prussian king. France had put her- 
self in the wrong and had thereby 
hastened the unification of all the 
German states^the very thing Na- 
poleon had been most anxious to 
prevent. 

All of Napoleon's plans miscar- 
ried. France was wholly unprepared 
for war. Austria and Italy waited to 
see which side would win the first 
victories. When news came of the 
great German victories at Worth, 
Gravelotte, Metz, and Sedan they de- 
termined to remain neutral. When 
the bombardment of Paris began the 
outcome of the war could no longer 
be doubtful. 

Proclamation of the New German 
Empire. 

January 18, 1871, while the bom-, 
bardment of Paris was still in pro- 



20 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



gress, an event of world importance 
took place at Versailles, when the 
princes of the various German states, 
headed by the King of Bavaria, of- 
fered to King William of Prussia the 
crown as German Emperor. The 
proclamation of the new German em- 
pire marks the consummation of the 
struggle for unification which had 
been the dream of centuries and 
which had now been realized by the 
combination of many favorable cir- 
cumstances among which the most 
important were the brilliant states- 
manship of Bismarck, the enthusiasm 
of the German people, and the won- 
derful efficiency of the German army. 



CARLiYliE'S ESTIMATE OF BIS- 
MARCK. 



(From the "Questions and Answers" 

Column in the "New Yorker 

Staats-Zeitung" of October 

21, 1914.) 

D. O. M. Can you give me Car- 
lyle's estimate of Bismarck? 

In a letter to The Times, Carlyle 
wrote, under date of November 11th, 
1870, the following words: "Consid- 
erable misconception as to Herr von 
Bismarck is still prevalent in Eng- 
land. The English newspapers, nearly 
all of them, seem to me to be getting 
towards a true knowledge of Bis- 
marck, but not yet to it * * * Bis- 
marck, as I read him, is not a person 



of 'Napoleonic' ideas, but of ideas 
quite superior to Napoleonic; shows 
no invincible 'lust of territory,' nor 
is tormented with 'vulgar ambitions,' 
etc.; but has aims very far beyond 
that sphere; and in fact seems to me 
to be striving with strong faculty, by 
patient, grand and successful steps, 
towards an object beneficial to Ger- 
mans and to all other men. That 
noble, patient, deep, pious and solid 
Germany should be at length welded 
into a nation, and become Queen of 
the Continent, instead of vapouring, 
vainglorious, .gesticulating, quarrel- 
some, restless and over-sensitive 
Prance, seems to me the hopefulest 
public fact that has occurred in my 
time." 



The Great European Problem of the Twentieth Century — Pan-Slavism 
All Europe Concerned 



THE EUROPEAN WAR. 



PAN-SIiAVISM AND THE WAR. 

This is the first article of a series 
on THE EUROPEAN WAR, which 
appeared in the October Numher of 
THE OPEN COURT, under the title 
"Pan-Slavism," written iy the Editor, 
Dr. Paul Cams. 

Consult the INDEX for the com- 
plete series, and, in order to see where, 
in the various Chapters of the hook, 
the different articles of this treatise 
may be found, loolc for EUROPEAN 
WAR (THE). In this way the reader 
may read the entire series of articles 
in their original order, if he chooses 
to do so, while the present arrange- 
ment still gives him the advantage of 
bringing the various articles under 
their proper, respective Chapter-head- 
ings of the booli. 

This is a series of exceptionally 
fine articles on the subject in ques- 
tion, and they bear a unique and im- 
portant relation to each other. Be 
sure to read them also in the original 
order. — Editor, "War Echoes." 

War, a most terrible war, is now 
raging in Europe, and the most 
powerful nations have combined to 
break Germany's ascendency. Ger- 
many is threatened by Russia from 
the east, by France from the west, 
and her extended commerce on the 
seas in all parts of the world has be- 
come a prey to Great Britain and 
Japan. 

And why? What is the cause ot 
the war? Because a short time ago 
the heir apparent to the throne of 
Austria and his wife were assassin- 
ated by a Servian with arms from 
the Servian arsenal. 

Germany had nothing to do with 
the incident that occasioned the war, 
but we must know that this particu- 
lar occurrence is a symptom only of 
the real reason. The assassination 
of a prince and his wife might have 
passed by and be forgotten if there 
did not exist a condition which 
made the war an unavoidable neces- 
sity. Though the occasion is an in- 
cident of secondary importance, it 



throws light on the political situa- 
tion of Europe. 

Austria-Hungary is a dual state 
represented by a double headed eagle 
as its coat of arms, and the Austrian 
emperor, formerly a Roman emperor 
of German nationality, is the mon- 
arch. In addition to the German 
Austrians and the Hungarians, the 
Magyars, there are a number of 
other nationalities most of which are 
Slavic: the Czechs in Bohemia, the 
Slavonians south of Hungary, then 
the Bosnians, the inhabitants of Her- 
zegovina, the Poles in Galicia, and 
also some Servians. The Saxons of 
Transylvania again are Teutons sur- 
rounded by Hungarians, Slavs and 
Rumanians. It would be easy enough 
to solve the problem of the races if 
they lived in separate communities, 
but the trouble is that they live in the 
same countries and cities, and there 
are for instance about as many Ger- 
man Bohemians as Czechs living in 
Bohemia, and the Saxon Transylvan- 
ian farmers employ as farm hands 
Slavs and other races, among them 
also Gypsies. 

Austria is about as large as Ger- 
many and France, but it is weak on 
account of its lack of internal unity 
and the hatred among the different 
races. The Austrian army can not 
develop the efficiency which other 
armies possess where the same lan- 
guage is spoken by all the troops. 

The race problem in Austria is a 
calamity but it becomes worse by 
the propaganda of Panslavism, which 
means that all the Slavs should be 
united under the most powerful Slavic 
state, Russia. Panslavism would ul- 
timately lead to the ruin of Austria 
and to the suppression of the Ger- 
man elements now sprinkled over all 
the Austrian dominions. Panslavism 
has been advocated mainly by Rus- 
sia, whose agents have been at work 
all over the world, also in non-Slavic 
countries, in Persia, Afghanistan, 
Tibet, India, China, and even in the 
United States. The rise of Slavism 
is proclaimed by them as the power 
to come; such is at least the inten- 
tion of Russia, and Peter the Great, 



the founder of modern Russia, has 
sketched in his last will and testa- 
ment a plan to expand Russia and 
make her the mistress of the world — 
a bequest holy to the patriotic Rus- 
sian and a danger to European civil- 
ization. 

The Slavs are upon the whole a 
hot-blooded and excitable race. They 
are good-natured but often thought- 
less; they live in the present and 
trouble little about the future. Their 
money affairs are usually in great 
disorder; they do not save and are 
quite irresponsible. The most nu- 
merous of them are the Russians, and 
we may fairly well say that among 
the Slavs, the Poles are the most in- 
telligent, while the Balkan Slavs are 
least civilized. The Russians are 
easy going and lack judgment. They 
are mostly extremists, either slavishly 
submissive to authority or nihilists 
and anarchists, unamenable to law 
and order. The leaders of Russia, 
that clique which ■ runs the govern- 
ment of which the Czar is a helpless 
tool, are unscrupulous. They are 
descendants of Germanic invaders, 
but Russified, and their helpers 
mostly recruit themselves from Ger- 
man immigrants. 

The Poles are not friends of the 
Russians. They know the government 
too well. The Poles live in those por- 
tions of Europe which were formerly 
inhabited by the Goths and it is more 
than probable that the common peo- 
ple are the remnant of the old Gothic 
population. We begin to understand 
the migratory movement of Europe 
better now than before and it seems 
that these expeditions of conquest 
were never what historians formerly 
thought them to be — emigrations of 
whole peoples. It appears that the 
emigrants sold the acres which they 
owned, and the others who remained 
were too weak in number to resist 
Invaders. The aristocracy of Poland 
is a well-built brunette race, Slavic 
in temper and rather small in stature, 
like the French in character, also 
jolly, amiable and especially shift- 
less, while the common people are 
blue-eyed, blond, tall and often 




EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN 

(From "The Navy," WashinBton, September, 1914) 



PAN-SLAVISM— THE MENACE OF EUROPE 



thrifty. Are we justified in drawing 
conclusions from these facts? Are 
the two classes of different descent? 

When Poland became Russian, the 
Poles became acquainted with Rus- 
sian rule; their treatment has been 
approximately the same as the Irish 
have received from the English. 
Though Slavs themselves, they could 
never become enthusiastic over the 
Panslavic ideal. 

The Finlanders and Germans of the 
Baltic provinces, perhaps also the 
intellectual classes of the Russians 
proper, have plenty of experience 
with broken promises of the Russian 
government, and Russian intrigues 
have done much harm even in the 
countries of Russia's friends. Think, 
for instance, of the Dreyfus-Esterhazy 
imbroglio in Prance, which impli- 
cates Russia, not Germany, in the 
spy system, and also of the Russian 
attempts to alienate Asiatics from 
England. 

If Austria breaks down, Germany 
will be surrounded by enemies on all 
sides. If the German portion of 
Austria together with Hungary should 
become a part of the Panslavic em- 
pire, the German race would have 
little chance of survival, especially as 
France has not forgotten her defeat 
of 1870-71, and is constantly clamor- 
ing for revenge. Under these condi- 
tions it is but a policy of self-preser- 
vation that the Germans are deter- 
mined to support Austria against the 
Panslavism of Russia. The triumph 
of Panslavism implies the downfall of 
Germany. 

The horrible death of the archduke 
and his wife was not due to the deed 
of a fanatic individual, it expresses 
the sentiment of the Servian nation 
which seems to have been supported 
by the Servian authorities. Yea, 
there are indications that these meth- 
ods of procedure have been instigated 
by Russian agents and Austria in- 
sisted that investigations should 
bring out the truth. The conspiracy 
was well supplied with money and 
can not have been limited to a few 
private individuals. The report 
reads: 

"So well laid was the plot that 
there was little chance of escape. Had 
the pistol shots failed to take effect, 
another bomb was ready to be thrown 
in the next block, while under the 
table at which the archduke was to 
lunch two others were discovered. In 
the chimney of the Duchess of Hohen- 
berg's apartments still another bomb 
was found, while the railway over 
which it was expected the imperial 
party would leave Sarayevo was lit- 
erally mined with dynamite." 

The roots of the conspiracy spread 
into Servia, and Austria insisted that 
an investigation should bring out the 
truth. 

Servia promised an investigation, 
but since Austria did not trust the 
Servians to be impartial, Austria 
issued an ultimatum demanding Aus- 
trian representatives in court. This, 
however, was indignantly refused, 
and the refusal strengthened the sus- 
picion that both the Servian and 
Russian governments were co-guilty 
of the criminal conspiracy. While 
Germany recognized the justice of the 



Austrian demand, Russia supported 
the Servian cause and the result was 
war — a war of the Slav against the 
Teuton, the object being the Pan- 
slavic ideal of Russia, and in this 
war Russia was supported by France 
and England, according to the Triple 
Entente. 

According to the British White 
Book, Sir Edward Grey sided with 
Servia in its refusal of Number Five 
of the Austrian ultimatum saying 
that it "would be hardly consistent 
with the maintenance of Servia's 
independent sovereignty if it (Aus- 
tria's demand) were to mean that 
Austria-Hungary was to be invested 
with the right to appoint officials who 
would have authority within the fron- 
tiers of Servia." 

That sounds very fair, but would 
Sir Edward use the same argument 
if the Prince of Wales had been as- 
sassinated and some little nationality 
on the moral level of Servia were for 
good reasons suspected of having 
helped in the deed and plotting re- 
newals of the crime so as to en- 
danger the British government and 
its royal family? That would have 
been different. 

How can anyone defend Russia's 
protection of assassins, or who can 
glance over the history of these 
events without suspecting the leaders 
of Panslavism of having instigated 
the deed? But that England rushed 
at once to the support of the methods 
of Panslavism is incomprehensible 
except on the assumption that Eng- 
land favored the plan of a most stu- 
pendous war in which Germany's 
prosperity, her manhood, her civil- 
ization, would be buried under the 
armies of the invading Russ. 

Panslavism and the Russian Czar 
are to be helped by the French, and 
both are to be supported by the Brit- 
ish fleet. The ruinous march of the 
Gallic foe in the time of Napoleon the 
First, about one hundred and nine 
years ago, is to be repeated but is 
being made more effective by the 
Slavic ally. What reason have the 
English for joining such a war? 
They will rid themselves of an incon- 
venient competitor; and they feel 
safe in undertaking the war, for they 
believe success can be gained without 
much risk to Albion. 

The Kaiser is a peaceful man. If 
any one deserves the Nobel peace 
prize, it is he. Since his ascent to 
the throne he has preserved the peace 
of Europe, often under the most dif- 
ficult conditions. The bellicose party 
of Germany has often been disgusted 
with the Kaiser's policy and called 
him William the Pacific. If he de- 
clares war, war must be inevitable — ■ 
and what a war! He has to face the 
most powerful nation, Russia, with 
its army of uncounted and almost un- 
countable numbers, of enormous re- 
sources, unexhausted and inexhaust- 
ible. In Russia human lives are not 
only plentiful but cheap, and Russia 
is supported as a matter of course by 
France with her well-drilled impetu- 
ous men, both in turn being encour- 
aged by England, the undisputed mis- 
tress of the seas! 

Germany is supported by Austria- 
Hungary whose weakness is well 



known. Who can believe that Ger- 
many wanted a war of such dimen- 
sions, that she has provoked it, or 
ventured into it for lust of fame 
or with an expectation of conquest? 
What can she gain and how can she 
be benefited even if she keeps her 
enemies out of the fatherland? And 
yet her enemies blame the emperor 
for being responsible for the war! 

Germany has been cut off from the 
rest of the world. America has not 
received any news of the war ex- 
cept from London, Paris, Petrograd 
(the new name of St. Petersburg) 
and Rome. We are informed that 
the Germans are beaten, and yet they 
advance. There is some news from 
Berlin, via Copenhagen or Rotter- 
dam, of recent date, which shows 
the progress of the war in a very dif- 
ferent light. 

The murder of the archduke is not 
the real or only reason of the war; it 
is the symptom of Panslavism, and 
Panslavism is the reason why Russia 
has gone to war. But there are two 
other reasons: one is the French lust 
for revenge, the other England's de- 
termination not to allow Germany to 
appear in the field of commerce as 
her rival, which from the English 
standpoint means that Germany is 
England's "first and immediate en- 
emy." 

Great Britain has declared war on 
the ground that Germany would not 
respect the neutrality of Belgium, 
but the real reason lies deeper and 
appears in the anti-German policy of 
the British government which has es- 
tablished the principle that for every 
keel the emperor lays down, England 
will lay down two, and Sir Arthur 
Conan Doyle says: "The first fruit 
of the new German fleet was the En- 
tente Cordiale." 



AN ANSAVEB TO THE "EtlKOPEAN 
WAR.'" 



By M. Jourdain. 

And here is Mr. Jourdain's reply to 
the Editor's discussion of this subject. — 
Editor, War Echoes. 

One of the leading characteristics of 
The Open Court is that it is really open 
to discussion, and it is in keeping with 
the very liberal views of Dr. Paul Car- 
us, a German by birth and sympathies, 
that I am allowed to discuss and dis- 
sent from his views upon the European 
war published in the October number 
of The Open Court and with other 
articles in the same number. Dr. 
Carus's article (pp. 596-646) deals by 
sections with questions that have arisen 
in connection with the war ; and fol- 
lowing his arrangement, I propose to 
summarize his arguments and, so far 
as they seem to me misleading, to 
question them. The first section is : 

PANSLAVISM. 

References referring to points in this 
article may be found by consulting the 
Index for Jourdain, Carus, "Open Court." 
War, European War. This is Mr. Jour- 
dain's reply to the Editor's discussion of 
the subject, Panslavism. — ^Editor of War 
Echoes. 



1 We publish this article from England 
as the most comprehensive reply to the 
editorial position that we have received. — 
Editor, The Open Court. 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



After a summary of the character- 
istics of the Slav races and the well- 
Ivnown disunion of the Austro-Hungar- 
iau empire, the Editor turns to the in- 
cident of the assassination of the heir- 
apparent to the throne of Austria and 
his wife at Sarajevo, on June 23. 1914. 
There was, he says, no public sympathy 
throughout Europe for the crime ; and 
yet we read : "No crime has ever 
aroused deeper or more general horror 
throughout Europe ; none has ever been 
less justified. Sympathy for Austria 
was universal. Both the governments 
and the public opinion of Europe were 
ready to support her in many measures, 
however severe, which she might think 
it necessary to take for the punish- 
ment of the murderer and his accom- 
plices."^ 

The opinion of the Russian, French 
and German governments was that the 
Servian government was not to blame 
for the crime, but that Servia must in- 
vestigate and put an end to the propa- 
ganda which had apparently led to it. 
Sir Edward Grey advised Servia to 
show herself moderate and concilia- 
tory.^ Unless it were proved that the 
Servian government had connived at or 
incited to the crime ; or unless the Ser- 
vian government were to conduct an 
investigation in such a way as to screen 
the con.spiracy, there was no reason for 
declaration of war, or a punitive ex- 
pedition against Servia. A declaration 
of war on Austria's part on the ground 
that she "did not trust the Servians 
to be impartial"' is absurd. 

The first open step on Austria's part 
was an ultimatum delivered at Bel- 
grade, requiring an answer in forty- 
eight hours. The ten demands involved 
the suppression of anti-Austrian news- 
papers, literature and propaganda, the 
suppression of nationalist societies 
such as the Narodna Odbrana ; the dis- 
missal of officers and functionaries 
"guilty of propaganda against the 
Austro-Hungarian monarchy whose 
names and deeds the Austro-Hungarian 
government reserve to themselves the 
right of communicating to the royal 
government" (of Servia), participation 
of Austrian officials in judicial proceed- 
ings in Servia, the fl.rrest of two indi- 
viduals compromised by the results of 
the magisterial inquiry at Sarajevo ; 
the prevention of illicit traffic in arms 
across the frontier, an explanation of 
anti-Austrian utterances by high Ser- 
vian ofiBclals, and finally the immediate 
notification of the enforcement of these 
measures. In addition, a prescribed 
statement was to be published by the 
Servian government in the official jour- 
nal, condemning anti-Austrian propa- 
ganda and regretting the participation 
of Servian officers and functionaries 
therein." A summary of the secret 
trial at Sarajevo was annexed to the 
ultimatum, giving the bare findings, 
with no corroborative evidence. 



= Throughout this article I have used for 
convenience sake the cheap reprint of the 
English White Paper (which also includes 
Sir Edward Grey's speech of August 3, 
and other matter) entitled "Great Britain 
and the European Crisis," London, 1914. 
I shall refer to this as "G, B. and the 
E. C." Here the reference is to the intro- 
ductory narrative of events, p. iii.* 

' "Ibid," p. iv. 

* "Open Court" for October, 1914, p. 599. 
In future the letters "O. C." will denote 
that issue of "The Open Court." 

•"G. B. and the E. C" pp. 3-9. 

• See Jourdain in Index for complete 
Reference. — Editor. 



As Sir Edward Grey wrote to Sir 
Maurice de Bunseu," he had "never 
before seen one state address to an- 
other independent state a document of 
so formidable a character." The de- 
mand tor the participation of Austrian 
officials in judicial proceedings in Ser- 
via was "hardly consistent with the 
maintenance of Servia's independent 
sovereignty if it were to mean, as it 
seemed that it might, that Austria- 
Hungary was to be invested with the 
right to appoint officials who would 
have authority within the frontiers of 
Servia." 

The Editor admits that this "sounds 
very fair.'" It is, in fact, unanswer- 
able ; and no other line of action would 
be possible even in the imaginary ease 
he adduces, "if the Prince of Wales 
had been assassinated and some little 
nationality on the moral level of Ser- 
via were for good reasons suspected 
of having helped in the deed, plotting 
renewals of the crime so as to endanger 
the British government and its royal 
family." I do not think that an Eng- 
lishman would have his sense of jus- 
tice warped by national considera- 
tions. 

Before the expiration of the time- 
limit of the ultimatum, Servia returned 
to Austria a reply amounting to an ac- 
ceptance of all the demands," subject 
on certain points to the delays neces- 
sary for passing new laws and amend- 
ing her constitution, and subject to 
Austria-Hungary's explanation as to 
her wishes with regard to the participa- 
tion of Austro-Hungarian officials in 
Servian judicial proceedings. "The 
Royal Government must confess that 
they do not clearly grasp the mean- 
ing or the scope of the demand made 
by the Imperial and Royal Government 
that Servia shall undertake to accept 
the collaboration of the organs of the 
Imperial and Royal Government upon 
their territory, but they declare they 
will admit such collaboration as agrees 
with the principles of international law, 
with criminal procedure, and with good 
neighborly relations."" 

This reply went beyond anything 
which any power — Germany not ex- 
cepted — thought probable.'" This was 
the more remarkable as the time-limit 
of the ultimatum was as unnecessary 
as insolent. The impression left upon 
the mind of Sir Maurice de Bunsen was 
that the note was "so drawn up as to 
make war inevitable." "This country," 
he writes, "has gone wild with joy at 
the prospect of war with Servia and 
its postponement or prevention would 
undoubtedly be a great disappoint- 
ment." '■ 

In this temporary blindness of a peo- 
ple, the Austrian ministers were borne 



" British ambassador at Vienna. 

'"O. C," p. 599. 

« "G. B. and the E. C," pp. 22-27. 

""G. B. and the E. C," p. 25. Servia 
concluded by proposing, in case the Aus- 
tro-Hungarian government were not satis- 
fled with the reply, "to accept a pacific 
understanding, either by referring this 
question to the decision of the interna- 
tional tribunal of The Hague, or to the 
great powers which took part in the draw- 
ing up of the declaration made by the 
Servian government on March 31, 1909." 

'° "German secretary of state has him- 
self said that there were some things in 
the Austrian note that Servia could hardly 
be expected to accept." "G. B. and the 
E. C," p. 29. 

> "G. B. and the E. C," p. 27. 



along on a wave of violent enthusiasm, 
in which they said themselves that they 
would be dislodged from power if they 
did not accede to the popular demand 
for the punishment of Servia.- 

As Servia consented to dismiss and 
prosecute those officers who could be 
clearly proved to be guilty and had 
already arrested the officer referred to 
in the Austro-Hungarian note, it is not 
correct to speak of "Russia's protection 
of assassins."' 

Equally incorrect is the statement by 
the Editor: "That England rushed at 
once to the support of the methods of 
Panslavism is incomprehensible except 
on the assumption that England favor- 
ed the plan of a most stupendous war 
in which Germany's prosperity, her 
manhood, her civilization, would be 
buried under the armies of the invad- 
ing Russ."* 

The British government's attitude 
was that she had no interest in the Bal- 
kans except the consolidation and 
progressive government of the Balkan 
states. Sir Edward Grey's concern in 
the Austro-Hungarian note and the re- 
ply of Servia was "simply and solely 
from the point of view of the peace of 
Europe. The merits of the dispute be- 
t^veen Austria and Servia were not the 
coi'cern of His Majesty's government."" 
Sir George Buchanan, British ambas- 
sador at St. Petersburg, telegraphed 
(on July 24) that "direct British in- 
terests in Servia were nil, and a war 
on behalf of that country would never 
be sanctioned by British public opin- 
ion."" British intervention in the 
European crisis only followed Ger- 
many's violation of Belgian neutrality 
on August 3. As the Austro-Hungarian 
note was presented to Servia on July 
23, and war was declared by England 
on Germany on August 4, England's in- 
tervention cannot be described as hur- 
ried or determined by the action of 
Russia. 

The Editor proceeds to praise the 
German emperor as the prince of peace. 
"The Kaiser," he writes, "is a peaceful 
man. If any one deserves the Nobel 
peace prize it is he. Since his ascent 
to the throne he has preserved the 
peace of Europe, often under the most 
difficult conditions. The bellicose party 
of Germany has often been disgusted 
with the Kaiser's policy and called him 
William the Pacific.'" It is perhaps 
premature to assume that the German 
emperor is the sole cause of Germany's 
attitude f but turning to his acts and 
utterances, is it peace that he proclaim- 
ed so loudly in the days before the 
war? Was the author of those won- 
derful Wardour Street phrases of "the 
mailed fist" and "shining armour" so 
pacific? In a speech of his delivered 



= "Ibid.," p. vii. 

' "O. C," p. 599. 

* "Ibid." 

'■ "G. B. and the B. C," p. 9. 

""Ibid.," p. 10. 

'"O. C," p. 600. 

'In December, 1910, he sent his portrait 
to the minister of education with the sig- 
nificant motto, Si volo, sic jubeo. The 
words of the minister completed the quo- 
tation. On May 4, 1S91, at a Rhenish 
banquet, he said : "There is but one mas- 
ter In the country ; it is I, and I will bear 
no other." In a speech at Konigsberg, , 
May 25, 1910, he wrote: "Considering 
myself as the instrument of the Lord, 
without heeding the views and opinions of 
the day I go my way" — an attitude which 
might lead to breaches of the peace. 



PAN-SLAVISM— THE MENACE OF EUROPE 



2a 



on March 1, 1900, on the completion of 
a fort, he said : "I christen thee Fort 
Haeseler. Thou wilt be called upon 
to defend the conquests of Germany 
over the western foes." Seven months 
later, in celebrating Moltke's birthday, 
he expressed a desire that "thy staff 
may lead Germany to further victories." 
The man who could proclaim that 
"nothing must be settled in this world 
without the intervention of Germany 
and the German emperor," cannot be 
the most pacific of European sovereigns. 
That the English people had some just 
cause for uneasiness in the past may 
be seen from a very courageous and 
temperate article in the "Frankfurter 
Zeitung," December 29, 1911: "We 
shall be obliged to admit that the dis- 
trust on the other side of the English 
Channel is not altogether unfounded. 
If we had to listen to such utterances 
from the mouth of a foreign sovereign, 
we too would become restive and take 
thought for the strengthening of our 
line of defense. At present we can 
only ask England not to take so seri- 
ously the utterances in question, since 
we have long ago had the experience 
that great words are not followed by 
great deeds. We know that the Kruger 
telegram, the challenge to the yellow 
races, the speech at Damascus, the trip 
to Tangier, the sending of the 
"Panther," and so on, were only out- 
ward gestures which remained without 
any corresponding consequences. This 
is one of the weakest points of our 
foreign policy. We say to England 
again and again : 'The German nation 
is absolutely peaceably-minded, and 
wishes to live on terms of peace and 
friendship with England just as much 
as with all other nations.' This makes 
no impression on them, since they 
answer us : 'We are glad to believe that 
the German nation is peaceably-mind- 
ed, but the German nation does not 
make German policy. Her policy is 
made in a quarter which is absolute, 
irresponsible, and incalculable; and for 
that reason we attach merely a 
Platonic, and never a practical, value 
to the national professions of peace.' 
Wliat answer are we to make to that?" 
"Who can believe," writes the Edi- 
tor," "that Germany wanted a war of 
such dimensions, that she provoked it 
or ventured into it for lust of fame or 



with an expectation of conquest? What 
can she gain?" The answer to this is 
twofold : Firstly, there has existed an 
aggressive war literature in Germany 
which has no parallel in any other 
country. Von Treitschke condemns per- 
petual peace as the "dream of weary, 
spiritless, and exhausted ages," while 
Bernhardi, echoing Treitschke, speaks 
of war as "an indispensable factor of 
culture, in which a truly civilized na- 
tion fiinds the highest experience." In 
the latter author's works war with 
France and Russia simultaneously is 
hopefully anticipated, for "in one way 
or another we must square our account 
with France. . . .This is the first and 
foremost condition of a sound German 
policy. . . . France must be so com- 
pletely crushed that she can never 
again come across our path. A pacific 
agreement with England is, after all, a 
will-o'-the-wisp which no serious Ger- 
man statesman would trouble to fol- 
low. We must always keep the possi- 
bility of war with England before our 
eyes and arrange our political and mili- 
tary plans accordingly." As B,ernhardi 
(who died in 1913) was a prominent 
German general, high up in the gen- 
eral staff, his aspirations have a cer- 
tain degree of authority. And apart 
from militarist writers, every traveler 
in Germany has come face to face with 
what Sir Walter Raleigh aptly calls 
"the cheerful brutality of their polit- 
ical talk.'"" "I remember meeting," 
he adds, "with a Prussian nobleman, 
a well-bred and pleasant man, who was 
fond of expounding the Prussian creed. 
He was said to be a political agent, but 
he certainly learned nothing in conver- 
sation. . . .The error of the Germans, 
we were told, was always that they are 
too humane; their dislike of cruelty 
amounts to a weakness in them. They 
let France escape with a paltry fine; 
next time France must be beaten to 
the dust. Always with a pleasant out- 
ward courtesy, he passed on to Eng- 
land. England was decadent and pow- 
erless, her rule must pass to the Ger- 
mans. 'But we shall treat England 
rather less severely than France,' said 
this bland apostle of Prussian culture. 
. . .The grossness of the whole thing 
was in curious contrast with the polite 
and quiet voice with which he uttered 
his insolences." It is possible not to 
draw the conclusion that war with 



Russia and France was expected, one 
might say desired, by an influential 
party in Germany. That she did not de- 
sire a "war of such dimensions" is 
quite evident from the bids for English 
neutrality.' Yet she inevitably drew 
England into the war by her violation 
of the neutrality of Belgium ; and both 
Austria and Germany were quite aware 
of the fact that the note to Servia 
might lead to a European war. The 
German White Book informs us that 
the Austrian government informed the 
German government of their "concep- 
tion" of the situation and asked their 
opinion. The White Book comments 
as follows : 

"With all our heart we were able to 
agree with our ally's estimate of the 
situation, and assure him that any ac- 
tion considered necessary to end the 
movement in Servia directed against 
the conservation' of monarchy would 
meet with our approval. 

"We were perfectly aware that a 
possible warlike attitude of Austria- 
Hungary against Servia might bring 
Russia upon the field, and that it 
might, therefore, involve us in a war, 
in accordance with our duty as al- 
lies."^ 

In the second place, Germany showed 
no wish to work for peace when the 
key of the situation lay with Berlin. 
While Russia, France and England in- 
itiated and supported peaceful meas- 
ures, the German chancellor claimed 
that none should intervene between 
Austria and Servia.' 

The remaining arguments of the Ed- 
itor that the causes of the war are 
"the French lust for revenge'" and 
"England's determination not to allow 
Germany to appear on the field of com- ■ 
merce as her rival,'" and "the anti- 
German policy of the British govern- 
ment"" are more conveniently treated 
of under the sections on the "Foes of 
Germany" and the "English Point of 
View." The statement that "Germany 
has been cut off from the rest of the 
world" is hardly correct, as the Ger- 
man official wireless is sent out and is 
published daily in the English news- 
papers, while German newspapers can 
be easily obtained. 



= "0. C." p. 600.* 

* See Jourdain in Index for complete 
Reference. — Editor. 



'» "Might is Right." Oxford pamphlets, 
1914, p. 12. 



' "G. B. and the E. C, 
' German White Boolt, 
' "G. B. and the B. C, 
'"O. C," p. 600. 
> "Ibid." 
■ "Ibid." 



p. 45. 



Playing the Greatest Game of World Politics Ever Played 
Great Britain and the Entente 



ON WHOSE SIDE IS GOD? 



From "The Fatherland," New York, 
November 11, 1914. 

With bovine humor, the Anti-Ger- 
man editor of the Times* objects to 
the telegram sent by Emperor Fran- 
cis Joseph to Emperor William: 
"God is with you." The Times,* as 



"*New York. — The Publisher of 
"War Echoes." 



authoritative spokesman for God, 
says He could really not be on the 
side of Zeppelin airships, Krupp guns 
or Taube aeroplanes. 

The Times* argues that God is on 
the side of: 

The pagan Japanese, who massa- 
cred the Chinese at Port Arthur. 

The British, whose General Kitch- 
ener massacred Boer women and 
children with English artillery at the 
battle of the Modder River. 



The Indian Sikhs, whom the British 
shot from the mouths of cannon, be- 
cause they massacred English women 
and children during the Indian 
mutiny. 



In permitting 70,000 of its troops 
to be captured perhaps it was the 
shrewd plan of the Russian General 
Staff to exhaust the German com- 
missariat. — From the "Washingtoa 
Post. 



24 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



THE ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW 
AND THE WAR. 

Thli is the third article of a series 
on THE EVROPEAy WAR, which ap- 
peared in. the October Number of THE 
OPEN COURT, imder the title -'The 
English Point of View," written by the 
Editor, Dr. Paul Garus. 

Consult the INDEX for the com- 
plete series, and in order to see where, 
in the various Chapters of the booh, 
the different articles of this treatise 
marl be found, loolc for EUROPEAN 
WAR (THE). In this loay the reader 
may read the entire series of articles 
in their original order, if he chooses 
to do so, while the present arrange- 
ment still gives him the advantage of 
bringing the various articles under their 
proper, respective Chapter-headings of 
the book. 

This is a series of exceptionally fine 
articles on the subject in question, and 
they bear a unique and important relar- 
tion to each other. Be sure to read 
them also in their original order. — Edi- 
tor; "War Echoes." 

The English people remained 
strictly neutral during the war be- 
tween the French and the Germans 
in 1870-71, and if there was any 
sympathy in Albion it was rather on 
the side of the- Germans, not only be- 
cause the English and the Germans 
are closely akin in blood, in civiliza- 
tion and in religion, but also because 
the two ruling houses are intimately 
related. The present Kaiser is the 
grandson of Queen Victoria. In the 
nineteenth century a war between 
the two nations would have seemed 
impossible, but the sentiment has 
'changed in the twentieth century, not 
because either the English or the Ger- 
man people are much different from 
what they formerly were, but be- 
cause a propaganda has been started 
to sow the seeds of hatred, of jeal- 
ousy, of envy and discord in Eng- 
land and to denounce Germany's 
growing power as a menace to 
England. This propaganda had its 
origin and impetus in influen- 
tial circles, and may have started 
in the government itself. One thing 
is certain: it took a firm hold on 
King Edward VII who favored the 
anti-German policy and prepared the 
way for a war of extermination to 
be carried out by Russia, France and 
England. The English propaganda 
found an echo in Germany, and old 
Bismarck after his discharge sounded 
the alarm. 

The anti-German policy in England 
was first proposed in articles that ap- 
peared in the English "Saturday Re- 
view" in 1897, and it has made head- 
way ever since. In order to repre- 
sent the English tendency that has 
led to the war through the policy of 
the anti-German party of England we 
have republished the article "Eng- 
land and Germany" from the "Satur- 
day Review" (London) of September 
11, 1897. It is apparently inspired 
by the British government and its 
tendency has gradually become the 
guiding principle of English policy. 
Official representatives of the Brit- 
ish government enunciated this plan 
again and again until the public be- 
came accustomed to it, and now it 
has brought on the war. 



We need not mention that "the 
wise man of Europe," referred to in 
the mooted article is Bismarck in his 
advanced age. Bismarck foresaw the 
British danger and warned the Ger- 
mans. On the other hand, we learn from 
the "Saturday Review" article that 
while in February, 1896, the idea of 
regarding Germany as "the first and 
immediate enemy of England" was 
considered "an eccentricity," the 
propaganda against the Germans 
spread quickly, so that a month later 
the German flag was hissed at in Lon- 
don. Afterwards the anti-German 
movement led to the Triple Entente, 
formulating the program for the 
present war. 

True, Germany has become a com- 
petitor of England. German indus- 
try has gradually developed into a 
rival of English industry, yea, has 
even outdone it in many branches, 
and the Germans have built up a navy 
which is intended to protect their 
trade. The German navy is nearly 
half as strong as the English navy 
and if it continues to grow it may 
by and by be equal to it. The Brit- 
ish government, backed by public 
opinion, decided that that must be 
prevented, for the British have so 
far lived up to their popular hymn, 
"Britannia, Rule the Waves," which 
is the indispensable condition of a 
dominion over the world. Now Ger- 
many comes in as a rival trying to 
gain her share of the world market. 
That is a sin and should not be tol- 
erated. Therefore German progress 
must be checked in time in order to 
preserve Britannia's monopoly in 
commerce. England still rules the 
waves and England can fight Ger- 
many, as our English author trusts, 
"without tremendous risk, and with- 
out doubt of the issue." 

This means in plain language that 
the English own the world of com- 
merce and will not share its domin- 
ion with anybody. Our author de- 
clares that "If Germany were extin- 
guished tomorrow, the day after to- 
morrow there is not an Englishman 
in the world who would not be the 
richer." 

This policy is not only egotistical 
and barbarous, not only unfair and 
narrow, but it is also stupid. It is 
the logic of a villain and the error 
that so often props up the arguments 
of a criminal. 

Public opinion in England today 
finds no fault with Germany as a 
center of art and science. The Ger- 
many of Goethe and Schiller in the 
days of her political weakness was 
harmless, but modern Germany in its 
political strength, Prussianism, mili- 
tarism, imperialism, is most objec- 
tionable. Nor should Germany build 
up industries and increase her com- 
merce. Germany would be quite de- 
lightful if it had no army, if it were 
without a navy, in short, if it were 
defenseless. But do not let us for- 
get that Germany has learned by long 
and bitter experience that she needs 
Prussian leadership, she needs an 
army. Undoubtedly she would abol- 
ish her militarism if her neighbors, 
the French and the Russians, would 
disarm, and if the English would sell 
their navy as old iron. The English 
want their navy to be bigger than 



any two other navies together, but 
Germany should remain defenseless. 
We grant that Germany's progress 
is a danger to England. So far Eng- 
land has enjoyed an undisputed dom- 
inance in the world of commerce, and 
she has gained her advantages by her 
progressive methods and by unrivaled 
energy; but in her safe control of the 
seas she has become self-suflicient 
and stagnant. England is at present 
conspicuously unprogressive. The 
proper method of combating rivals in 
the field of industry and commerce 
does not consist in the extermination 
of new competitors but by beating 
them with their own weapons. Eng- 
land should have raised herself from 
her lethargy, should have followed 
the example of Germany, should have 
built schools or reformed her anti- 
quated system of education in order 
to fit her citizens to compete with Ger- 
man industry. That, however, would 
be too much to expect from the Eng- 
lish. They want leisure and prefer 
their traditional stagnancy, still be- 
lieving that the best policy is not 
to aspire to surpass a rival, not to 
excel him, but to call him an "enemy" 
and to conquer him by exterminating 
him. 

Our English author knows that the 
issue between England and Germany 
is a commercial question. He says: 
"Nations have fought for years over 
a city or a right of succession; must 
they not fight for two hundred mil- 
lion pounds of commerce?" 

According to Dr. Richet, statisti- 
cian of the University of Paris, Ger- 
many has an annual export of $331,- 
684,212, and an import of $188,963,- 
071; Austria an export of $23,320,- 
696, and an import of $19,192,414. 
All this is stopped and will remain 
stopped through the war so long as 
Great Britain has command of the 
seas. But British trade does not suf- 
fer any direct interference. That is a 
great advantage for England; but is 
it really so great as to involve the 
world in a most tremendous war and 
risk serious reverses? 

The Italian senator. Count San 
Martino, was present at a dinner on 
July 22 where he met Sir Edward 
Grey and Sir William Edward 
Goschen and heard the remark made 
that a civil war could not be avoided 
except through a war with Germany. 
The statement was published recently 
in the "Giornale d'ltalia" and similar 
contentions have been made in other 
papers. Did the Count let the cat 
out of the bag? Let us hope that 
even if there be an element of truth 
in the statement, the ministers merely 
noted a convenient coincidence, and 
did not follow a preconceived plan. 



THE ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW. 

Here follows Mr. Jourdain's reply to 
Dr. Carus. — Editor. 

There has been a commercial conflict 
between England and Germany,' two 
gre.nt manufacturing countries; just as 
there has been a struggle for markets 
between England and America. But the 
latter struggle has not led to war, and 
the relations between the two countries 
have never been better. Commercial 
rivalry is not, therefore, the only cause 



•"O. C," p. 607. • 

* See Jourdain in Index for complet* 
Reference. — Editor. 



BRITISH WAR POLITICS TO DATE 



25 



of our recent alienation from Germany ; 
but, as the Editor rightly points out, 
"propaganda." But while he draws at- 
tention to the anti-German propaganda 
in England (relatively small) he omits 
to refer to the enormous and Influen- 
tial anti-English propaganda in Ger- 
many. The Editor points to an article 
in the "Saturday Review," September 
11, 1S97,' as the first expression of anti- 
German policy in England, but the vio- 
lently anti-English utterances of Treit- 
schke date as early as 1S74. Later, 
the German professor Karl Lamprecht 
seized upon the Boer war to demon- 
strate to Holland that England is the 
enemy ; and Bernhardi is also anti-Eng- 
lish. Now while in Germany the feel- 
ing against England has raised in the 
past a crop of aggressive i^rofessors, 
lectures and books, in England the feel- 
ing against Germany did not lead to 
dreams of conquest but to fear of in- 
vasion ; of the "German peril." In- 
stead of "Germany and the Next War," 
we had "The Englishman's Home." 
Even today, in the midst of war, the 
English press references to Germany 
are temperate when compared with 
German references to England. 

A third factor in the creation of na- 
tional hostility was the matter of arma- 
ments, especially the navy. The Eng- 
lish case for a predominant navy is 
(': England's insular position, which ren- 
!" ders her liable to starvation directly 
she loses command of the sea ; the im- 
mensely larger size of her mercantile 
marine, which needs protection; her 
colonies, and the fact that she main- 
tains but a small army. In the com- 
petition in armaments it is worth not- 
ing that on the eve of the Hague con- 
ference of ISSS, Mr. Goschen announced 
that if the other naval powers should 
be prepared to diminish their programs 
of ship-building, we should be prepared 
on our side to meet such a procedure 
by modifying ours ; the German govern- 
ment replied, by Colonel von Schwarz- 
hoff, their delegate at the conference, 
with a scornful speech. At the second 
Hague conference in 1907, the British 
proposal to consider a concerted arrest 
of armaments was politely shelved, the 
German delegate. Baron Marschall von 
Bieberstein refusing to discuss it. The 
question of total disarmament has not 
been raised, and we cannot tell whether 
she would "abolish her militarism if 
her neighbors, the French and the Rus- 
sians, would disarm, and if the English 
would sell their navy as old iron,'" but 
she has certainly refused on several 
occasions the invitation to slacken com- 
petition in armaments. 



'Reprinted in "O. C," pp. 577-579. 
There is, however, no reason to suppose 
with the Editor that the article was "in- 
spired bv the Britisli government" ("O. 
C," p. 607). 

'"O. C," p. 60S.* 

* See Jourdain in Index for complete 
Reference. — Editor. 



DR. ElilOT'S LETTER. 



A letter sent to the "New York 
Times," comniented upon. New 
Yorker Staats-Zeltung, New York. 

Herman Ridder. 

Under recent date. Dr. Charles W. 
Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard 
University, in a letter to the Times, 
gives an able exposition of the point of 



view of those. Americans whose sym- 
pathies are confined to the cause of the 
Allies and who are grieved by the mis- 
conduct of Germany and Austria. I 
say "grieved" because they all take 
great pains to emphasize their admira- 
tion for the achievements of the Ger- 
manic people and defend their present 
renunciation of sympathy with Ger- 
many on the ground that after forty 
years of unparalleled development in 
the arts and sciences the nation has, 
in an hour as it were, thrown away the 
ideals of the past and gone off after 
the false gods of bloodlust aud con- 
quest. 

The claim of Dr. Eliot to an audi- 
ence on almost any subject of abstract 
thought is recognized. In dealing with 
concrete facts, howev«r, he has not 
shown, in the letter under reference, 
equal ability or openness of mind. As 
a foremost thinker of a neutral nation, 
writing for a neutral reading public, a 
greater distinction between "American 
sympathies" and his own sympathies 
might rightly be expected from Dr. 
Eliot's pen. A greater importance 
might equally well have been given to 
things as they are and not as the sen- 
timentalist would have them. 

Affirming the "immense obligations 
under which Germany has placed all 
the rest of the world," Dr. Eliot now 
feels "that the German nation has been 
going wrong in theoretical and practi- 
cal politics for more than 100 years 
and is today reaping the consequences 
of her own wrong-thinking aud wrong- 
doing." 

It is very hard to take these conclu- 
sions of the eminent Doctor seriously. 
They are neither derived logically from 
his premises nor defensible by compari- 
son with the political history of other 
countries in Europe during the last 
century. Onl.v the great respect which 
I entertain for Dr. Eliot's accomplish- 
ments restrains me from dismissing 
them without comment. 

The "political and social history of 
the American people and its govern- 
mental philosophy and practice" is the 
standard by which Dr. Eliot .iudges 
Germany. In this test Germany, from 
the point of view of Dr. Eliot, is found 
wanting. I do not question the pro- 
priety of such a comparison nor the 
justness of Dr. Eliot's judgment in the 
premises. The point I wish to make 
is this : Why should Germany alone, 
of the eight powers now engaged in 
' this world war, be measured by this 
standard? Why should her departure 
from our methods of government and 
lines of thought alone be proclaimed to 
the American people and the inference 
given that her enemies are one with 
ourselves in these things? The same 
argument would condemn France and 
Russia, England, Servia, Belgium and 
Japan. They have all differed from 
our standai'ds ; four of them more than 
Germany, two of them not less. They 
have all "been going wrong" these 
hundred years and must now be "reap- 
ing the consequences." if we are to 
carry Dr. Eliot's reasoning to its logical 
conclusion. If I may presume for 
myself some right to an opinion on the 
world's history, I would not say that 
Germany has been "wrong- thinking and 
wrong-doing for over 100 years." I 
would not even allow my sympathy 
with German ideals and their concrete 
attainments to lead me into saying that 



any one of her present armed foes had 
been doing so. They have all differed 
from us, but they have all differed one 
from another ; they have all made 
mistakes, and so have we ; and they are 
all striving, each according to the light 
that has heen given it, for the same 
end. It is ungenerous and unfair to 
single out Germany and attempt to 
make her support a blame which should 
attach to all Europe. 

Dr. Eliot goes into great detail to 
show the "many important matters 
concerning which American sympathy 
is strongly with Germany," and his 
presentation of such points is masterly. 
The value of his tributes to German 
greatness is lessened, however, by the 
suspicion that he has advanced them 
only to safeguard his reputation for 
fairness, and to lend strength to his 
subsequent arraignment of the Ger- 
many of today. "The German practices 
which do not conform to American 
standards in the conduct of public 
affairs" are enumerated in seven para- 
graphs, and I will take them up 
seriatim. 

A. The objection is to "Germany's 
permanent executive and secret diplo- 
macy." As an American, I say : "Ob- 
jection sustained." I would extend it, 
however, to cover England. Russia, 
Servin, Belgium, Japan and France, the 
executives of the first five of which 
are quite as permanent as that of Ger- 
many, unless we make allowance for 
Russian anarchy and Servian regicide 
the "secret diplomacy" of all of 
whom has shown itself far more dan- 
gerous to the peace of Europe than that 
of Berlin. 

B. The objection is to Germany's 
mobilization by executive order. Again, 
as an American, I say : "Objection sus- 
tained." I would ask Dr. Eliot, how- 
ever, what about Russia and Japan? 
Were their armies mobilized and their 
fleets assembled by order of Duma and 
Diet? What of England's "warlike 
preparations" five days before war was 
declared? Where were the Deputies 
when President Poincare ordered the 
French mobilization on the strength of 
a Cabinet consultation? 

C. The objection, in greater detail, is 
to the "secrecy of European diplomatic 
intercourse and of iuternational under- 
standings and terms of alliance in Eu- 
rope." Again, as an American, I say : 
"Objection sustained." But is it not 
true that so far as we can judge from 
the facts that have been made public, 
Englaud at the outbreak of the present 
war had more secret alliances than any 
other country in the world? And is it 
not equally true that so far as we know 
Germany and Austria were the only 
countries in Europe which had none? 
The terms of the Triple Alliance and of 
the Austro-German Alliance had been 
public property for years. On the other 
hand. Sir Edward Grey was compelled 
to acknowledge before Parliament that 
he had entered into undertakings with 
France unknown to that body. On more 
occasions than one in previous years he 
had made technical denial of the exis- 
tence of the web of diplomatic intrigue 
which he had silently and secretly 
woven about the English people. 

D. The objection is to "German re- 
liance on military force as the founda- 
tion of true national greatness." If the 
implication could be defended. I would 



26 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



,say again, as an American : "Objection 
sustained." But it cannot be. Dr. 
Eliot bas been reading too much of Co- 
uan Doyle, H. G. Wells and Antbony 
Hope, and tbe privilege had not been 
his at the time he wrote, to see Vis- 
count Bryce's frank dismissal of Bern- 
bardi as a spokesman for Germany. The 
German people have suffered from mili- 
tarism, and no one realizes it more than 
they themselves, but they have suffered 
not from choice but from necessity. 
Surrounded by armed foes, vs'hat could 
Germany do but arm herself? And af- 
ter all. who has suffered most? A large 
percentage of the male population of 
Germany have had to do from one to 
two years of army service, a large per- 
centage of the males in Russia have to 
do from two to four years similar serv- 
ice, and in France the same percentage 
has been forced to three years of serv- 
ice. England alone has escaped from 
excessive armament on land — and has 
paid for it by maintaining a two-nation 
standard on the water. The "wooden 
walls" of England have been to her 
what the "ring of bayonets" has been 
to Germany — an unpleasant necessity, 
equally oppressive. 

E. The objection is to "the extension 
of national territory by force contrary 
to the wishes of the population con- 
cerned." Again, as an American, I say : 
"Objection sustained" — but I cannot re- 
frain from extending to those in the 
Courtroom the iirivilege of Homeric 
laughter. Will Dr. Eliot tell us, in a 
future letter wherein the allusion lies? 
Has Germany through forty years ex- 
tended her territory one foot in Europe? 
Has she in the present conflict of na- 
tions given us reason to believe that she 
even desires to do so? On the other 
hand, is not the one reason for France's 
entrance into the war the "extension of 
national territory?" Is it not the spirit 
of the "revanche" — the desire to seize 
once more upon Alsace and Lorraine, 
that were Germany's until she was 
robbed of them by Louis XIV., that has 
moved France to her disastrous policy? 
The best minds of England told the 
world in 1S70 that Germany was not 
only to be absolved from the charge of 
land theft, but was to be congratulated 
upon her decision to retain these recon- 
quered provinces. I suggest for Dr. 
Eliot's Five Foot Shelf of Universal 
I^earning the addition of a few volumes 
dealing in this connection with England 
in Africa, China and Venezuela, with 
Russia in China and Persia, with Servia 
in the Balkans and with Japan in 
Corea and Manchuria. 

F. The objection is "to the violation 
of treaties for no reason whatsoever." 
Again, as an American, I say : "Objec- 
tion sustained." Perhaps Dr. Eliot 
refers to the "scrap of paper." But to 
be fair and neutral he should have 
called attention to the Sand River Con- 
vention and to the Italian scissors 
which clipped large clauses from the 
Treaty of 18S2, on which the Triple Al- 
liance was based. He could also have 
added to his collection of paleolithic 
Treaties those conventions for the ob- 
servance of the territorial Integrity and 
neutrality of China to which both Eng- 
land and her Oriental Ally were parties 
and which both have now thrown to the 
winds of the East. I do not believe any 
nation tears up a treaty "for no reason 
whatsoever." Germany had the best 
.reason in the world for violating Bel- 



gian soil and the world is coming to see 
it. 

G. The objection is to the "German 
conduct of war." I shall not sustain 
this objection, in view of Dr. Eliot's 
subsequent remark that "all experienced 
readers on this side of the Atlantic are 
well aware that nine-tenths of all the 
reports they get about the war come 
from English and French sources, and 
this knowledge makes them careful not 
to form a judgment about details." 
When the London Times and writers of 
no less note than Jerome K. Jerome are 
warning England not to believe all they 
hear of German atrocities we need not 
on this side of the water give much 
heed to Belgian tales of German inhu- 
manity and barbarism. 

I regret that the times have called 
forth conditions which require me to 
cross pens occasionally with many an 
old friend. But neither Dr. Eliot nor 
myself nor anyone of the other Ameri- 
cans who have been called upon to dis- 
cuss the events now taking place in 
Europe ,was given a voice in their mak- 
ing. We are, equally with the victims 
of the war on the Continent, innocent 
sacrifices on an altar erected by others. 
I would not say one word in disparage- 
ment of the doyen of Harvard. I am 
compelled, however, by a desire not to 
see Germany painted in misconceived 
colors, to ask if all he has said of Ger- 
many could not have been said with 
truth of the aggregate of the allies now 
combined against her? If, in other 
words, what is sauce for the goose is 
not equally good enough to be sauce for 
the gander? 



THE UNDERLYING CAUSE THAT 
FORCED THE KAISER'S HAND. 



The Boston Herald. 

Professor Kuno Francke, Harvard 
University. 

It is easy to see why American 
public opinion should have con- 
demned by an overwhelming major- 
ity the diplomatic acts of Austria 
and Germany which have been the 
immediate occasion of the terrific ex- 
plosion which now shakes the foun- 
dations of the whole civilized world. 
Austria's break with Servia and 
Germany's violation of Belgian neu- 
trality — the one leading to war be- 
tween Russia and Germany, the 
other bringing England into the fray 
— must appear to the uninitiated as 
reckless and indefensible provoca- 
tions and as wanton attacks upon the 
laws of nations. 

The thoughtful observer, however, 
should look beyond the immediate 
occasion of this world conflict and 
try to understand Its underlying 
causes. By doing so he will, I be- 
lieve, come to the conclusion that 
fundamental justice is to be found 
on the German side and that Ger- 
many has been forced to fight for 
her life. 

It is an unquestionable fact that 
the unification of Germany and the 
establishment of a strong German 
empire half a century ago were 
brought about against the bitter op- 
position of France, and that the de- 
feat incurred by France in 1870, in 
her attempt to prevent German unifi- 
cation, is at the bottom of the con- 



stant irritation that has agitated Eu- 
rope during the last 43 years. Ger- 
many's policy toward France during 
these 43 years has been one of ut- 
most restraint and forbearance, and 
has been dictated by the one desire 
of making her forget the loss of the 
two provinces, German until the 
17th century and inhabited largely 
by German stock, which were won 
back from France in 1870. Whether 
the acquisition of these provinces was 
a fortunate thing for Germany may 
be doubted. The possession of Alsace- 
Lorraine has certainly robbed Ger- 
many of the undivided sympathy of 
the world, which she otherwise would 
have had. But it is probably true 
that, from the military point of view, 
Alsace-Lorraine was needed by Ger- 
many as a bulwark against the repe- 
tition of the many wanton French in- 
vasions from which Germany has had 
to suffer since the time of the Thirty 
Years' War and the age of Louis XIV. 

However this may be, Germany has 
done her best during the last four 
decades to heal the wounds struck by 
her to French national pride. She 
abetted French colonial expansion in 
Cochin-China, Madagascar, Tunis. 
She yielded to France her own well- 
founded claims to political influence 
in Morocco. In Alsace-Lorraine itself 
she introduced an amount of local 
self-government and home rule such 
as England has not accorded even 
now to Ireland. While Ireland still 
is waiting for a Parliament at Dub- 
lin, Strassburg has been for several 
years the seat of the Alsace-Lorraine 
Diet, a provincial Parliament based 
on universal suffrage. And even in 
spite of the incessant and inflamma- 
tory French propaganda which last 
year led to such unhappy counter- 
strokes as the deplorable Zabern 
affair, there can be no reasonable 
doubt that the people of Alsace-Lor- 
raine have been gradually settling 
down to willing co-operation with the 
German administration which insures 
them order, justice and prosperity. 
Nothing is a clearer indication of the 
peaceable trend which affairs have 
lately taken in Alsace-Lorraine than 
the fact that Nationalists, that is, the 
French party in the Strassburg Diet 
has never been able to rise above 
insignificance; and that, on the other 
hand, a considerable number of re- 
sponsible offices in the civil adminis- 
tration, including the highest gov- 
ernment positions, have been occu- 
pied by native Alsatians. 

While Germany has thus repeat- 
edly shown her willingness and de- 
sire to end the ancient feud, France 
has remained irreconcilable; and 
particularly the intellectual class of 
France cannot escape the charge that 
they have persistently and willingly 
kept alive the fiame of discord. It 
surely cannot be said that the restor- 
ation of Alsace-Lorraine is a vital 
necessity to France. Without Alsace- 
Lorraine, France during the last gen- 
eration has recovered her prosperity 
and her prestige in a manner that has 
been the admiration of the world. It 
is a mere illusion to think that the 
reconquest of Alsace-Lorraine would 
add to her glory. It would have been 
a demand of patriotism for the intel- 
lectual class to combat this illusion. 



BRITISH WAR POLITICS TO DATE 



Instead of this, every French writer, 
every French scholar, every French 
orator, except the Socialists, year in 
and year out has been dinning into 
the popular ear the one word re- 
venge. And there can be little doubt 
that Prof. Gustave Lanson, the dis- 
tinguished literary historian, voiced 
the sentiments of the vast majority 
of his countrymen when in a lecture 
delivered some years ago at Harvard 
he stated that France could not and 
would not recognize the peace of 
Frankfort as a final settlement, and 
that the one aim of the French policy 
of the last 40 years had been to force 
Germany to reopen the Alsace-Lor- 
raine question. 

If there were people in Germany 
inclined to overlook or to minimize 
this constantly growing menace from 
France, their eyes must have been 
opened when, in 1912, the French 
government, having previously abol- 
ished the one-year volunteers, raised 
the duration of active military serv- 
ice for every Frenchman from two 
years to three and in addition to this 
called out in the autumn of 1913 the 
recruits, not only of the year whose 
turn had come, namely, the recruits 
born in 1892, but also those born in 
18 93. This was a measure nearly 
identical with mobilization; it was a 
measure which clearly showed that 
France would not delay much longer 
striking the deadly blow. For no 
nation could possibly stand for any 
length of time this terrific strain of 
holding under the colors its entire 
male population from the 2 0th to the 
23d year. No wonder that the Paris 
papers were speaking as long ago as 
the summer of 1912 of the regiments 
stationed in the eastern departments 
as the "vanguard of our glorious 
army" and were advocating double 
pay for them as being practically in 
contact with the enemy. 

The second foe now threatening 
the destruction of Germany is Eng- 
land. Can it truly be said that Eng- 
land's hostility has been brought 
about by German aggression? True, 
Germany has built a powerful navy; 
but so have Japan, the United States, 
France and even Italy. Has England 
felt any menace from these? Why, 
then, is the German navy singled out 
as a specially sinister threat to Eng- 
land? Has German diplomacy dur- 
ing the last generation been particu- 
larly menacing to England? Ger- 
many has acquired some colonies in 
Africa and in the far east. But what 
are Kamerun and Dar-es-Salaam and 
Kiaochau compared with the colonies 
of the other great powers? Where 
has Germany pursued a colonial ag- 
gressiveness that could in any way be 
compared with the British subjuga- 
tion of the SoMth African republics or 
the Italian conquest of Tripoli or the 
French expansion in Algiers, Tunis 
and Morocco? Wherever Germany 
has made her influence felt on the 
globe she has stood for the principle 
of the open door. Wherever she has 
engaged in colonial enterprises she 
has been willing to make compro- 
mises with other nations and to ac- 
cept their co-operation, notably so 
in the Bagdad railway undertaking. 
And yet the colonial expansion of 
every other nation is hailed by Eng- 
land as "beneficial to mankind," as 



"work for civilization"; the slightest 
attempt of Germany to take part in 
this expansion is denounced as "in- 
tolerable aggression," as evidence of 
the "bullying tendencies of the War 
Lord." 

What is the reason for this singu- 
lar unfairness of England toward 
Germany; of this incessant attempt 
to check her and hem her in? Not 
so much the existence of a large Ger- 
man navy as the encroachment upon 
English commerce by the rapidly 
growing commerce of Germany has 
made Germany hateful to England. 
The navy has simply added to this 
hate of Germany, the dread of Ger- 
many. But if there had been no Ger- 
man navy, and consequently no dread 
of Germany, this hate of Germany 
might have come to an explosion be- 
fore now. For the history of the last 
300 years proves that England has 
habitually considered as her mortal 
enemy any nation which dared to 
contest her commercial and indus- 
trial supremacy — first Spain, then 
Holland, then France, and now Ger- 
many. As long as German firms, by 
the manufacture of artificial indigo, 
keep on ruining the English impor- 
tation of indigo from India, and as 
long as the Hamburg-American Line 
and the North German Lloyd keep on 
outstripping the prestige of the Cun- 
ard and White Star, there can be no 
real friendship between England and 
Germany. Although England has re- 
peatedly proposed to Germany naval 
agreements, these agreements were 
avowedly meant to perpetuate the 
overwhelming preponderance of Eng- 
land's fighting power, so that she 
would at any moment be in a position 
to crush German commercial rivalry 
for all time. She apparently thinks 
that this moment has now come. 

That Germany's third implacable 
enemy, Russia, is clearly the aggres- 
sor, and not the defender of her own 
national existence, need hardly be 
demonstrated. She poses as the 
guardian of the Balkan States. But 
is there any case on record where 
Russia has really protected the in- 
dependence of smaller neighboring 
countries? Has she not crushed out 
provincial and racial individuality 
wherever she has extended her 
power? Is it not the sole aim of her 
national policy to Russianize forcibly 
every nationality under her sway? 
In Finland she has gone back on her 
solemnly pledged word to maintain 
the Finnish constitution, and is ruth- 
lessly reducing one of her most 
highly developed provinces to the 
dead level of autocratic rule. In her 
Baltic provinces she is trying to de- 
stroy root and branch whatever there 
is left of German culture. Wher- 
ever the Russian church holds domin- 
ion, intellectual blight is sure to fol- 
low. To think, therefore, that Russia 
would promote the free development 
of a number of independent Balkan 
States under her protectorate, is to 
shut one's eyes to the whole history 
of Russian expansion. No, Russian 
expansion in the Balkans means 
nothing less than the extinction of 
all local independence and the estab- 
lishment of Russian despotism from 
the Black Sea to the Adriatic. 

Not Russia, but Austria, is the 
natural protector of the equilibrium 



between the existing states on the 
Balkan peninsula, and their natural 
guardian against Russian domination. 
Austria is their nearest neighbor; in- 
deed, the possession of Bosnia and 
Herzogovina makes her a Balkan 
State herself. Being herself more 
than half of Slavic stock, she has 
every reason for living on good terms 
with the various Slav kingdoms south 
of her. Being herself forced, through 
the conglomerateness of her popula- 
tion, to constant compromises in her 
internal affairs between conflicting 
nationalities within her borders, she 
would not possibly absorb a large ad- 
ditional amount of foreign territory. 
She is bound to respect the existing 
lines of political demarcation in the 
Balkans, and her sole object can be 
through commercial treaties and tar- 
iff legislation, to open up what used 
to be European Turkey to her trade 
and her civilizing influence. In this 
she must clearly be supported by Ger- 
many. For only if Austria is left 
free to exercise her natural protecto- 
rate over the Balkan States can there 
be passage between Germany and the 
near Orient, one of the most import- 
ant routes of German commerce. 
Russia's unwillingness, then, to 
allow Austria a free hand in her 
dealings with Servia was an open 
menace to Germany, a challenge 
which had to be accepted, unless 
Germany was prepared to abdicate 
all her influence in the near Orient 
and to allow Russia to override the 
legitimate claims and aspirations of 
her only firm and faithful ally. 

This formidable coalition of the 
three greatest European powers, 
threatening the very existence of Ger- 
many, has now been joined by Japan, 
openly and boldly for the purpose of 
snatching from Germany her one 
Asiatic possession. If any additional 
proof has been needed to make it 
clear that if Germany wanted to re- 
tain the slightest chance of extricat- 
ing herself from this world-wide con- 
spiracy against her, she had to strike 
the first blow, even at the risk of 
offending against international good 
manners; this stab in the back by 
Japan would furnish such proof. 



ANOTHER STORY. 



From "The Fatherland," New York, 
October 14, 1914. 

Cleveland, O., Sept. 12, 1914. 
To the Editors of "The Fatherland:" 
We hear a great deal of unreason- 
ing criticism of the actions of the 
German army. Let "The Fatherland," 
through its editorial columns, chal- 
lenge the American press to defend 
the' barbarism of the Colorado State 
Militia in shooting down helpless 
women and children in the recent 
strikes in that state. When they have 
done this, but not until they have 
done it, are they qualified to speak 
on "cruelty" perpetrated by German 
soldiers. 

Very truly yours, 

Roger B. Buettell. 



To the amateur strategist the war 
looks like a race to see whether the 
Germans can get to Paris before the 
Russians get to Berlin. 



28 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



GERMANY'S "INFAMOUS 
PROPOSAL." 

On July 31, 1914, Sir Edward Grey 
told the German Ambassador at Lon- 
don (see English White Paper, Docu- 
ment No. 119) that Great Britain 
should be drawn into it if Germany and 
France became involved in war. 

Why? 

Why should it follow as a necessity 
that Great Britain should be drawn 
into it if Germany and France became 
involved in war? Nothing in the na- 
ture of things demanded such an ac- 
tion on Great Britain's part, for she 
had remained neutral in a former war 
between these two countries (1870-71) 
and in the present case France was 
supposed to be in a better position 
than in the struggle forty-three years 
ago. 

As a matter of fact there existed no 
necessity for the British people to go 
to war because Germany and France 
had fallen out and gone to war, for 
Germany was willing to promise to 
Great Britain — 

(1) Not to take one foot of French 
soil, (a) neither on the European Con- 
tinent, (b) nor in the French colonies. 

(2) Not to violate the neutrality of 
Belgium at all, if Great Britain would 
obligate herself to remain neutraL 
(This was called by Asquith, the 
British Prime Minister, in open Parlia- 
ment, "an infamous proposal ty Ger- 
many!") 

(3) Any reasonable conditions which 
Great Britain might formulate (British 
White Paper, Document No. 123). 

To any reasonable being it would 
seem that there was not one excuse 
left for Great Britain to enter into 
war, for to (1) secure the neutrality 
of Belgium absolutely, (2) to secure 
the status quo of France and her col- 
onies, (3) and thus to secure herself 
against obtaining Germany as a neigh- 
bor across the channel, she had only to 
declare her own neutrality. 

Think of it, think of the awful 
amount of misery which Great Britain 
could have saved Belgium alone, and 
herself also, by simply giving to an 
honest question an honest answer, by 
saying to Germany in a straightfor- 
ward manner : "We shall remain neu- 
tral as long as you uphold the letter 
and the spirit of your promises." 

Why did not Great Britain through 
the mouth of her servant (or had we 
better say, master) Sir Edward Grey 
give such a straightforward reply, who 
instead rejected all overtures of Ger- 
many to come to a peaceful under- 
standing, and insisted on keeping every- 
body in the dark with regard to Great 
Britain's attitude and her intentions, 
by saying : "Our hands are still free 
and we are considering what our atti- 
tude shall be." 

Does not that sound very queer, in 
fact insincere? Was it worthy of a 
great nation to prevaricate like did 
Sir Edward Grey in this case, and 
to pretend to be undecided as to what 
to do in case of war between Germany 
and France, after he had assured 
France positively (British White Paper, 
Document No. 119) that in case of 
war between Germany and France 
Great Britain would join France 
against Gei'many? 



After promising Prance Great Bri- 
tain's help in case of war with Ger- 
many, Sir Edward Grey told this cold- 
blooded, ghastly untruth to the Ger- 
man Ambassador : "Our hands are 
still free and we are considering what 
our attitude shall be." (British White 
Paper, Document No. 123.) Was there 
ever told by the foreign minister of a 
great nation a more criminal untruth 
than was told by Sir Edward Grey on 
that occasion? An untruth, which cost 
Great Britain untold treasure in gold 
and in lives, which caused tens of thou- 
sands of widows and orphans to weep 
in Great Britain and Germany ! 

An untruth so atrocious that the 
Prime Minister dared not lay the whole 
of it before Parliament, because the 
House of Commons, as MacDonald, a 
member of Parliament said, otherwise 
never could have been persuaded to 
declare war against Germany, who was 
willing to fulfill all reasonable condi- 
tions which England might ask. Arthur 
Ponsonby, another Member of Parlia- 
ment, in an open letter dated August 
ISth, published in the London "Nation" 
of August 22, 1914, says, that behind 
the backs of the people secret but bind- 
ing engagements had been made by the 
British Foreign Office, but that later 
on during the negotiations with Ger- 
many Sir Edward Grey declared in the 
most explicit way. that Great Britain 
was unfettered in the event of war ! 

You see, gentle reader, it is not neces- 
sary for Germany to assert that Sir Ed- 
ward Grey, the representative of Great 
Britain, prevaricated and thereby in- 
volved his fatherland in a gruesome 
and indefensible war, for Englishmen 
have arisen and told him so to his face, 
among others, MacDonald and Pon- 
sonby, Members of the British Parlia- 
ment, who spoke in sorrow and shame, 
and Bernard Shaw, England's great- 
est playwright, who spoke in disgust 
and contempt. 

Have any Germans in Germany 
arisen and accused the Kaiser or Beth- 
mann-HoIlweg of bad faith, of willful 
perversion of facts, of the telling of 
falsehoods? Has there been a dozen, 
or six, or two, or even one? No, not 
one — of all the sixty-seven millions of 
Germans in the fatherland not one had 
to hide his head in shame, had to turn 
away in disgust, because he had to 
acknowledge that the man who repre- 
sented Germany had been unfaithful 
to the country which had called him 
to his high place, had failed in putting 
the welfare of his country above his 
personal ambition. 

A career not of statesmanship but 
of political adventure had so perverted 
Sir Edward Grey's ideas of right and 
wrong, that Germany's honest endeavor 
to keep England out of the war by 
granting all her reasonable conditions, 
was characterized by him, or the Prime 
Minister, as "an infamous proposal" 
and the negotiations between the two 
countries were presented by them to 
Parliament in such a garbled and un- 
true manner, that war resulted, while 
peace would have been assured if they 
had given a truthful and complete ac- 
count of the negotiations with Ger- 
many. — The Crucible. 



Let us pray for peace, but let us 
also insure it by building battle- 
ships. 



A Reply to Jacob H. Schiff. 

In the New York "Times" of Novem- 
ber 22, 1914, there appeared an inter- 
view granted by Jacob S. SchifE to 
that paper's representative. As Mr. 
Schiff is occupying quite a prominent 
position and this interview has been 
widely discussed, it seems to us that 
Mr. Schiff's attention should be called 
to two points, concerning which, by 
reason of "Mehr Lieht," he might 
change his opinion. 

We know nothing about Mr. Schiff 
personally, but it stands to reason that 
certainly with regard to high finance, 
he must be. of an originating, independ- 
ent mind, to have attained the high 
place which he now occupies. He does 
not, however, show any independence 
of mind in his view of the question of 
the so-called Belgian neutrality, but is 
satisfied with a most superficial con- 
sideration of the subject. It has been 
proved by unimpeachable evidence that 
Belgium had entered, long before the 
war, into an alliance with France and 
England, and that hers was therefore 
a fradulent neutrality, in other words 
null and void — non-existing. But even 
if, for argument's sake, we say that 
Belgium's neutrality was genuine, still 
Germany did not commit, as Mr. SchifC 
asserts, a most unjustifiable action, for 
the Supreme Court of the United States 
has decided, "That while it would al- 
ways be a matter of the utmost grav- 
ity and delicacy to refuse to execute 
a treaty, the power to do so was a 
prerogative of which no nation could 
be deprived without deeply affecting 
its independence." 

This decision is to be found on page 
600, vol. 130 of the United States Re- 
ports, and appeals so strongly to com- 
mon sense that to read it is to be 
convinced. For a nation to be able 
to make a treaty but not to have the 
power to terminate it, even abruptly 
in case of sudden demand, would sim- 
ply mean that that nation had ceased 
to be independent. A treaty between 
nations is equivalent to a contract be- 
tween individuals and is subject to the 
same general lawsi 

The second point on which we dis- 
agree with Mr. SchifC, and on which 
he disagrees with himself, is when 
he declares that Germany, if victorious, 
would become at once a serious menace 
to the United States, and would before 
long challenge the Monroe Doctrine. 

A little further on Mr. Schiff says 
himself that the destruction of the 
victor would be nearly as complete as 
the disaster of the vanquished, and 
how anybody can think that in case 
of such utter exhaustion Germany 
should find the strength and feel the 
desire to challenge the United States 
passes our understanding. It will take 
Germany fifty years to repair the dam- 
age, and heal the wounds of this war, 
and by the time she will have recov- 
ered, her present enemies will have 
recovered likewise. This alone would 
keep Germany from antagonizing Un- 
cle Sam, aside from the fact that Ger- 
many's main object in acquiring col- 
onies was to open to Germans lands 
where they could stay Germans — 
would not "have to amalgamate with 
other nations. Germany does not covet 
any lauds already colonized by the 
wliite race, as her past history has 



BRITISH WAR POLITICS TO DATE 



29 



shown, but she wants her share of the 
waste places of the earth, where she 
can show, and has already shown, Eng- 
land how her colonies can and should 
be improved. 

Certainly for the next fifty years 
Germany will be unable to make war 
on Uncle Sam, and after that — less than 
ever. 

We trust that Mr. SchifE will be con- 
vinced by our arguments and should 
be glad to hear from him. 



ENGLAND IS PRANK IN ONE 
THING — ITS WAR IS A COM- 
MERCIAL, ONE. 



British Tradesman-Policy Is Admitted 

by Those Who Speak for the 

Navalism Nation to the World 

at Large. 



By Edmund von Mach. 
From "The Fatherland," New York. 

The British government has estab- 
lished in London a sample depot of 
German wares, with a list of the 
places where they used to be sold, at 
what prices and in what quantities. 
Suggestions are also made how this 
trade may be diverted to England. 

This is natural because England 
looks upon the economic profits to be 
derived from this war as the most 
important. A London magazine, 
therefore, The Financier, spoke in a 
recent number (Boston Evening 
Transcript, March 3, 1915), substan- 
tially as follows: 

"Germany is on the point of losing, 
for ten years or longer, not only the 
big markets of Russia, France and 
Belgium, but also those of the whole 
English-speaking race. The German 
foreign trade has suddenly ceased, 
and it is our duty to see that it will 
never start again. What Germany 
has achieved by years of painstaking 
labor has suddenly been given into 
our hands. So long as we control the 
routes of the great oceans — and if 
we improve our opportunity — the 
complaint of German commercial 
competition will not again be heard, 
at least in our lifetime." 

Self-Sufficient Confession. 

This unblushing confession of 
what England is fighting for, made 
only a few months after the beginning 
of the war, is a worthy counterpart 
to the famous trumpet call to arms of 
1897 when England first realized her 
inability to win by fair means our 
German competition. "A million 
petty disputes," the Saturday Review 
said, "build up the greatest cause of 



war the world has ever seen. If Ger- 
many were extinguished tomorrow or 
the day after tomorrow, there is not 
an Englishman in the world who 
would not be richer. Nations have 
fought for years over a city or a 
right of succession. Must they not 
fight for two hundred million pounds 
of commerce?" 

From the English point of view 
they must, of course, fight for it, for 
Englishmen hate nothing worse than 
free competition in the open markets 
of the world. 

English wars are commercial wars. 
The English government, to be sure, 
has generally looked for moral 
sources under which to disguise its 
real purposes. This procedure, how- 
ever, has at times been very annoying 
to her blunt fighting men, for the lat- 
ter openly prefer the attitude of their 
famous Admiral Monck, who said dur- 
ing the English-Dutch struggle for 
commercial superiority: "What does 
this or that reason matter? What 
we need Is a slice of the commerce 
which the Dutch now have." 

Britons Write Neutral News. 

If the press of our English-Amer- 
ican friends, who in spite of their 
hyphen are often not void of Ameri- 
can patriotic feelings — this state- 
ment has, of course, no reference to 
the British subjects who are engaged 
in writing "neutral" war news in our 
metropolitan papers — ^would recog- 
nize the emphasis which England has 
always laid on the economic side of 
her wars, two recent occurrences 
would have been less puzzling to 
them. 

England's objection ' to President 
Wilson's Ship Purchase bill was 
voiced by those American business 
men who cannot conceive of a fiour- 
ishing American industry independent 
of England. Even if President Wil- 
son should have wished to purchase 
every German merchantman lying 
idle in an American port — and this 
lias been denied — the material benefit 
which would have accrued to the 
German companies would have 
amounted to only a few million dol- 
lars, and even if this money could 
have found its way from the private 
owners to the exchequer of the Ger- 
man government, it would have been 
but a drop in the bucket. England's 
real objection was due to her fear 
lest America cut loose from her 
walking strings. 

Independent of the British carry- 
ing trade, America and not England 
might be the real gainer of the war. 
But the very thought of England hav- 
ing instigated a world war without 
being able to reap the glorious re- 



ward of two hundred and fifty million 
dollars' worth of annual trade, was 
enough to break every honest English 
heart! And this would not have been 
the whole calamity, for if America 
could have her own ships, England 
might find at the end of the war that 
she had not one, but two capable 
rivals — Germany and America! She 
has been unable to hold her own 
against one rival; against two she 
would be utterly helpless! • 

Must Set His House in Order. 

And she knows this, for there is 
not a living English business man 
who is not convinced in the bottom 
of his heart that he must set his 
house in order first, before he can 
hope to compete on even terms with 
anybody. England, however, hates 
progress. She does not wish to re- 
nounce her oligarchical government 
or abolish her privileged classes. She 
regrets the destitution of her laboring 
classes — perhaps, but she would 
rather pay billions to crush a rival 
than millions to improve the condi- 
tions of her own people. This is the 
real cause of the present war. 

The second incident mentioned 
above as showing what England is 
aiming at, would have opened the 
eyes of everybody, if there had not 
been so many Americans who believe 
that they must admire the political 
England, because the literary and sci- 
entific England has meant so much to 
them. They were, therefore, willing 
to excuse Sir Edward Grey's an- 
nouncement last week that England 
would seize in the future all German 
goods purchased by and shipped to 
neutral countries. Officially this was 
a measure of retaliation against Ger- 
many's submarine war. Actually it 
was England's attempt to procure for 
herself the German dyestuffs with- 
out which her textile industry is 
dying. 

Since America could get these dye- 
stuffs, there was danger that the 
United States might forge ahead. 
Why not, therefore, take all neutral 
steamers carrying goods which both 
England and America need into an 
English port, keep the goods, ex- 
change polite notes with Mr. Bryan, 
offer perhaps arbitration, and years 
hence pay the present market prices 
of the captured goods? In the mean- 
while, England would have revived 
her own industries and have starved 
the American factories. Unfortu- 
nately for her plans, not all Ameri- 
cans are hyphenated English, and 
most Americans, of whatever descent, 
may be trusted to rally to the support 
of their country whenever her natu- 
ral welfare is at stake. 



ISOLATED GERMANY. 



Editorial from "The Chicago Trib- 
une," August 6, 1914. 

Merely as a piece of military con- 
fidence, Germany's challenge of 
Europe is wonderful. The triple al- 
liance has broken down. Italy has 
declared its neutrality. There re- 
mains the dual alliance. Austria- 
Hungary has its hands full with the 
veteran army of Servia, trained in 



two wars. It cannot give a full 
measure of aid to Germany. The 
two Teutonic empires are almost en- 
tirely surrounded by loes. 

Military necessity has made bellig- 
erents of the Belgians. It may 
make belligerents of the Dutch. It 
might even make belligerents of the 
Danes. Except for such aid as Aus- 
tria, hampered by an active foe, can 
give, Germany is isolated. 

Frederick the Great never faced 
such odds as Wilhelm II now meets. 



The new element of speed in war- 
fare is in the equation. Distance is 
not the same protection. Armies 
are raised and moved so swiftly that 
the tactics of Frederick in selecting 
his enemies and dealing with them 
singly may not have time or oppor- 
tuility. 

This eruption of armed men has 
been in the dreams of military strate- 
gists for a decade or more. The 
assumption has been that Germany 
must meet and destroy France. * * * 



30 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



Fairness and Impartiality 
The Plain Duty of all Intelligent Neutrals During the War 



AN APPEAL FOB A FAIR JUDG- 
MENT. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, New 
York. 

Judge Peter S. Grosscup, Chicago. 

Mr. Herman Ridder, President of 
the "New Yorker Staats-Zeitung," in- 
troduces Judge Grosscup's article 
as follows: 

"Judge Peter S. Grosscup, of Chi- 
cago, to whom I am indebted for the 
following excellent analysis of the 
question of responsibility for the war 
in Europe, needs no introduction to 
the American people. As a District 
Court Judge for the Northern Dis- 
trict of Illinois and later as judge 
both of the United States Circuit 
Court and Circuit Court of Appeals, 
he established a reputation, equalled 
by few of his contemporaries, for 
clear-cut logic and fearless expres- 
sion of views. 

"The application of sound judicial 
sense to the points Involved in the 
present war has been avoided by 
England and by her ardent admirers 
in America for obvious reasons. I 
believe, and to some extent because 
this has been the case, that Judge 
Grosscup's presentation and elucida- 
tion of these points will be welcomed 
by all open-minded Americans." 

An Appeal For a Fair Judgment. 

The other day I saw a group of 
men in a lane some distance from the 
road who seemed to be in earnest 
conversation. Suddenly one of the 
men struck one of the others. In- 
stinctively I felt that he was the ag- 
gressor — that he wished a fight. But 
the facts, had I been near enough to 
see and hear, might have been differ- 
ent. That first blow as I saw it 
may have been in self-defense; I was 
not near enough to see the other's 
clenched fist. It may have been de- 
served; I was not near enough to 
hear the provocation. What is the 
only thing visible to one at a dis- 
tance may not have been the fact 
at all as seen by those upon the spot. 

American public opinion means to 
be fair. But we in America saw the 
beginnings of this war only from a 
distance. It looked to us as if Ger- 
many struck first. "Was that the act 
of an aggressor wishing for a fight, 
or the act of one who believes he was 
justified in what he did? At first I 
thought Germany the aggressor, 
wishing for war. The reading of 
the English White Paper — getting 
the facts from those near the scene — ■ 
convinces me that the Kaiser and his 
councillors did not do what they have 
done out of desire for war. And 
while it does not convince me that 
war was unavoidable, it reveals that 
responsibility for it, whether it was 
avoidable or not, is on Russia pri- 
marily, and as much, at least, on Eng- 
land and Prance secondarily as on 
the Kaiser and his councillors. Be- 
fore going to that, however, a couple 
of collateral considerations must be 
noticed. 



The first of these is: How came it 
about that Germany was so ready for 
war at the moment she declared war. 
If she did not desire war? Is not 
"readiness" an evidence of "desire"? 
Yes and No. That depends on other 
facts — for instance, how long has 
that readiness existed? One ready 
and wishing for war would strike 
quickly — would not wait forty years. 
Germany has been "ready" for forty- 
three years. Her situation, both on 
the west and east, has compelled her 
to be always ready. But while within 
the last sixteen years of that forty- 
three England has made war on the 
Transvaal, the United States on 
Spain, Japan on Russia, and Italy on 
Turkey, Germany, always ready, has 



S. A. S. What right has any Brit- 
ish Consular Officer to vise mani- 
fests of American vessels sailing to 
neutral countries? 

They have no such right under 
international law. It would seem, 
however, from the "Philadelphia In- 
quirer" of the 23rd instant, that such 
right has either been extended to 
them or has been suggested by Wash- 
ington. The American people should 
protest most vigorously against this 
infringement of their right. 

M. O. D. Has India come whole- 
heartedly to the support of England 
in this war? 

She has not. The people of India 
have put themselves upon record as 
being opposed to the use of "Indian" 
troops in this war. We should not be 
deluded by what England tells us. 
The Sikhs, the Gurkhas, and the Pa- 
thans, the troops which England has 
called to her assistance against Ger- 
many, are not Indians in any sense 
of the word. They are mercenary 
hill tribes whom England enlists 
against her Indian subjects. They 
serve to keep the intelligent Indians 
from revolt. There is a common say- 
ing in India, kept up by the English, 
that once the English are withdrawn, 
the Pathans will come down upon 
India, and then "there will not be a 
rupee or a virgin left in all India." 
The truth about India in this war is 
this: England has brought thence 
certain of her mercenary troops to 
fight the Germans. When England 
raises the cry of "a loyal India," we 
may ask England how many artillery 
units there are in the Indian army. 
There is not one. Since the insur- 
rection of 185 7 the Indians have not 
been entrusted with the great guns 
of Britain's modern artillery. Eng- 
land has been afraid to entrust them 
with artillery, because in the SeJ)oy 
Rebellion the artillery units which 
went over to the Indians were the 
hardest which she had to handle. 
England is today turning against 
Germany not India, but the wild 
troops which raped the women of 
Canton in 1912. — From the "Ques- 
tions and Answers" column in the 
"New Yorker Staats-Zeitung," Octo- 
ber 28, 1914. — The Publisher of 
"War Echoes." 



remained at peace. Does that count 
for nothing in the enquiry of whether 
"readiness" is evidence of "desire"? 
The Kaiser came to the throne in 
his twenties; he is now in his fifties; 
during that period, usually the fight- 
ing period in a man's life, he has not 
sent a German soldier against an en- 
emy; of the million soldiers in the 
field today the German army alone is 
without a private soldier who has 
ever before seen actual service in 
battle. Does that count for nothing? 
Who can believe, satisfactorily, to 
himself, that readiness of that kind 
is evidence of desire? 

The second of these collateral mat- 
ters is: How came it about that Ger- 
many invaded Belgium if she did 
not desire war? The White Paper 
shows that Germany told England 
she would not mobilize against 
Prance if England would assure the 
neutrality of Prance in Germany's 
affair with Russia. That shows she 
was not seeking war even with 
Prance, her old enemy, much less 
with little Belgium that lay between 
them. The White Paper shows also 
that Germany asked England if she 
(England) would remain neutral if 
Germany, in the event of war with 
Prance, would stay out of Belgium. 
England professed to treat this as 
the offer of a bribe and declined to 
commit herself. The White Paper 
shows also that when Germany could 
get none of these assurances she 
asked for peaceful transit across the 
Belgian territory, offering to com- 
pensate for any losses that might fol- 
low. This Belgium refused. One 
other fact in this connection — the 
geography of the country. A look 
at that will show that for Germany 
to swing her forces solely on the 
southerly bend through Alsace and 
Lorraine would leave her northern 
flank at the mercy of a northern 
army, from either'England or France. 
To keep out of Belgium, therefore, 
with England a possible enemy, 
would have been military madness. 
Now, with all these facts in mind, 
what was, not the technical, but the 
moral obligation of Germany to Bel- 
gium? By going across Belgium she 
was not forcing war on Belgium; 
for although Belgium was under no 
duty to Germany to grant her tran- 
sit, she was under no duty to England 
or France to resist it by force. She 
could have remained neutral by re- 
maining passive, as China is remain- 
ing passive, while Japan, called out 
by England, is going across her ter- 
ritory toward Germany's Chinese 
port. China has not given permis- 
sion ; she protests; but no one be- 
lieves, much less anyone in England, 
that as a neutral she is obliged to 
take up arms against the country 
whose army is crossing. Indeed, Bel- 
gium's right not to be molested, even 
by troops in transit, was not that of 
"guaranteed neutrality" at all, rest- 
ing on treaty, but of territorial in- 
violability, resting on the fact that 
she was an independent nation — the 
same right that I have to exclude you 
from my house, not because you have 



THE DUTY OF NEUTRALS IN THE WAR 



agreed with someone else, to let me 
alone, but because the law gives me 
the right, on my own account, to be 
let alone. 

But suppose, in pursuit of one who 
has attacked you or is about to at- 
tack you, you go through my house, 
that being the only way you can ef- 
fectusily overtake him. However 
technically it may be a trespass, will 
the law look upon it as a moral 
wrong? Some abstract rights have 
to yield, on occasion, to greater con- 
crete needs. Whether Germany was 
morally right in attacking France is 
one question; her military neces- 
sities, in case she was morally right 
in the attack, is another and a dif- 
ferent question. And that public 
opinion lacks all sense of proportion 
which holds, that however morally 



right the attack on France may 
have been, and whatever the neces- 
sity of going across Belgium, there 
is a moral wrong in trespassing on 
Belgium's abstract right of terri- 
torial inviolability — compensation be- 
ing guaranteed, t At least, except as 
an excuse, no nation yet has made 
it a cause for war. As for France, 
assuming again that Germany was 
right in striking her, her mouth is 
closed against complaining of the 
violation of the treaty by the fact 
that she provoked it. And England, 
in declining to say whether she would 
be a belligerent or not, is in the same 
posture. As pretended guardians of 
Belgium they cannot provoke an at- 
tack and then fend it off by holding 
up their ward between them and the 
blows that follow; so that as a moral 



question, this occupation by Ger- 
many of Belgium soil for the purpose 
of transit, is merged in the larger 
moral question: Was Germany right 
In her attack on France — did she 
honestly believe that her security 
and honor required that that attack 
should be made? 

Though the White Paper covers 
five pages of the American newspaper 
in which I found it, the essential 
facts pertinent to this larger ques- 
tion are few and can be compactly 
stated. The first of these — trite 
enough but never to be lost sight of 
— is that the Austro-Hungarian mon- 
archy contains a very large Slav popu- 
lation — the race of the Servians also 
— some of it added in recent years. 
This constituted, to say the least, a 
highly inflammable anti-Austrian ma- 



f'The Belgian nation preferred 
ruin and death to the shameful per- 
jury proposed to her by Germany." 

— We have reprinted this quotation 
from the statement made public by 
the Belgian legation on October 21, 
wherein it quoted extracts from the 
Belgian Gray Book, extracts which 
were published by "The Chicago 
Tribune" in its issue of October 22. 

After reading Judge Grosscup's 
article and also his supplement, 
which we reprint in full on the fol- 
lowing pages, each man will be his 
own judge as to whether Germany, 
in requesting Belgium to permit her 
to march her troops through Bel- 
gian territory, for which privilege 
she guaranteed full compensation, 
can be rightfully accused of having 
proposed a "shameful perjury" to 
the Belgian nation. 

The truth of the matter is, the 
Belgian king and government had 
allied themselves with the enemies 
of Germany. Both France and Eng- 
land had promised help to Belgium. 

It is a lie to say that "the Bel- 
gian nation preferred ruin and death 
to the shameful perjury proposed to 
her by Germany." The Belgian 
king and government committed an 
awful crime in preferring to throw 
in their lot with England and France 
and thus trusting to the fortunes of 
war to defeat Germany instead of 
remaining strictly neutral. The for- 
tunes of war have gone against the 
Allies. For the "ruin and death" 
brought over the Belgian nation, the 
latter should hold its own king and 
government responsible, and blame 
its allies, the French and especially 
the English, for not having fulfilled 
their promises for efficient help. 

Of course the Belgian nation is 
finding out that England wanted to 
use it only as a cats-paw, the same 
as England is using her French and 
Russian allies. 

In this connection we reproduce 
in the following, part of an article 
entitled "The Present Situation of 
the War" by the Military Expert of 
"The Fatherland," New York, Octo- 
ber 28, 1914, which says: 

After the fall of Antwerp our (the 
German) position was uncommonly 
favorable, great forces were now free 
for service elsewhere. 



In the meantime at the other end 
of our lines, the bombardment of 
Verdun had to be made more force- 
ful, in order to ensure more rapid 
progress. 

We have reached this point today, 
while the left wing of the French 
army was opposing a strong German 
position at Armentieres, northwest 
of Lille, and in no position to make 
any progress, they had another — a 
new group — apparently French ma- 
rines sent up to the coast in order 
to intercept the Germans at the Yser 
River, between Nieuport and Dix- 
mude, hoping to meet with the rem- 
nant of the Belgian army. Thus pre- 
venting the German army from reach- 
ing the coast. 

This German advance sets all Eng- 
land by the ears — especially many of 
their erstwhile phlegmatic golf and 
tennis heroes. Why? 

The English Channel Coast of 
France in the possession of the Ger- 
mans? Yea, that is certainly a turn 
we did not foresee on August 4. 
From this point the war could be 
carried over to the sacred soil of 
proud Albion, where throughout cen- 
turies of war upon war the rough- 
shod boot of a foe never committed 
the sacrilege to tread. English soil 
a battlefield for European squabbles? 
Ridiculous! 

Hear the Liondon "Times": 

"And, should the war last ten 
years; should the last French garcon 
of Bordeau.x; the last Cossack from 
the Caucasus find his grave upon the 
battlefield — England's soil will al- 
ivays remain unmolested and un- 
touched."* 

Whoever has failed to understand 
by this late day, the facts so plainly 
written upon the pages of current 
history, will soon realize the impor- 
tant result of events now occurring. 

What a monument to England's 
perfidy; to Albion's broken pledges 
to suffering Belgium: Liege, Namur, 
Antwerp crowned by delusive hopes. 

A similar movement is now in the 
hands of the great sculptor "Justice" 
for ceremonious unveiling in France. 

All this is perfectly clear to a mili- 
tary expert, however prone a layman 
may be to misinterpret the portend 
of the shadows of coming events. 

Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais, Havre in 
the possession of Germany is of minor 



importance to France, whose main 
object should be the annihilation of 
the German armies — not the defense 
of her unmolested channel coast 
line. Her marines who by command 
of her treacherous ally are wasting 
their efforts in the defense of Dun- 
kirk, should fight around Lille, or 
Arras, or Roye. Dunkirk is not a 
factor in the final result of this war. 
In the coming events at the front 
only — will the decision be reached. 

The iron ring around Dunkirk; the 
forts at Bruges — Francais, Ijouis and 
Des Dunes, originally erected against 
false Albion and which are so closely 
connected 'l^'ith English history, will 
now, in the possession of Gennany, 
become the starting point of a new 
era in world history.* 

Even while writing these words, 
this historic spot may have suc- 
cumbed to German conquest. 

The present position of the Ger- 
mans in Russia promise a final de- 
cision in their favor at an early date. 

Austria-Hungary, having succored 
Przemysl, has once again a free hand, 
as the Russians have been driven out 
of Hungary across the Carpathian 
Hills. 

The German - Austria - Hungarian 
left seems to be carrying out estab- 
lished plans between Ivangorod and 
Warsaw, as they have again taken 
the offensive in their endeavor to 
cross the Vistula. 

England and France are exceed- 
ingly worried over the slow progress 
of their barbaric friend Russia. They 
are really angry that the Russians, 
after promising to be in Berlin by 
October, are now further away from 
the "Brandenburger Thor" than they 
were last August. There is no 
change in the position in Bast Prus- 
sia. General Rennen-Kampf seems 
to be disinclined to entertain new 
adventures just at present. 

To the satisfaction of Brother 
Churchill a iew more "rats" came 
out of their holes. Too bad that 
these German rats are obliged to go 
all the way to the coast of Scotland 
to find offal to feed on. Note: Great 
Britain may thank Churchill that her 
navy is designated as "offal," a fa- 
vorite food for rats.* 



♦Emphasized in bold type by the 
Editor. 



32 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



terial to anyone disposed to start 
a fire within the Austro-Hungarlan 
boundaries. Another fact — not so 
trite, but equally important — is that 
Servia has been systematically distri- 
buting firebrands throughout this in- 
flammable matter. "It was a sub- 
versive movement," says the Aust- 
trian foreign minister in one of the 
dispatches constituting the White 
Paper, "intended to detach from Aus- 
tria a part of her empire, carried on 
by organized societies in Servia, to 
which Servian high officials, including 
ministers, generals and judges, be- 
longed, and resulting in the assas- 
sination of the heir to the throne 
and his wife," not as the individual 
mad deed of a Guiteau or a Czolgosz, 
we might add, but of "an organized 
propaganda and conspiracy" that de- 
veloped itself in several attempts, at 
unconnected points, by several per- 
sons, on the same day; a statement 
of the Servian attitude nowhere de- 
nied in this English White Paper, 
either in the London foreign office or 
the embassies at Paris or St. Peters- 
burg. On the contrary. Sir Edward 
Grey says he cannot help but look 
with sympathy on the basis of the 
Austro-Hungarian complaint. And 
Servia herself practically admits the 
truth of it, in her reply to the Aus- 
trian ultimatum, for though she 
calls whatever agitation took place 
"political" — that is to say, something 
whose object is the change of govern- 
ment and not private murder — she 
offers to dissolve the Narodna Od- 
brana, a revolutionary society, and 
every society which may be "direct- 
ing its efforts against Austria-Hun- 
gary;" to introduce a law providing 
for the most severe punishment of 
"publications calculated to incite 
hatred against the territorial integ- 
rity of Austria;" to remove from the 
"public educational establishments" 
in Servia everything calculated to 
foment propaganda against Austria; 
to publish in the official gazette and 
read to the army this promised new 
attitude of Servia to Austria; and 
to remove from military service all 
such persons as judicial inquiry may 
have proved to be guilty of acts di- 
rected against the integrity of the 
territory of Austria-Hungary — prom- 
ises no people would make unless 
there was a basis of fact for the com- 
plaint. 

But though Servia thus acknowl- 
edged the basis of the complaint, and 
promised to take measures to remedy 
it, she refused the "collaboration" 
of Austrian representatives, or the 
participation of Austrian "delegates," 
in the investigations relating thereto. 
She made no straight out denial of 
the subversive movements alleged. 
The most that can be made of her 
answer is that she neither admits 
nor denies, but simply calls for the 
proofs. But she refused the presence 
of Austria at the taking of the proofs. 
In a word, as Austria viewed it, 
should the promised investigation be 
a whitewash, or should it be a sin- 
cere effort to locate responsibility? 
Austria wanted a sincere investiga- 
tion — the attitude of Servia looks as 
if she wanted a whitewash. And it 
was on that that the two countries 
broke. 



Now was Austria-Hungary right in 
making the demand and Servia wrong 
in refusing the demand, that Austrian 
delegates sit in at the investigation? 
That is the crux of the matter as a 
question between Austria and Servia. 
The conduct of nations, like that of 
individuals, must stand the test of 
common sense. And like individuals, 
nations have the right to have their 
word taken in matters of this kind 
until their word is no longer good, by 
being repeatedly broken; so that had 
this been the first complaint by Aus- 
tria against Servia on this matter, 
and this Servia's first promise to live 
hereafter on friendly relations, there 
would have been no justification for 
, Austria's demand, or for her refusal 
to take Servia's word that a fair in- 
vestigation would be made and the 
guilty punished. But this White 
Paper shows that this was not Ser- 
via's first promise — that she had 
made former promises — that this 
new offer of her word .was the 
offer of an already broken word 
This is the third fact in the enquiry 
— the turning fact in the question 



Have Slandered the Irish. 

"The same press which is now 
slandering the Germans, has always 
in the past slandered the Irish but 
now, every day, inspired articles tell 
of the loyalty of the Irish people 
to England in this war. We are 
told English officers are to be sent to 
Ireland to drill the Irish volunteers, 
and that the guns and uniforms will 
be given to them by the English gov- 
ernment. 

"I think I know the character of 
my race, and I am free to say that 
guns and military instruction will be 
gladly received by them from any 
source whatever, but the English red 
coat will never be worn by an Irish 
volunteer and the oath of allegiance 
to King George will never be taken 
by an Irish national volunteer sol- 
dier. I believe that the majority of 
the Irish race in America are op- 
posed to England in this unnecessary 
war of aggression which she is now 
waging against Germany. The Irish 
have always been for the under dog 
every time, and Germany is the un- 
der dog in this war, a war forced 
upon her by England's hatred and 
intrigue. 

"May the Germans continue to 
grow and thrive. We know them 
as God-fearing, law-abiding and self- 
respecting citizens, who bring credit 
to any community they live in." 

Alfred Williams made a five- 
minute speech in which he protested 
against the patriotic stand taken by 
John Redmond in the present crisis. 
He said it is time to sing the old 
song, "Germany, Oh, Germany, When 
Will You Set Old Ireland Free?" 

The members appointed to the re- 
lief committee were: Ed. Ruhl, Br. 
Huetz, Prof. Rosenau, Praeulein 
Dierckes, Jacob Milch, Mrs. Walter 
Wesselhoeft, Mrs. Kuno Francke, 
Mrs. H. L. Carstein, F. Stoltmann, 
Charles Eberhardt, C. W. Holtzer, 
P. W. Kalkmann, Max Schubert, 
B. J. Arntz, Max Otto von Kluck. 



of who was wrong and who was 
right — a fact entirely ignored in 
the views pressed upon American 
public opinion. Five years before, 
March 18, 19 9, Servia gave her 
word, not to Austria alone, but to 
the great powers, that this scatter- 
ing of firebrands should cease — that 
thereafter she would live as a friend- 
ly, neighbor. That shows that five 
years before the offense was already 
in existence. Did it cease? Was the 
word kept? In the note communi- 
cated to Sir Edward Grey by the 
German ambassador July 24, 1914 — 
a note that called out from Sir Ed- 
ward, not a denial, but an expression 
of sympathy — the German ambas- 
sador, referring to that earlier prom- 
ise says, "It was only owing to the 
far-reaching self-restraint and mod- 
eration of the Austro-Hungarian gov- 
ernment, and to the energetic inter- 
ference of the great powers, that the 
Servian provocation to which Austria- 
Hungary was then (March, 19 09) 
exposed did not lead to a conflict. 
The assurance of good conduct in the 
future which was then given by the 
Servian government has not been 
kept. Under the eyes, at least with 
the tacit permission of official Ser-- 
via, the great Servian propaganda 
has continuously increased in exten- 
sion and intensity; to its account 
must be set the recent crime the 
threads of which lead to Belgrade;" 
an indictment that none of the 
powers so much as question — neither 
the foreign offices nor embassies of 
Russia, England, or France — and to 
which Servia practically pleads guilty 
in her answer to the Austrian ulti- 
matum already stated. 

Now, in view of this, what was 
Austria-Hungary to do? Accept the 
word of Servia again? We must look 
at it not from the standpoint of those 
who think the Austro-Hungarian gov- 
ernment ought to be destroyed, but 
from the standpoint of Austria-Hun- 
gary herself. What would we of 
America do, if despite a solemn prom- 
ise to desist, some neighboring na- 
tion continued to' stir up racial revo- 
lution among our people — say Spain 
among the Porto Ricans or Philip- 
pines? Would we accept that na- 
tion's word again? It is a just and 
generous nature that accepts the of- 
fender's word on the first offense, 
but a foolish or craven nature that 
continues to accept it through repe- 
titions of the offense. Let us not lose 
sight of the practical side of the prob- 
lem as presented to Austria. The 
spirit behind these attacks on Aus- 
tria-Hungary was not the spirit of 
the Servian government only, but the 
spirit of the Servian people, also. A 
government may be reached some- 
times by protest. But there are cases 
in which a people can only be reached 
by some tangible military demonstra- 
tion. History is replete with demon- 
strations of that kind; so that the 
problem of Austria, now that the 
government's word could no longer 
be taken, was to impress the people 
of Servia with Austria-Hungary's pur- 
pose not to be silent longer under 
these flying firebrands. We went to 
war with Spain for less than Aus- 
tria was suffering at the hands of 
Servia. England declared war on the 
republic of Paul Kruger for less. 



THE DUTY OF NEUTRALS IN THE WAR 



33 



And Italy declared war on Turkey for 
less. And in each case the war closed 
with territory detached from the van- 
quished and taken by the victor. 
Were we wrong? More than that: 
Did any great outside power even 
say Nay? On the contrary, we were 
left to deal with the problem as we 
thought right. Why, then, should 
any outside power say Nay to Aus- 
, tria, especially if no territory was to 
be taken? Morally right in her 
demand on Servia, to sit in at the 
Investigation, why was not Austria 
left alone to enforce that right, as 
England, the United States, and Italy 
had been left to enforce their rights? 
The answer is — Russia. , And that 
too, not because Austria was without 
just cause for what she proposed, but 
because any movement against the 
Slavs of Servia would not be tol- 
erated by "home opinion" in Russia. 
That is the fourth salient fact con- 
tained in the White Paper. Had Rus- 
sia stood aside as England was will- 
ing to stand aside, except to see that 
the demonstration against Servia was 
not carried too far, the flame would 
not have spread to Europe. England 
had no interest in it, as an "Austro- 
Servian question;" so Sir Edward 
Grey expressly declared. France's in- 
terest was merely that of ally of Rus- 
sia — it was put on that ground at 
the time by the French foreign office; 
so it was Russia's interference, 
and Russia's interference alone, that 
blew the flame from a matter con- 
cerning Austria and Servia only, to 
a matter involving Europe. And 
upon the sole reason (at least such 
is the purport of the White Paper) 
that there was a condition of opin- 
ion "at home" that would not permit 
her to be tolerant, or even just, in 
such a dispute as this abroad. Group 
together, in your mind, these three 
facts — the presence of the Slav in 
large numbers in Austro-Hungarian 
population; the systematic stirring of 
these Slavs by Servia against Austria- 
Hungary; and the persistence of Ser- 
via in that, even after solemn prom- 
ises to stop it, both to Austria and 
the great powers — and you have 
staked out the cause of the war as 
an immediate matter between Aus- 
tria and Servia. Add the fourth fact 
— the determination of Russia, for 
reasons of her own, that no military 
demonstration should be made to stop 
Servia — and you will have the lever 
that lifted it from an Austro-Servian 
question to a European question. 
Russia is the great Slav country of 
the world. It is not impossible that 
that great race demanded of its gov- 
ernment that no Slav anywhere 
should be punished, even if he were 
stirring up the Slavs of a neighbor- 
ing nation. It is not impossible that 
Russia, pressed at home by her own 
Slavs for a greater measure of civil 
liberty, saw in the Servian situation 
a vent for that feeling, by becoming 
the champion of the race abroad. It 
is not impossible that Russia has de- 
signs of her own on the Balkan pen- 
insula, and feared that a demonstra- 
tion by Austria might take the form 
of acquiring territory. Whatever 
the reason, the spark that ignited 
Europe was this alleged public opin- 
ion in Russia. What subsequently 
transpired was simply the develop- 



ment of that spark. Germany tried 
to drown it out, even in Russia; the 
White Paper shows that on a sharp 
note from her to Austria, Austria 
stipulated not to take any of Ser- 
via's territory. Germany tried to 
T)revent its spreading to France; did 
not want war with France; the White 
Paper shows, as already stated, that 
she said she would not mobilize 
against France if England would 
stipulate for France's neutrality. 
And it is certain Germany did not 
want war with England. Even after 
England announced she would not 
permit Germany to attack from the 
sea the northern coast of France, 
and asked about the purposes of 
Germany respecting Belgium, Ger- 
many suggested that if England 
would remain neutral she would stay 
out of Belgium. But Russia was im- 
movable; she would not accept the 
offered stipulation of Austria that ter- 
ritory would not be taken from Ser- 
via. England would make no assur- 
ances for France; and with respect 
to Belgium, professed to look upon 
the suggestion as the offer of a bribe. 

War is hideous. The Kaiser and 
his father always ready, as their 
situation made it essential they 
should he ready, had for forty-three 
years averted it. But if put in his 
place, the head of a nation, what 
could you have done? What could 
Austria and Germany do? Let the 
Servian government and the Servian 
people go free, on her own word 
again? That would be to invite con- 
tinued attacks. Servia would have 
ascribed this indulgence to fear of 
stirring up trouble in Europe. Let 
Russia's interference change this? 
Servia would have known then that 
their indulgence was due to fear — the 
fear of Russia. Besides there is a 
national self-respect that must be 
maintained. Germany and Austria 
bowing to the yoke of Russia, on a 
matter in which Germany and Austria 
were right and Russia wrong, would 
have been Germany and Austria al- 
ready morally vanquished. Even 
though France and England has 
come at once, and openly, to the side 
of Russia, could Germany and Aus- 
tria have let the matter go on Ser- 
via's word? Not unless they were 
willing to bow their necks to the yoke 
of Europe. The fact that England 
and France joined Russia in putting 
on the yoke would not have allevi- 
ated the servility of bearing it. 

But was there no way to escape 
that yoke without war? That is the 
question history will ask. Without 
war with Russia, no — unless Austria 
accepted the Russian veto on any 
demonstration against Servia, Rus- 
sia's mind was made up. Austria 
stipulated not to annex Servian ter- 
ritory; that was not enough; Russia 
remained immovable. England sug- 
gested a conference, and pending such 
conference that Austria be allowed 
to occupy Belgrade. Russia refused. 
Russia was willing that England, 
Italy, France and Germany should go 
into conference, but made it clear 
that pending the outcome of such a 
conference, Austria's hands must be 
tied even from making a military 
demonstration of her determination 
that the incendiarism should cease. 
Russia's will in the matter must be 



accepted by Europe as well as by 
Germany and Austria. That was 
Russia's attitude. And it meant to 
Austria and Germany either to bow 
to that will, or war — with Russia, 
at least. 

Russia undoubtedly believed she 
had the backing of France in this, 
and possibly of England also. The 
White Paper contains a dispatch 
showing that the French ambassador 
at St. Petersburg was urging the 
"solidarity" of Russia, France and 
England, on the English ambassador 
there. Now, why did France back 
Russia? Why has England come 
finally to back her, for the Belgian 
matter Is only an excuse? On this 
matter between Austria and Russia, 
Austria was right and Russia was 
wrong. For Austria to have surren- 
dered to the veto of Russia would 
have meant the surrender of her in- 
dependence as a great power. Why 
did Prance (and England finally) 
virtually insist on that surrender? 
Because of the Triple Entente? No 
ally is bound to support another ally 
In a wrong. It is on that ground that 
American public opinion is excusing 
Italy from her obligation to Ger- 
many. Why, then, did not England 
and France let Germany, right, have 
it out alone with Russia, wrong? 

There was something else than the 
Triple Entente. Europe, the chief 
seat of civilization, is the chief seat 
of the world-old struggle of the 
races also, especially eastern and 
southeastern Europe; the drawing of 
the races together by the concentric 
chords of modern life has only in- 
tensified that struggle. Europe is 
the seat of the modern struggle of 
economic ambitions; industry in our 
day has become the affair not of 
Individuals but of nations. But as 
colors released from their anchorage 
run together, the races drawn out of 
their isolations are merging, and in- 
dustry no longer a matter of small 
spheres is concentrating into larger 
spheres; neither races nor economic 
spheres can be kept separate longer 
by national boundaries. Within the 
thirty years between my first and last 
visits to Europe this process of things 
becoming alike (including people) 
has transformed Europe from a land 
of picturesque differences to a land 
resembling America in identity of 
dress, of mental attitudes, and of the 
internal spirit as well as external 
appearances of live affairs. That 
means that the day of a larger polit- 
ical concentration is at hand also. 
What led France and England to 
back Russia, wrong, in this Austria- 
Hungary matter against Germany, 
right, was, undoubtedly, their appre- 
hension that Germany successful over 
Russia would be Germany not sim- 
ply preSminent, but preponderant, 
both politically and economically, 
among the nations of the continent. 

That apprehension may have been 
justified by the probable fact. The 
spread of the war to the whole of 
Europe, in consequence, history may 
justify; I am only stating what I be- 
lieve to be the basic cause. But this 
thing every honest mind must admit: 
If this was the Big Cause, underneath 
the smaller causes, that brought 
France and England into the strug- 



34 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



gle, Germany, by every law that en- 
titles a nation to honestly grow, was 
entitled to resist them. And it war 
on one Bide of this apprehension was 
something not to be denominated as 
monstrous, war on the other side is 
equally above that common epithet. 
It is not impossible of course that 
Germany made a mistake in believing 
war with Russia, or surrender to Rus- 
sia, was unavoidable, through con- 
ference. Only Omniscience and the 
Russian Cabinet knew. It is not 
impossible that Germany made a tac- 
tical mistake — that the participation 
of England on the side of Russia 
might haVe been avoided by that con- 
ference. Only Omniscience and the 
English Cabinet knew. And it is not 
impossible that Germany made a mis- 
take as to her own strength, even 
when ready, against her enemies' un- 
readiness. The event will prove. But 
the duty and the responsibility of 
balancing these, as to whether he 
would wait for such conference or 
not, was with the Kaiser and his 
counselors. He knew that Germany 
was ready. And who has the right 
to say, that if war either now or later 
was inevitable — if the attitude of 
France and England supporting Rus- 
sia, wrong, against Germany, right, 
in the Austro-Servian matter, re- 
vealed their true attitude toward the 
natural growth of Germany in the 
family of nations — who has the right 
to say in that event that William was 
bound to wait until his own prepara- 
tions had been matched by theirs. 
I am not unreservedly for Germany, 
nor for France or England in this 
war. There is much I do not know 
that might turn the scale either way. 
But I am for an open mind. The 
question is not: Who struck the first 
blow? The question is: Why was 
any blow made necessary? 

PETER S. GROSSCUP. 



the war. A certain phase of his ar- 
gument was taken exception to by "The 
Times." I now have pleasure in print- 
ing Judge Grosscup's counter-reply 
thereto. 

HERMAN RIDDER. 



I cannot refrain from the observa- 
tion that Judge Grosscup has not only 
struck, in the article concluded above, 
the true note of that higher neutral- 
ity enunciated by President Wilson, 
but that he has also given a sound, 
logical and workable interpretation 
of it. If in the beginning all Amer- 
icans and all American organs of pub- 
licity had approached the situation in 
Europe with "an open mind" we 
might have been spared the war of 
words which it has brought down 
about our ears. Attack inspires de- 
fense, and as in Europe, Germany 
and Austria were not the aggressors, 
so in the American press, it was not 
those who sympathized with Germany 
and Austria who opened hostilities 
but those who insisted upon vilify- 
ing them. It is high time that "cease 
firing" was sounded. 

HERMAN RIDDER. 



A Continuance of article: 
AN APPEAL FOR A FAIR JUDO- 
MENT. 



By Judge Peter S. Grosscup, of Chi- 
cago, in Herman Ridder's Column, 
"The War Situation from Day to 
Day," in the "Neiv Yorker Staats- 
Zeitung," October 25, 1914. 
I published in this column some 

days ago Judge Grosscup's article on 



An editorial just seen by me in the 
"New York Times" comments on some 
views the Belgian neutrality expressed 
by me In an article in the "Staats- 
Zeitung." This comment was no doubt 
meant to be fair and was without tem- 
per — something rather unusual these 
days in European war talk. But It 
left an incorrect impression of what I 
had written. Will you let me briefly 
state what my view is? 

The Congress of Vienna of 1815, sit- 
ting after the fall of Napoleon, took 
Holland and Belgium away from Aus- 
tria and made of them a single king- 
dom, guaranteeing its neutrality. The 
parties to that stipulation included 
England and Prussia, the party feared 
being France. In 1831 Belgium ob- 
tained her Independence and again had 
her neutrality guaranteed by the great 
powers, Including England and Prus- 
sia. The effect of this stipulation was 
that of international "contract" be- 
tween the powers signing, that in case 
of war between them, and especially In 
case of war between other powers, the 
neutrality of Belgium, a small state 
comparatively, should be observed and 
protected by the larger states. Unques- 
tionably the decision of Germany to 
cross Belgium was In contravention of 
that contract, and, in consequence, an 
international wrong, unless countervail- 
ing circumstances had arisen that 
made compliance with that contract a 
greater wrong. The point I wish to 
bring out is that the relation of Ger- 
many and England with respect to the 
Belgian matter, so far as England was 
concerned, was a matter of contract 
only. 

On the other hand Belgium as an 
independent neutral state was en- 
titled, not by this contract, mainly, but 
by the law of nations, to possess her 
territory inviolate from the trespass of 
other nations. Until early in the 19th 
century this right included the right 
to grant leave to belligerents to cross 
her territory on the way to the enemy. 
This, says the German authority 
quoted In your editorial — the nations 
of the continent being small and 
largely separated from each other by 
the territory of other nations — was a 
matter of "necessity." Since the early 
part of the century, however, the opin- 
ion has become pretty near unanimous 
that a neutral nation may not grant 
such leave, but on the contrary must 
"prohibit" the use of Its territory for 
the transit of troops. "It is neverthe- 
less conceivable," says Sir Thomas Bar- 
clay, an English authority writing 
since 1907 for the Encyclopedia Britan- 
nlca, "that under pressure of military 
necessity, or on account of an over- 
whelming interest, a powerful belliger- 
ent state would cross the territory of a 
weak neutral state and leave the conse- 
quences to diplomacy ;" as an illustra- 
tion of which he cites the act of Eng- 
land in crossing Portugese territory, 
on its way to the South African repub- 
lics in 1901, over the protest of Por- 
tugal. Those who succeed him in writ- 
ing may also cite as an illustration 



Japan's crossing China in this war of 
1914 on her way to the German Chi- 
nese port, and over the protest of 
China also — Japan, according to her 
premier's statement, having been called 
out by England. In a word, neither 
the law of international trespass, nor 
treaty, abolishes "necessity" as an ele- 
ment in international warfare. 

Now let us look at the facts as a 
matter of "contract" between England 
and Germany — assuming of course that 
Germany was morally right In an at- 
tack of any kind on France. To march 
Into France by any way other than 
through Belgium is to go by a south- 
erly bend through Alsace and Lorraine. 
That would leave the whole of the 
northern half of France free from at- 
tack except from the south. Bismarck 
could afford to do this In 1870 because 
England had announced her neutrality. 
On August 2, 1914, six days before the 
German armies touched Belgium, and 
when the question of German neutral- 
ity was still under discussion between 
the English and German foreign offices, 
England not only had not announced 
her neutrality but gave her engage- 
ment to Prance that she would pre- 
vent, with her fleet, the Germans from 
attacking or blockading with their fleet 
the northern ports of France. England 
could not do this and remain a neutral. 
To say she would block with her fleet 
Impending operations of the German 
fleet in the war that was opening in 
France was, in itself, an act of war; 
this, too, in connection with the fact 
that, when England asked Germany 
her intentions respecting Belgium, Ger- 
many asked England if she (Germany) 
remained out of Belgium, would Eng- 
land remain neutral — a question Eng- 
land refused to answer except to say 
she would not tie her hands. Here, 
then, was England already enough at 
war with Germany to block any at- 
tack on the northern ports of France; 
ready, too, to come through those ports 
with her armies to the help of the 
French armies, In case she became a 
full belligerent which her attitude 
clearly foreshadowed ; and not above 
coming through Belgium also, in case 
of stress, upon the flank of Germany, 
as her conduct in South Africa showed. 
Now what under such circumstances 
was Germany to do with that "con- 
tract" with England? Keep it, as a 
sportsman, you say, would keep, his 
side of a stipulation however onerous, 
and thereby Increase by one-half Ger- 
many's chances of defeat, certainly 
prolong the war, and with equal cer- 
tainty give up a much larger toll of 
lives to bring the war to an end? War 
is not a sport; and defeat in war and 
its bruises are not the defeated sports- 
man going home with a sore pride or 
sores on his arms and legs. Defeat In 
such a war as this is the loss of every- 
thing for which a capable and gallant 
people have struggled since 1870, and 
the bruises are the families left at 
home without husbands, sons and 
brothers. To say that a "stipulation" 
thus misused by England — the England 
that has since palmed it off, as the 
"cause" of war although she had al- 
ready entered the arena before as a 
partial belligerent at least — should pre- 
vail over these larger circumstances 
both military and humane, is not the 
essence of morality ; It is quixotic, con- 
trary to the common sense of one's 



THE DUTY OF NEUTRALS IN THE. WAR 



35 



obligations, Inhuman as well as un- 
human, a:nd would have marked the 
German Kaiser as a faithless servant 
of his people. 

But what about the consequences to 
Belgium? The sympathies of the world 
naturally go out to her — not less the 
sympathies of those who believe she 
was beguiled into unnecessary fight- 
ing on her part than of those who 
think it was her duty to fight. As a 
neutral nation Belgium could not have 
granted leave to Germany to cross her 
territory. I will go as far as the au- 
thority quoted and say it was her duty 
to "prohibit" Germany from crossing 
her territory. But she was under obli- 
gation to England or the other nations 
to use herself up and her army in that 
prohibition. Belgium is to Germany in 
military strength about what Switzer- 
land would be to Austria. Switzerland 
is also a country whose neutrality is 
guaranteed. Now suppose Austria, in 
a time of peace, had put some great 
dishonor on France — had seized her 
President and his ministers when on a 
visit to Vienna and held them as pris- 
oners — how could Prance reach Aus- 
tria by land except through Germany, 
Italy or Switzerland? Supjwse fur- 
_ther that Germany refused transit and 
■ Italy as a member of the Triple Alli- 
ance not only refused transit but with 
her navy barred the sea as England 
barred the sea to Germany, would 
Switzerland be obliged to let France 
eat up her army on its way to the 
enemy? Along with the balance of the 
world Switzerland's sense of justice 
and feelings might be all on the side 
of Prance — must she in spite of that 
on "a point of law" become practically 
the fighting ally of Austria? The con- 
elusion is absurd. It puts a "point of 
law" above humanity and ordinary 
common sense. Who thinks that in 
case Switzerland would not thus im- 
molate her army, Austria or the world 
would hold her accountable after- 
wards? Who thinks China will be held 
accountable by Germany after the war, 
even if Germany is successful? Who 
feels that England would hold Belgium 
accountable? And why not? Because 
down in his heart every man knows 
that to hold a power like Belgium or 
Switzerland to such an accountability 
would shock the moral sense of the 
world. In any wide vision of the situ- 
ation, therefore, Belgium was not re- 
quired to resist Germany "by force." 
She had the right to, but was not 
morally required to. Even as a 
"point of law" in international juris- 
prudence, her obligation did not go 
that far. International law is not un- 
reasonable. It recognizes "necessity" 
as a force in affairs. It does not de- 
mand more blood than is necessary to 
reach conclusions — demands no fruit- 
less blood of the innocent bystander to 
fulfill a technicality or keep the record 
straight. If Germany is morally wrong 
in this war on Prance and Russia, my 
pro-English friend does not need this 
side issue to justify his sympathies. 
On the other hand if Germany is 
morally right as between her and 
France and Russia, he is forgetting the 
duty not to sacrifice to a "word" the 
wider and substantial "thing," the in- 
creased danger of defeat and increased 
cost of life involved in shutting one's 
eyes to what may be the overshadow- 
ing military necessity of the situation. 



And if you reply that such doctrine is 
immoral, my answer is that in this 
case you are making a fetish of some- 
thing that it would be, in the highest 
sense of humanity, immoral not to dis- 
regard; for it is the letter of the law 
that killeth, only the spirit that mak- 
eth alive. England professing still to 
be not at war, holding back Germany 
on the neutral sea — itself a flagrant 
violation of neutrality — will cut a poor 
figure in her pretense that what 
brought her into the conflict was this 
subsequent violation of Belgian neu- 
trality by Germany. 

In a word, the position of England 
toward Germany was this : You shall 
not use the neutral seas to attack with 
your navy the northern ports of 
France or open them up to your 
armies. I will use my navy to prevent 
you from the use of such neutral seas. 
Nor shall you reach northern Prance 
with your armies through Belgium. I 
will use this "contract" of neutrality 
,to block that. My obligation toward 
neutrality amounts to nothing on the 
seas ; but your obligation of neutrality 
is everything on the land. And be- 
cause Germany did not submit to this 
double cross on her right to attack 
Prance from the north, England pro- 
fesses to have gone into the war as 
the champion of the cause of the in- 
violability of treaties and of neutrality. 
PETER H. GROSSCUP. 



NEWS THE NEW YORK TIMES 
WOULD LIKE TO SUPPRESS. 



(From "The Fatherland," New York, 
September 23, 1914.) 

The New York Times chides the 
British censor for not suppressing the 
story of the Turco soldier who pro- 
tested vehemently when from his 
scanty baggage there was removed 
the head of a German soldier which 
he proposed carrying back with him 
to Africa as a souvenir. Evidently 
the old hypocrite on Times Square 
was taken off its guard. For we now 
know just what news the editor of 
the Times regards as "fit to print." 
Whatever helps England or hurts 
Germany is fit to print, whatever un- 
masks the true nature of the bar- 
barous war waged against Germany 
by the savages of Africa, the Mon- 
gols of Asia and the Cossacks, under 
the direction of London is not fit to 
print. Meanwhile the Times, more 
English than the English censor, con- 
tinues its criminal campaign for the 
suppression of truth. 



If I may be permitted a word to 
the American press, I should say, dis- 
card your bias, forget your sympath- 
ies, overlook your prejudice and 
mine, and enter upon the campaign of 
peace with the energy, the determin- 
ation and the grit so characteristic of 
America. When Barrie lectures In 
the United States tell him we want 
peace. Make that sentiment so 
strong and so universal that the na- 
tions of the world will hear our cry. 

Should Germany refuse an honor- 
able and lasting peace, then and then 
only will the time have come to heap 
abuse on its ruler arid odium on its 
government. — Herman Ridder. 



THE RUSSIAN "ORANGE PAPER." 

The publication of the Russian 
"Orange Paper" throws important, 
and what naay be regarded as prac- 
tically definite light on the question 
of immediate responsibility for the 
present war of the nations. The 
British and German "White Papers" 
already given to the reading world 
have contained nothing that ap- 
proaches in definitiveness the con- 
fession of the Russian Foreign Of- 
fice of the fatherly interest taken 
by Russia in the affairs of Servia, 
and of the filial obedience with which 
Belgrade responded tliereto. I have 
had occasion previously to draw at- 
tention to the well-defined policies 
of Russia and Servia. It remained, 
however, for the Russian government 
to show how closely interlocked they 
were and with what complete accord 
both were working, or being worked, 
toward their fulfilment. 

The ambitions of Servia may he de- 
scribed as the extension of her ter- 
ritory and the increase of her popu- 
lation by the detachment from the 
Austro-Hungarian Empire of those 
adjacent provinces in which the 
Slavic element predominates. These 
ambitions in themselves may be re- 
garded as laudable or otherwise, ac- 
cording to the political and ethical 
frame of mind of the observer. It 
is perhaps possible that Mexico would 
like to see returned to her all that 
southwestern portion of the United 
States which once was hers. As 
long as such feelings remain within 
bounds they do not constitute a casus 
belli with Mexico. But should the 
Mexican people attempt by a cam- 
paign of education, backed by secret 
murder and open assassination, to 
secure the restitution of this terri- 
tory to Mexico, and should it be dis- 
covered that this campaign had the 
support of the authorities in Mexico 
City, I do not believe we should hesi- 
tate long in demanding of Mexico 
an understanding quite as vigorous 
as that which Austria-Hungary asked 
of Servia. Were such a campaign 
to culminate in the assassination of 
the President of the United States 
or of his Secretary of State, as in 
Servia it ended in the murder of 
the Austrian Archduke, I am sure 
our act of retribution would he 
swifter. That Austria should have 
taken the stand which she eventually 
took, is not surprising. It is cause 
for marvel only that she did not as- 
sume it months before. 

The frame of mind of the Servian 
people upon the conclusion of the 
Balkan war may be compared with 
that of the Japanese after their suc- 
cessful war with Russia. They had 
beaten the enemy, and, consequently, 
could lick the world. If we carry 
the comparison further, however, we 
must admit that the Servian govern- 
ment, like the Japanese, held a more 
conservative estimate of its powers. 
And it is, and all along has been, 
impossible of conception that Servia 
would have maintained herself in the 
position of defending the anti-Aus- 
trian propaganda unless she had been 
able to depend implicitly upon the 
support of a strong ally. The am- 
bitions of the Servian people could 
not be realized without the aid of 



36 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



Russia, and in return for that aid 
Servia was willing to act as a cat's 
paw to draw Austria-Hungary into 
a conflict in which Russia would 
come to her support, and at the same 
time find an excuse for annexing, 
if possible, the Galician provinces. 

All this has been known by those 
who have followed the course of 
events in the Balkans in recent years. 
It is confirmed now by the Russian 
Foreign Ofiice. 

If Servia had depended impartially 
upon the powers signatory to the 
several Balkan conventions, why was 
it that the Austrian note of July 23 
reached St. Petersburg the same 
day from Belgrade, and was not 
communicated to the Foreign Office 
of the other interested powers? 
It reached them apparently only 
through the diplomatic channels of 
Austria-Hungary. If Russia and 
Servia were not playing a concerted 
game of political intrigue, what ex- 
cuse can be offered for this oversight 
on the part of the government in 
Belgrade? If Servia wanted peace, 
why did she refer her troubles only 
to Russia, who, she knew, wanted 
war? 

The oft-repeated assertion that the 
Czar did his best to preserve the 
peace of Europe is contradicted by 
the published documents of his own 
foreign office. It develops from a 
reading of the telegram of July 24, 
. the day before the time limit set in 
the Austrian ultimatum elapsed, 
from the Prince Regent of Servia to 
His Majesty the Emperor in St. 
Petersburg, that Servia was "ready 
to accept the Austro-Hungarian con- 
ditions which are compatible with 
the situation of an independent 
State, as well as those whose accep- 
tance shall be advised us by your Ma- 
jesty." In other words, Belgrade 
was ready to submit to the just and 
natural demands of Vienna, if only 
His Majesty gave the word. Had the 
Czar counseled Servia as every con- 
sideration of propriety demanded, he 
should counsel her, there would have 
been no conflict between Austria and 
Servia. In this hour of opportunity, 
however, the Czar chose to be con- 
sistent rather than correct. Having 
encouraged the Servian propaganda 
for his own purposes and by the 
promise of support, it was perhaps 
too late for him to retrace his steps. 
It was easier, apparently, to go ahead 
and attempt to see the thing through, 
and that is what he did. . With the 
long-sought pretext at hand, it would 
have been bad management from the 
Russian point of view to pass it up. 
The Russian and French armies had 
been whipped into shape and the 
British fleet was being held in leash. 
It was now or perhaps never for 
Russia to strike for the accomplish- 
ment of her aims. 

But even when war had become 
inevitable between Austria and 
Servia, the impossibility of Russia 
not coming to the aid of Servia can 
be explained only on the grounds of 
consistency. There could have been 
no possible outcome of such a con- 
flict which called upon Russia to in- 
tervene on one side or the other, 
except that she had backed Servia 
against Austria to a point from which 



she could not retreat without "los- 
ing face." It is clear now what Rus- 
sia stands and has stood for — in- 
trigue against neighboring states, 
murder and assassination. The pre- 
tense that she sought peace by ask- 
ing delay on the part of Austria is 
too shallow to hold much water. To 
her, and to her alone, was it given 
to counsel Servia in the right direc- 
tion and she refused to do so. Even 
then it was given her to allow Aus- 
tria and Servia to settle their dis- 
pute without her interference. When 
she failed in this, she failed to pre- 
serve the peace of Europe. 

It is idle to talk now of what the 
German Emperor might have done. 
As an ally of the Austrian Emperor, 
he could not be expected to counsel 
Austria against demanding of Servia 
the righting of wrongs which had 
come to be intolerable. He did what 
he could to localize the war, did 
more than any other sovereign of 
Europe, and his efforts to this end 
ceased only when it became unmis- 
takably apparent that Russia could 
not be swerved from her purpose of 
attacking Austria. 

The then position of Germany was 
sufficiently explained in the note 
handed to the British Government, 
on July 24, by the German Ambas- 
sador at the Court of St. James. 

"The Imperial Government want 
to emphasize their position that in 
the present case there is only the ques- 
tion of a matter to be settled ex- 
clusively between Austria-Hungary 
and Servia, and that the great pow- 
ers ought seriously to endeavor to 
reserve it to those two immediately 
concerned. The Imperial Govern- 
ment desire urgently the localization 
of the conflict, because every inter- 
ference of another power would, 
owing to the different treaty obliga- 
tions, be followed by Incalculable 
consequences." 

It was not the entrance of Ger- 
many into the war that started the 
conflagration, but the unwarranted 
interference of Russia in a quarrel 
which was not hers, and when his- 
tory writes the story of 1914, the 
name that will stand out pre-emi- 
nently before all others, written in 
letters of blood, will be Nicholas II. 



AN UNFAIR COMPABISON. 



"* * * In England the opponents 
of the war, and I understand that 
they are represented in the House of 
Commons, maintain that the For- 
eign Office failed to do everything 
possible to avoid the war. It is cer- 
tain that England knew of the 
agreements, the plans and the pur- 
poses of France and Russia. Eng- 
land knew on July first of this year 
what all the world knows now, 
namely, that Germany and Austria 
had been isolated by diplomatic in- 
trigues of the Triple Entente. The 
dream of Edward VII to crush his 
hated nephew was about to be real- 
ized. The fact that England, Russia 
and France join in the chorus shout- 
ing "The Kaiser did it, the Kaiser 
did it' will not blind history when 
it places the responsibility for this 
war." — Herman Ridder, in the 
"New Yorker Staats-Zeitung." 



Editorial from the "Milwaukee Free 
Press," September 21, 1914. 

We have not had presented a sufficient 
reason for the almost complete destruction 
of Louvain. It does not seem to reach 
the spot to say that Belgians flred on Ger- 
man troops. Mexicans did the same on 
Americans at Vera Cruz but Vera Cruz is 
now a better organized, healthier and hap- 
pier city than it was before the Americans 
entered. American military justice upon 
citizens found shooting was as severe as 
the Germans' upon Belgians caught in the 
act. The non-combatant saeriflces his 
standing when he does this, but it does not 
warrant such wholesale destruction as 
was the punishment given by the Germans. 

This paragraph from an editorial 
in "The Chicago Tribune" is a typical 
specimen of the kind of argument, 
speciously fair upon its face, by 
means of which certain American 
newspapers create sentiment against 
Germany. 

There does not exist even the ves- 
tige of a parallel between the Ger- 
man occupation of Louvain and the 
American occupation of Vera Cruz. 

The United States was not at war 
with anyone. Her troops were landed 
without declaration, and to this day 
no precedent or warranty has been 
adduced for this strange violation 
of the territory of a friendly nation. 
In the anomalous position which our 
troops occupied at Vera Cruz, the 
meting out of "American military 
justice upon citizens found shooting" 
is in itself a strange commentary on 
the event. 

Had this arbitrary act on the part 
of our Government led to national 
armed resistance on the part of Mex- 
ico, such as met the German army 
when it entered upon its pacific 
march through Belgium, what would 
then have been the policy of the 
American generals? 

Had Mexico declared war upon us, 
would we have paused to make Vera 
Cruz a healthier, better organized 
city? Would we have continued to 
tolerate the guerilla warfare of non- 
combatants to the extent of making 
it an individual and not a community 
matter? 

The smouldering ruins of Filipino 
villages, the "water cure" inflicted 
upon tight-tongued insurrectos, 
which engaged the press some fif- 
teen years ago, may testify to the 
contrary. 

Let us not be hypocrites. War is 
one thing, and a police move — such 
as we assume the occupation of Vera 
Cruz to have been — is another. 

It was for us to avoid any act that 
might antagonize the Mexican people 
to convince them of our pacific in- 
tent. It was for the Germans har- 
rassed from the start by civilian at- 
tack, to teach a lesson that would 
once and for all stop the guerilla 
warfare of Belgian non-combatants. 

We are not in a position to pass 
upon the necessity of the destruction 
of Louvain, as "The Tribune" seema 
to be. Its correspondent, Mr. Ben- 
nett, believes that it was merited. 
It is hard to think in terms of war 
In a land peace, and the thought of 
this fair city in ruins is a tragic one. 



IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF THE WAR 

From the Time of the Assassination of the Archduke and Duchess of Austria 

The Real Immediate Cause of the War 

The Russian MobiHzation 



The Philosopher of History on Modern Ultra-pragmatism 
in this World Politics 



german "war-makers" — a 
criticaij study. 



Germanistlc Society of Chicago. 



By Noel Sargent, of the University of 
Washington. 

The great European war has been 
ascribed to many causes, but the one 
of which we hear the most is beyond 
doubt German militarism. "Ger- 
many," we are told, "had a chip on 
its shoulder and was ready and will- 
ing, even anxious, to fight any or all 
comers." "Germany was the most 
formidable military power on the 
Continent and took no pains to avoid 
the conflict." "The people of Ger- 
many are a war-like race and believe 
that in might is right." "Ever since 
1870 the feeling of militarism has 
been predominant in the Teuton em- 
pire." These are serious charges to 
make, and appeal strongly to every 
American when they are constantly 
reiterated. The United States is, and 
always has been, opposed to mili- 
tarism in any form. As a result ap- 
peals to our natural prejudice have 
a great effect. But while we can 
never approve of militarism, for its 
own sake, yet it is possible to under- 
stand, by reviewing actual facts, the 
reasons for Germany's strength, and 
to disprove the allegation that Ger- 
many is a warlike nation. 

The Historical Record. 

History demonstrates to us that 
Germany is not an aggressive coun- 
try. The war of 1870 was the result 
of French desire to engage in a strug- 
gle with Prussia. Sir Henry Lytton 
Bulwer stated in the Commons Feb- 
ruary 17, 1871, that Germany had 
been exposed to a war which was un- 
justly brought upon her. Mr. Wash- 
burne, American Minister to France 
in 1870, writes in his "Recollections 
of a Minister to France," (v. 1, ch. 
2): "It really appeared that the 
government of France had deter- 
mined to have war with Germany, 
coute que coute. The alleged causes 
growing out of the talk that Ger- 
many was to put a German prince 
on the throne of Spain were but a 
m^re pretext." 



Mr. Horsman in the House of Com- 
mons said on Feb. 17, 1871: "I 
insist that if you take the whole 
history of Germany you must say 
that she has not been an aggressive 
power." Viscount Royston added: 
"Prussia has never been aggressive 
outside what she considered her own 
sphere." 

Again, take the German record 
since 1870. What do we find? Over 
forty years of unbroken peace. 
What other nation can point to such 
a record? Not England, with her 
bitter struggle with the Boers. Nor 
Italy with her defeat in Abyssinia 
and the war with Turkey. Neither 
Japan nor Russia with their war of 
1904. Nor can the United States 
and Spain lay claim to a better rec- 
ord. Surely, this record must speak 
for itself. If Germany had really 
desired war what magnificent oppor- 
tunities she has had. At the time 
of the Boer war it would have been 
an easy matter to start a conflict with 
England. Or after the Russo-Jap 
war of 1904, when the Russian arms 
were demoralized by defeat. Or dur- 
ing the Algeciras or Agadir inci- 
dents. If Germany had wished for 
war what better chances could she 
have possessed? Germany's record 
does not prove her a warlike power. 
Prof. Arthur McDonald, in an ad- 
dress at the American Institute of 
Criminal Law and Criminology in 
Washington in October, 1914, showed 
the years the countries of Europe 
remained at peace from 1800 to 
189 5, a period of 96 years. Ger- 
many was at war 11 years; Spain 13 
years; Austria-Hungary 14; Italy 
16; Turkey 16; England 19; Russia 
20; France 21. 

German "militarism" has kept the 
peace for over forty years. Not an- 
other great nation can show us a 
record to compare with this. Facts 
are the truth and the truth is mighty 
and must prevail. 

The Kaiser's War. 
"William II, the 'war lord' of Eu- 
ope, the war-mad ruler, the supreme 
autocrat of Germany, personally 
started the conflict. This is the 
Kaiser's War," Such is the charge. 
Let us see. 



These two words — "war lord" — 
have done more to influence the be- 
lief of the Americans that German 
militarism is a menace to world 
peace than any one thing. Yet the 
term "der oT)erste Kriegsherr," from 
which they are derived, means 
merely "chief commander of the 
forces." Every sovereign country 
has an "oberster Kriegsherr," as 
George V in England, Nicholas II in 
Russia, or Woodrow Wilson in our 
own land. Twenty years ago some 
one took the phrase, highly elabo- 
rated it, and flung it out to the world 
as "supreme war lord," which has 
been a powerful ally for all those 
who feared or disliked "Prussian 
militarism." 

The constitutional powers of the 
Emperor are not exceptional. He 
has the power, just as our own 
President, to declare defensive war. 
For offensive war he must obtain 
the consent of the Bundesrat. All 
funds, in both offensive and defen- 
sive wars, are voted by the Reich- 
stag, as by the House in this country. 
The military power of the executive 
everywhere includes the supreme 
command of all the military forces 
of the nation. In some monarchical 
countries, as Great Britain, it em- 
braces also the right to declare war. 
In France the assent of both cham- 
.bers is necessary. In both France 
and Germany it is admitted that the 
executive can declare defensive war 
without the necessity of obtaining 
the legislative consent. Even where 
the executive may initiate hostilities, 
extensive war cannot be waged for 
any length of time without the ap- 
proval of the legislature, since it and 
not the executive controls the source 
of supply. When compared with 
other rulers the power of the Kaiser 
is not excessive. 

Now let us consider William II. 
Is he, as a man, warlike and mili- 
tant? Is he an enemy of peace? It 
is difficult to believe this. The 
Kaiser has always acted in the in- 
terests of peace. And he has had, 
as Emperor, many chances to em- 
broil his country in foreign relations 
which must inevitably have led to 
war. After the settlement of Agadir 
the Kaiser- was severely arraigned by 



38 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



the jingoistic members of the Berlin 
press (Germany, like every other 
nation, including our own, has a 
jingoistic press) on the ground that 
he had exhibited weakness in the 
councils of Europe. French jour- 
nalists have called him "Guillaume le 
timide." 

On the first page of the magazine 
section of the "New York Times" 
for June 8, 1913, there are some 
interesting letters. Here are some 
extracts : 

"The one man outside this coun- 
try from whom I obtained help in 
bringing about the Peace of Ports- 
mouth (ending the Russo-Jap war) 
was His Majesty William 11. From 
no other nation did I receive any 
assistance, but the Emperor person- 
ally, and through his Ambassador at 
St. Petersburg, was of real aid in 
helping induce Russia to face the ac- 
complished fact and come to an 
agreement with Japan. * * * 
This was a real help to the cause 
of international peace, a contribu- 
tion that far outweighed any amount 
of mere talk about it in the abstract, 
for in this as in all oth«r matters an 
ounce of performance is worth a 
ton of promise." 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

"The highest praise that I can of- 
fer concerning the Emperor William 
II is that he would have made as 
good a King of England as our his- 
tory has provided, and as good a 
President of the United States as any 
since George Washington. 

"It was said of the Emperor Wil- 
liam that he was medieval in his war 
spirit, but he has proved himself a 
modern keeper of the peace * * * 
The world owes to Emperor William 
a debt of gratitude. He might have 
found cause to reap advantage from 
European embroilment of his own 
making, but he has proved himself 
among the most civilized interna- 
tionally patriotic of rulers." 

SIR GILBERT PARKER. 

"The truth of history requires the 
verdict that, considering the critic- 
ally important part that has been 
his among the nations, he (the Ger- 
man Emperor) has been for the last 
quarter of a century, the ^ greatest 
single individual force in the prac- 
tical maintenance of peace in the 
world." 

W. H. TAFT. 

England's greatest daily, the "Lon- 
don Times" (see Literary Digest of 
July 12, 1913) said: "His homage 
to peace is no mere lip-service. It 
comes from a deep and real sense of 
the awful responsibility to Heaven 
and to man which weighs upon the 
author of an unjust war." Yet we 
are now asked to believe that a man 
with these high-minded ideals and 
principles has wilfully started an un- 
just war. 

M. Charles Bonnefon in the "Paris 
Figaro" remarked: "On two occa- 
sions of initial significance has the 
Emperor courageously plied his oars 
in stemming the current of popular 
fury * * * He has braved uni- 
versal unpopularity in order to main- 



tain the peace of Europe. The 
"Berlin Vorwarts" refused to join 
in the Kaiser's anniversary celebra- 
tion, but had to admit: "We are 
ready to believe that William II hon- 
estly wishes for peace." 

The record of William II is open 
to the world. The truth may be 
caught up by the winds of calumny; 
it may be distorted and turned aside, 
but it shall not be lost — its influence 
shall be lasting. 

Statements by men who know are 
surely worth far more than the 
vaporings of war-mad journalists or 
politicians. 

Is it probable or possible that the 
Kaiser was for a quarter of a cen- 
tury deliberately deceiving the world, 
and that now, at the age of 55, he 
has determined to unmask and strike 
for the mastery of Europe? Even 
less likely is it that the Emperor 
suddenly changed overnight like a 
chameleon changing its color. It is 
an insult to our intelligence to ask 
us to believe such things. For one, 
I prefer to take my stand with the 
ideas expressed by Roosevelt and 
Taft, who, in supreme office for 
twelve years, surely had ample op- 
portunity to become acquainted with 
the real aims and purposes of the 
rulers of foreign nations. The "New 
Statesman" (English weekly) said 
editorially in its issue of October 24, 
1914: "Those who may be expected 
to know most about the point are 
almost unanimous in declaring their 
conviction that the Kaiser did not 
want war." 

The truth is that this is a war of 
the German people. Critics who 
otherwise oppose the Germans admit 
this point. Dr. Gibbons, former 
Professor of History at Rogers Col- 
lege, Constantinople, in his late book, 
"The New Map of Europe," says that 
this war is "the war of the people, 
intelligently and deliberately willed 
by them." Sidney Low, former editor 
of the "St. James Gazette," in the 
"Edinburgh Review" of October says 
that this war has the unanimous sup- 
port of the German people. Prof. 
Morris Jastrow, Jr., of the University 
of Pennsylvania, tells us: "Whether 
rightly or wrongly, the feeling 
throughout Germany and among all 
classes was that the war was forced 
upon them." Andrew Bonar Law, 
leader of the Opposition in the Com- 
mons, said ("New York Sun" of Nov. 
11): "I have never cherished the 
delusion that this is a war of the 
German ruler's army. It is a war of 
the German nation." 

The German people are unanimous 
in their support of the present war. 
Not since history began has the world 
witnessed such a spectacle of a uni- 
fied and courageous people resisting 
forces whose success they believe 
would be inimical to their future as 
a people and as a nation. Without 
exception they believe themselves to 
be obeying the command: "Fight the 
good fight of faith." 

The "Euro-Nietzschian War." 

The works of Nietzsche, Treitschke, 
and von Bernhardi are said to have 
inculcated in the German people a 
love of war and of force, and a feel- 



ing of disregard for the rights of 
others. Learned professors at Ox- 
ford have published a very interest- 
ing book with the title the "Euro- 
Nietzschian War." 

Let us first take up the question 
of Nietzsche and his influence. We 
find in him a writer who vacillated 
from one policy to another. Start- 
ing as an admirer of Wagner and 
Schopenhauer, as one iinbued with 
religious principles, he became embit- 
tered; he denounced German culture, 
German ideals, and everything else 
German; he denounced militarism 
and nationalism; he opposed all 
moral Christian laws and in a sort 
of hyper-Darwinism preached the 
"survival of the fittest." At last he 
became insane. This is the man 
whose writings are held responsible 
for the great struggle. 

But Nietzsche's writings lead us 
to no such conclusion. He was the 
bitter opponent of German culture, 
"upon which," he said, "I looked 
down even in 1873 with unmitigated 
contempt." He denounced Wagner 
as a musician of decadent emotional- 
ism. Schopenhauer he rejected. He 
termed D. F. Strauss (the theological 
and philosophical writer) the "Phil- 
istine of Culture." Why credit this 
individual with unlimited power over 
a people whose culture he derided 
and whom he deplored for a race, 
ordinary, even cowardly in thought, 
and weak? But, did he not say that 
"a good war justifies any cause?" 
Did he not preach the doctrine of the 
Superman, the being who was to es- 
tablish his own code of morality? 
These things are quite true, but their 
significance fades when we consider 
the real attitude of Nietzsche. 

The war that he preached and the 
force that he urged were to be by 
and of the individual, and not the 
race or nation. Nationalism he de- 
tested. In this respect he is diamet- 
rically opposed to Treitschke and von 
Bernhardi. Of Rome, the great em- 
pire, he asked: "Who venerates this 
colossus?" He doubted if large em- 
pires were not inimical to art and 
beauty. He ridiculed the "bovine 
spirit of nationality" and denounced 
Prussian militarism. Since the war 
started the University of Oxford has 
published many pamphlets, one of 
them entitled "Nietzsche and Treit- 
schke," by Ernest Barker, M. A. Mr. 
Barker is forced to admit (p. 12): 
"Passages such as these (which he 
has just quoted) would seem to in- 
dicate an aggressive and militant na- 
tionalism. But Nietzsche is not 
consistent; and nationalism is one 
of his many 'hete noires.' His con- 
structive idea is not national, and 
the war he would preach is not an 
ordinary battle of the nations." Mr. 
Barker adds: "Nietzsche loved 
neither nationalism nor militarism." 
He emphasized European culture, 
and the coming unity of European 
economics. He termed the State 
"that coldest of monsters and most 
frigid of liars" which pretends to be 
the People, and by the People is de- 
tested. "'Talk not of 'land of my 
fathers'; our bark must steer for the 
land of our children." Nationalism, 
says Nietzsche, is "that national 



POLITICAL PRAGMATISM AND FORCE 



39 



heart-itch and blood - poisoning." 
Nietzsche, while he despised English 
culture, was a great admirer of the 
Russian and the Slavic culture. 

To sum up: Nietzsche despised the 
German culture and the German peo- 
ple; he was the foe of militarism; 
he was the bitter enemy of national- 
ism; his doctrine of force, of war, 
and his standard of master and slave 
morality (cf. teachings of Callicles in 
Plato's Gorgias) was for the Indi- 
vidual and not for the State. On the 
very face of it, therefore, it does not 
seem a reasonable proposition to as- 
sert that Nietzsche can be held re- 
sponsible for the war, which he 
would have been the first to mourn. 
Regard the matter without preju- 
dice for a moment. The German peo- 
ple are alleged to be imbued with 
Nietzsche's doctrine of the Superman. 
How ridiculous! It cannot be said 
that the Social Democrats believe in 
the idea of supreme force. The Cath- 
olics vote as a party in Germany and 
are very strong. But the Catholics 
are not Nietzschians. They do not 
believe in the idea of master and 
slave morality or in the idea of a 
Superman. Nietzsche denounced 
Christianity and would not be in 
favor with the Catholic voters. These 
two parties represent a large ma- 
jority of all Germans. 

Economically Nietzsche's doctrines 
are but the policy of "laisser faire" 
taught by Jean-Baptiste Say, Adam 
Smith, and Ricardo. T. W. Rolles- 
ton, former Taylorian Lecturer at 
Oxford, writes in the "Hibbert Jour- 
nal" of October, 1914: "No ideal 
could be more unlike Nietzsche's 
than that which the Germans have 
followed for forty years. * * • 
Nietzsche's social philosophy was 
that of a violent individualism — the 
subordination of the individual to 
the interests of a vast political ma- 
chine was one of the inany things 
he detested in his native country." 
Yet the German economy of the past 
quarter of a century and over has 
been the exact opposite of this pol- 
icy. With the possible exceptions of 
New Zealand, Svntzerland, and Bel- 
gium, Germany has passed more 
measures of social reform than any 
other country. The workers are 
protected in every imaginable way. 
Agitators for measures of social and 
industrial relief in our own land 
have for many years pointed to Ger- 
many as a model. A nation imbued 
with the idea of force, of every man 
for himself, of the survival of the 
fittest — imbued with Nietzscheism — 
would never have adopted such a 
program. Theoretically inconceiv- 
able we can state that practically 
Nietzsche has no great influence in 
the German Empire of today. 

Treltschke. 

Our next war-maker is Heinrich 
von Treitschke, the great historian. 
Lord Acton pronounced Treitschke to 
be "the one writer of history who is 
more brilliant and powerful than 
Droysen." He continues: "He writes 
with the force and fire of Mommsen. 
He accounts for the motives that 
stir a nation, as well as for the coun- 
cils that govern it." He was the 



personal enemy of Nietzsche, "this 
madman, who tells us so much about 
his inactual thought, and who has 
nevertheless been bitten to the mar- 
row by the most actual of all vices, 
the foUe des grandeurs." The cause 
of this outburst, which is but a sam- 
ple of the conflict of words between 
the two men, was an attack by Nietz- 
sche on Prussian professordom. 

Nationalism, condemned by Nietz- 
sche, is the starting point and goal of 
Treitschke. "The State is Power." 
"This truth remains: the essence of 
the state consists in this, that it can 
suffer no higher power than itself." 
Dr. Munroe Smith, Professor of Juris- 
prudence at Columbia since 1891, 
writes in the "Bookman" for Decem- 
ber (1914): "Although the state is 
might, Treitschke does not admit 
that might is right. The state is un- 
questionably subject to the moral 
law * * * Power which tram- 
ples all right under foot must perish 
in the end." Thus in his history of 
the Thirty Tears' War Treitschke 
asserts that the humiliation of Ger- 
many was a just retribution for the 
attempt of German kings to rule 
Italy and re-establish world empire. 
Those are in the wrong who main- 
tain that Treitschke advocated world 
dominion and the rule of force with- 
out consideration of the right of the 
question at issue. 

Treitschke's Germanistic preach- 
ings of twenty years ago have not 
formed a school. His great works 
on history, which include the re- 
marks that have been translated into 
English since the war started, are 
found in ponderous two and four-vol- 
ume sets. Even in Germany people 
do not pore through such works of 
history as a matter of pleasure. In 
all the present author's reading on 
the subject, covering such periodicals 
as "Blackwood's," the "Edinburgh 
Review," the "Fortnightly," "Con- 
temporary," and other English peri- 
odicals for the last few years, includ- 
ing all the jingoistic articles, he did 
not find until this war broke out a 
single reference to Treitschke as be- 
ing responsible for any militaristic 
spirit in Germany. Not a single ref- 
erence. He did, however, find a few 
references to Bernhardi. 

Sidney Whitman, F. R. G. S., prom- 
inent English political writer, says 
in the "Fortnightly Review" for Oc- 
tober, 1914: "Prof. Cramb (author 
of 'Germany and England,' published 
1914) tells us that it takes at least 
half a century for any German 
thought to cross the North Sea, and 
proves it to be so in his own case. 
He credits Treitschke with an in- 
fluence over the German mind of 
today — which he no longer possesses 
— to the same extent as he did about 
forty years ago. I am in a position 
to cite Professor Hans Delbriick as 
my authority for the statement that 
Treitschke's influence has been on 
the wane for some time; that he is 
no longer actual in the present; that 
he is old-fashioned (veraltet) ." 

Prof. Smith, previously quoted, 
says: "It seems to me improbable 
that Treitschke's theories of the 
state and of war have appreciably 
affected the conduct of Germany. 



When we survey a list of the great 
historians of Treitschke's time we 
can see that it is foolish to assert 
that his doctrines could have dom- 
inated Germany. A few of them are: 
von Ranke (1795-1886); Mommsen; 
Giesebrecht (1814-1889); Hausser 
(1818-1867, bom in Alsace) ; von Sy- 
bel (1817-1895); Burckhardt; and 
Droysen. Yet, none of these, all as 
great as Treitschke, has been de- 
clared responsible for the war. 
Though a great historian, Treitschke 
has never exercised a great influence 
on the German people nor have his 
doctrines ever been widely dissem- 
inated throughout Germany. Three 
of our warmakers have been thus 
disposed of. 

Bernhardi. 

Now for Bernhardi, the terrible 
man who represents the best thought 
and ideals of modern Germany, the 
man who preaches militarism and 
force, force and militarism, the man 
who glories in the greatness of war 
for war's sake, and would humble 
the other nations of the world. 
Rather a terrifying picture, isn't it? 
Yet, not half as rabid as some of the 
statements that have been made dur- 
ing the past few months. It is not 
too much to say that not one in 
every ten thousand Americans had 
heard of Gen. Bernhardi until this 
war. Since then he has become one 
of the best sellers. Bernhardi's 
book, "Germany and the Next War," 
is said to represent the true German 
ideal The English have exploited 
it for its full value. The Lord 
Bishop of Carlisle ("Nineteenth Cen- 
tury" for October) solemnly assures 
us that "this is the book which has 
deeply penetrated the minds of the 
German people, poisoning their 
hearts with jealousy, confusing their 
thoughts with plausibilities and prej- 
udices, etc." Now, what are the 
facts as to this most interesting 
book? We are told by leading Ger- 
mans that Germany repudiates Bern- 
hardi. But German assurances will 
not be sufficient for the doubters. 
According to the German literary 
publications (before the war started) 
seven thousand copies of Bernhardi's 
book had been sold in Germany. 
We can safely place the maximum at 
10 000 copies. According to Brock- 
haus' "Deutscher Literatur Katalog' 
for 1913-1914, the book consisted of 
333 pages and sold for $1.50 to 
$2.10, according to the binding. The 
price is not one which would lead to 
a wide sale. It would seem, then, 
reasonable to assert that the book's 
circulation was confined almost en- 
tirely to military circles. 

Professor Kiihnemann, when in 
Seattle, assured his hearers that he 
had never heard of the book until he 
came to America, and Professor 
Kuno Meyer relates that upon an en- 
quiry among the professors of Berlin 
University only two were found to 
have read the book before the be- 
ginning of the present war. We do 
not need, however, to rely on Ger- 
man opinion, which would be dis- 
counted by American readers. Dr. 
Dillon, prominent member of Parlia- 
ment, has just published a work an- 
tagonistic to Germany, entitled "A 
Scrap of Paper," which is published 



40 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



by Doran's. Dr. Dillon was for many 
years the foreign and diplomatic 
editor of several of the best English 
periodicals. In the "Contemporary 
Review" for March, 1914, Dr. Dillon 
says: "Gen. Bernhardi is not Ger- 
many, nor do his demands embody 
the intentions or the wishes of th^ 
Kaiser's Government." Consider an 
American opinion. The "Boston 
Transcript" of Feb. 1, 1913, said: 
"General Bernhardi's book is at this 
distance a piece of academic thun- 
der, whatever it may mean to the 
timorous in England." The "Na- 
tion" (American) of Feb. 6, 1913, 
writes in its book review column: 
"There is nothing very surprising 
in all this talk, with which the 
Blatchfords in England, the Bourgets 
and DSroulGdes in France, and the 
Homer Leas in our own country have 
made us familiar." Bearing out the 
same thought is the "New Statesman" 
(English) of Sept. 5, 1914, which 
said: "General Bernhardi's doc- 
trines are now pretty well known. 
For that matter they were well 
known before ever he wrote his book, 
as they have been the commonplaces 
of militarists the world over." Why 
is it that we have been constantly 
reminded of von Bernhardi and that 
the writings of "militarists the world 
over," who expressed the same "com- 
monplaces" have been neglected? 
Can it be that Germany's enemies 
wish to point out the German vulner- 
abilities, but would have us forget 
those of their own countries? Is 
there a skeleton in the closet or a 
nigger in the woodpile? 

Bernhardi Is a jingoist. He op- 
poses the peace movement. He 
would fight any reduction in arma- 
ments. He is a patriot and a nation- 
alist. But to assert that Bernhardi 
dominates Germany savors of the 
ridiculous. Germany is censured be- 
cause — simply because the writings 
of Bernhardi have been cleverly 
used and manipulated by the English 
and by English sympathizers to make 
the British and Americans believe 
that Germany is Bernhardi and that 
Bernhardi is Germany — one and in- 
separable. 

Every country has its jingoists. 
France has Senator Humbert, M. 
Delcassg, M. Clemenceau, and others 
who favored strong military forces. 
Can we not accept as true Bernard 
Shaw's statement that jingoists are 
as prevalent and as powerful in Eng- 
land as in Prussia or France? Many 
Englishmen, however, do not take 
anything Shaw says seriously. Per- 
haps a few quotations and examples 
will serve to convince. England has 
its Prof. Cramb. The reviewer in the 
Dublin Review of last October said 
that the Professor "proclaims him- 
self, as enthusiastically as Gen. Bern- 
hardi, a disciple of the Religion of 
Valour, announcing, apparently with 
satisfaction, that Corsica has, in this 
twentieth century, conquered Gal- 
lilee * * * The glamour of war 
possesses him * * * a peace pol- 
icy is, in his eyes, a mere expression 
of weakness, a symptom of demorali- 
zation." 

In the "Nineteenth Century" for 
April, 1911, there is an article en- 
titled "God's Test by War," writ- 



ten by Harold F. Wyatt. There is 
nothing in Gen. Bernhardi's work 
which can compare with this arti- 
cle. Here are a few passages: 

"Efficiency for war is God's test 
of a nation's soul. This is the ethi- 
cal content of competition." 

"If war could suddenly be ren- 
dered henceforth impossible upon 
earth, the machinery by which na- 
tional corruption is punished and na- 
tional virtue rewarded would be un- 
geared. The higher would cease to 
supersede the lower." 

"While human nature remains 
what it is at present, war must re- 
tain its place beside death as a vital 
and essential part of the economy of 
God." 

"A spurious and bastard humani- 
tarianism masquerading as religion 
declares war to be an anachronism 
and a barbaric sin." 

Perhaps since Bernhardi is a mili- 
tary man, military authorities would 
appeal better. For years Lord 
Beresford, Captain Faber and Lord 
Roberts have been urging England to 
gain an overwhelming superiority 
over all other nations. Take, if you 
will, this statement setting forth the 
advantages of an offensive warfare. 
"The heart of a nation has gone out 
of it, which bases its security on de- 
fense alone. As Raleigh urged upon 
Cecil, 'If we be once driven to the 
defensive, farewell might.' To talk 
about 'National Defense Committee' 
is a selfish idea and an insult to our 
world Empire." This statement may 
be found in the "Nineteenth Century" 
for June, 1900. Its author is Major- 
General Sir W. G. Knox, K. C. B., 
C. B. 

The United States is not free from 
jingoists. One great American press 
association is entirely militaristic and 
jingoistic. Hobsonism is not un- 
known. Roosevelt, Gardner, Weeks 
and Lodge are but a few of the great 
men who urge this country to arm 
itself. We have our "Army and 
Navy League" and other organiza- 
tions of a similar nature. In the 
"Independent" of July 6, 1905, Paul 
Morton, Secretary of the Navy, 
writes: 

"The United States will in time 
logically and inevitably become the 
most powerful nation in the world 

* * * The fulfillment of such a 
destiny as this will be advanced or 
retarded in direct ratio to the expan- 
sion of the naval power of the coun- 
try." Congressman Britten of Illi- 
nois, in the House on Sept. 13, 1913, 
said: "No policy of disarmament 
can penetrate the peace we now en- 
joy. The millennial peace is yet be- 
low the horizon of our vision * * * 
It is the man behind the punch that 
goes by unmolested. Preparedness 
for war is the best promoter of peace 

* * * Power is the climax to all 
argument." Gen. Homer Lea's "The 
Valor of Ignorance" can be compared 
to the works of Gen. Bernhardi and 
Prof. Cramb. 

The truth is apparent. All coun- 
tries possess their jingoists. As we 
have seen, also, von Bernhardi's 
teachings are not the thoughts of 
the German nation. It is absolutely 



impossible to trace this war, from the 
German side, to any one, two, or 
three men; it is a war of and by the 
German people. 

National Expenditures. 

From the standpoint of expendi- 
tures, both absolute and relative, 
Germany compares very favorably 
with other nations. According to of- 
ficial figures furnished by the British 
Admiralty and War Offices (see "Liv- 
ing Age," June 14, 1914), the five 
warring nations pay for their armies 
and navies: 

Russia, ?455,000,000; Germany, 
$350,000,000; France, $280,000,- 
000; England, $375,000,000; and 
Austria-Hungary only $145,000,000. 

The real question, however. Is not 
the absolute amount spent by each 
government, but the burden to the 
tax-payers. On this basis the per 
capita expenditures are as follows: 
Russia $3.70; Germany $5.38; 
France $7.00; England $8.33; Aus- 
tria-Hungary $3.00. Russia's ex- 
penditure per capita is, of course, 
less because of the countless mil- 
lions of Russian subjects. In the 
per capita statistics the population 
of only European Russia has been 
used. Figures could be quoted 
which would favor more the German 
side, but it seems best to use these 
figures, furnished by the British 
government, which eliminate all 
non-corresponding expenditures. 

The Jfational Burden. 

Consider the sizes of the various 
armies in their peace strength. I 
Times" of Nov. 8, 1914. In round 
take my figures from the "New York 
numbers, Germany's peace army 
consisted of 800,000 men; Russia's 
of 1,284,000; and France's of 869,- 
000. In Russia, there is one soldier 
for every 95 persons; in Germany, 
one for each 81; in France, one sol- 
dier for each 46 persons. The term 
of service is less in Germany than 
in Russia, thus equalizing the bur- 
den between Russia and Germany. 

The population of Germany in- 
creased 14 per cent from 1901 to 
1910, but the number of men in her 
army and navy combined increased 
only 7.8 per cent! To show that 
Germany had no aggressive designs 
we have only to mention that during 
these ten years nearly 900,000 men, 
the vast majority fit for service in 
the army, were excused by being 
placed in the "Ersatz Reserve." The 
men in this reserve receive no mili- 
tary training; they are only liable 
to be called out and trained in case 
of war. If Germany had desired or 
expected war she would have put 
these men into the regular army. 

A Vital Factor. 

A strong army is a necessity to 
Germany. The fact that she did not 
make it numerically superior to her 
neighbors' forces and that her mili- 
tary burden is lighter indicates that 
she was not aggressive but prepared, 
well prepared, to wage war if forced 
to do so. Germany's strategic posi- 
tion emphasizes the need of an effi- 
cient army. Germany is situate(d 
like a nut between two crackers — 



POLITICAL PRAGMATISM AND FORCE 



Russia on one frontier and France 
on the other. Russia's dream of ex- 
pansion and France's wish for re- 
venge made it necessary for Ger- 
many to be prepared against any at- 
tempt to crush her by a concerted 
effort of the two powers. Russia 
enormously strengthened her army 
in recent years. The increase of her 
military and naval expenditures dur- 
ing the past four years has been 
truly startling. Mr. J. Ellis Barker, 
a very prominent English author, 
now bitterly opposed to the Germans, 
wrote in the "Fortnightly" of April 1, 
1913: "The events of the last few 
years have awakened her (Germany) 
to a sense of insecurity. Germany 
has found it necessary to increase 
her army because the Balkan War 
has endangered her position. She 
must reckon with the possibility of 
having to fight France and Russia 
simultaneously. Her army is pri- 
marily intended to be a weapon of 
defense." Mr. Barker found no rea- 
son to believe that Germany was do- 
ing aught but trying to defend her 
own interests. 

In view of Germany's perilous po- 
sition we cannot do else but agree 
with Mr. Balfour's statement (House 
of Commons, July 14, 1910), that 
"it is on the Army that their na- 
tional existence depends." However 
much we may deplore the necessity, 
a little reasoning should be sufficient 
to convince us that, for Germany, a 
well-prepared army is a national 
need. 

The Navies. 

We still have the naval situation 
to consider. Is not British Navyism, 
with its demand for supreme con- 
trol, more dangerous to the world 
than Germany's militarism, with an 
army inferior in size to those of 
either Prance or Russia? England 
says she must rule the sea. We can 
readily perceive that, as an island 
power, England is justified in want- 
ing a strong navy, but it is difficult 
to concur in her two-keel-to-one 
standard. 

The English Navy is an enormous 
burden to the country. Mr. A. Mac- 
Callum Scott, former secretary of the 
Kew Reform Club, writes in the "Con- 
temporary Review*' for April, 1914: 
"The cost of the German Navy is only 
$1.75 per head of the population of 
Germany, whereas the cost of the 
British Navy is $5.50 per head of the 
population of the United Kingdom." 
The average family of five persons is 
taxed $8.75 in Germany and $27.50 
in the United Kingdom towards the 
cost of maintaining the respective na- 
vies. The German naval expendit- 
ures are not so enormous as the 
British agitators would have us be- 
lieve. 

A study of the British attitude 
. towards their naval expansion is 
highly interesting. Consider the 
following statements taken from 
speeches delivered in the House of 
Commons: 

"Our Empire is only kept going by 
supremacy at sea." (Lord Charles 
Beresford, March 17, 1910.) "I 
should like to see a Navy which 
would stop the shade of a shadow of 



an idea that it could be attacked at 
all, and if once we had a Navy of that 
character, I am perfectly certain it 
would be very cheap, no matter what 
the insurance (meaning cost) was." 

The following remarks were made 
March 15, 1910: 

"If we are to have peace we must 
be prepared for war." (Sir C. Kin- 
loch-Cooke.) 

"We want a Navy for this country 
which no power dare to attack." (M. 
Foot Mitchell.) 

"Under present conditions our food 
supply, our national independence, 
our treaty obligations, and our rights 
of asylum, must be defended by ade- 
quate forces." (Mr. Hyndman, lead- 
er of British Social Democratic 
party.) 

"We wish the two-power standard 
to apply to the two next strongest 
powers." (Mr. Arthur Lee.) 

Can you not imagine what a cry 
of militarism would go up in this 
country if we should demand that 
we must have a navy so strong that 
no power would even dream of at- 
tacking us? These few quotations 
show that England desired a power- 
ful navy, one which could meet any 
two other nations. Such statements 
could be multiplied many, many 
times if space did not forbid. Does 
not such a policy constitute more of 
a world menace than Germany's land 
strength, numerically inferior to the 
armies of France or Russia? 

Eventually, after many years of 
such rodomontade, about 1907 or 
1908 there came a time when the 
English public refused to listen to 
plans for a more powerful navy, and 
the resulting large and ever increas- 
ing expenditures. The Big Navy men 
resorted to a skillful policy of press 
agitation. Navy Leagues sprung up 
like mushrooms and propaganda 
work continued steadily. These 
bodies worked smoothly and efficient- 
ly. "They," said Mr. Dickinson in 
the Commons, March 16, 1910, "have 
kindled a feeling of suspicion and 
distrust on the part of our nation." 
The same work, we must admit, was 
going on in Germany, when the peo- 
ple were urged to support the fleet 
for two reasons: (1) the fear of 
English aggression, should any con- 
tinental dispute arise, and (2) close- 
ly allied to this, the enormous expan- 
sion of German commerce. This 
phase will be considered later. 

After carefully preparing the way 
the panic was launched in 19 09. 
The First Lord of the Admiralty, sup- 
ported by the Prime Minister, star- 
tled the nation with the revelation 
that Germany was making a stupen- 
dous acceleration in the production 
of naval armaments. Germany was 
said to be planning the construction 
of Dreadnaught after Dreadnaught. 
The journals were filled with articles 
inspired by words such as these, de- 
livered in the Commons on March 
16, 1909. Mr. Balfour said: "Ger- 
many will have seventeen of these 
great Dreadnaughts in July, 1911, 
and we shall have only fourteen. 
* * • There is no doubt they will 
have thirteen on 1st April, 1911." 
Mr. McKenna, First Lord of the Ad- 



miralty, said: "My own opinion is 
that they will have thirteen complet- 
ed in August, 1911." Mr. Asquith, 
the Prime Minister, was not quite so 
pessimistic, and stated: "In Novem- 
ber, 1911, we shall have sixteen 
against thirteen." 

Four Dreadnaughts were imme- 
diately voted. The panic, and that 
alone, made the vote possible. Time 
tested these revelations. They did 
not stand the test. It was discovered 
that the program of German building 
upon which the Commons author- 
ized the construction of the four 
Dreadnaughts were ludicrously incor- 
rect, perhaps, who knows, deliberate- 
ly misleading. When November, 
1911, came around, Germany had but 
five Dreadnaughts, instead of the 
"from thirteen to seventeen" it was 
alleged she would have. Mr. Balfour 
capped the government estimate by 
stating that by April, 1912, Germany 
would probably have 21 Dread- 
naughts to England's 20. Actually, 
Germany had, on March 31, 1912, 
only nine of those great ships, to 
England's fifteen. On May 31, 1913, 
Germany had thirteen and England 
twenty-two. Not till 1914 was Ger- 
many to have seventeen, the number 
Mr. Balfour said they would have in 
July, 1911. The panic figures of 
1909 were absolutely unfounded and 
have been proved completely erro- 
neous. Yet the English Navy was in- 
creased as if they had been correct. 
The German bogey served a useful 
purpose for those who stood for an 
exaggerated British Navy. 

Indeed, it was this very agitation 
in England which led to part of the 
increase in the German Navy, the 
remainder of the increase being ac- 
counted for by German commercial 
expansion. Mr. Dillon, in a powerful 
speech delivered July 14, 1910, said 
that it was British aggression and 
disastrous blunders that had caused 
the creation of the German Navy 
League, founded to advance the 
interests of the German Navy. 
He stated further: "It is an 
abominable thing, but there are 
men in this country, who are delib- 
erately and avowedly, without any 
concealment whatever, trying to pro- 
voke war between Germany and this 
country. Many of them, notably Mr. 
Maxse of the "National Review," and 
many other publications, openly say 
this war is bound to come, and the 
sooner the better." Dr. Dillon re- 
ferred to "the outrageous and crim- 
inal agitation carried on against Ger- 
many for the last three years." Can 
we greatly blame Germany for trying 
to prevent England from gaining an 
overwhelming naval superiority, 
since it was evident that if these two 
countries alone should engage in war, 
the struggle must occur on the sea? 
The "Review of Reviews" for Octo- 
ber, 1914, editorially (p. 394) re- 
fers to England's "ruinous policy of 
naval expansion that has forced Ger- 
many, France and the United States 
to follow after." Mr. W. H. Dickin- 
son said in the Commons (March 15, 
1910): "I believe if we could look 
into the inmost secrets of the Ger- 
man Navy we should find that it has 
been this country that on every occa- 



42 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



Bion has brought about the increase 
in that navy." German naval expan- 
sion is justified in large measure by 
the English attitude on the naval 
question. Nothing but overwhelm- 
ing superiority would satisfy Britain. 
England must bear a large share of 
the responsibility for German naval 
growth, a responsibility she cannot 
escape. 

The end is not yet. Mr. Churchill 
laid down a standard in what are 
called capital ships, which, he stated, 
would be satisfactory from the Eng- 
lish point of view. This ratio was 
that of sixteen British capital ships 
to ten German. Subsequently Ad- 
miral von Tirpitz, on Feb. 7, 1913, 
stated in the Reichstag that such a 
ratio would be satisfactory to Ger- 
many. Concerning this statement, 
Mr. Molteno, member of Parliament 
since 1906, says in the "Contempo- 
rary Review" of Feb., 1914: 

"This pronouncement has not re- 
ceived adequate appreciation or at- 
tention in this country. It is an un- 
welcome statement to those who de- 
sire to create an inordinate navy. 
In any fair attempt to estimate the 
naval situation it would be mon- 
strous not to realize the full meaning 
of this admission on the part of Ger- 
many. * * * It proves conclu- 
sively that she has no desire to at- 
tack us, or of aggression upon us." 
With desire to follow out this plan, 
the German Naval Estimates for 
1914 provided for only two large 
ships with an occasional third. This 
was very unwelcome to the Big Navy 
men of Britain. The Navy League 
of England said: "Now that her 
yearly programs have been reduced 
from four ships to two, with an occa- 
sional three, it is the most difficult 
thing in the world to get up steam 
for the further task which lies before 
us, namely to create a sufficient mar- 
gin of strength to protect the 'whole- 
world interests of the Empire.' " 
That admission of von Tirpitz must 
not be forgotten in any discussion of 
the Anglo-German naval situation. 
In England's attempts to make it 
appear that German ascendancy was 
approaching and that national dis- 
aster was imminent they have elected 
to ignore this, and all other state- 
ments, which would tend to weaken 
the case for the necessity of a great 
navy. But facts cannot be ignored 
nor successfully hidden. 

A large part of Germany's naval 
growth can be justified on another 
ground — her commercial expansion. 
Her mercantile development has 
been astounding. 

The trade of Great Britain and 
Ireland since 1870 has arisen from 



two billion dollars to five and a half 
billions. Germany's has increased 
from one billion to five billions. Ger- 
many's trade is, therefore, five times 
what it was in 1870; England's only 
two and a half times as great. Eng- 
land's advantage over Germany in 
1870 was one hundred per cent; now 
it is but ten per cent. Comparing the 
figures of 1870 with those of 1906 as 
to the tonnage entered and cleared 
in the German and British ports re- 
spectively we find that the amount 
passing in British bottoms in England 
was multiplied by three; and the 
amount passing in Germany in Ger- 
man bottoms was multiplied by seven- 
teen. Comparing with France we 
find that in 1870 the amount of mer- 
chandise passing in and out of Ger- 
many in German bottoms was less. 
In 1906 it was sixty-seven per cent 
greater, so that Germany's commerce 
increased much more rapidly than 
that of Prance. In 1900 the German 
mercantile marine consisted of 1,000,- 
000 tons flying under the German 
standard; in 1910 there were 4,266,- 
000 tons sailing under that Aegis. 
Hamburg was in 1914 the second 
port of the world. Germany must 
have protection for her commerce. 
Geographically she is confined to one 
sea. In war with France that coun- 
try could do more harm to German 
commerce than in 1870. The Germans 
believed, therefore, that they had to 
protect their commerce against other 
nations, as well as against England. 

This principle of naval protection 
for commerce is well recognized 
everywhere. Nor is it a new doc- 
trine. Jean-Baptiste Say, the French 
economist, said: "The art of naviga- 
tion is an expedient of war, as well 
as of commerce. The working of a 
vessel is a military maneuver; and 
the nation containing the larger pro- 
portion of seamen is the more power- 
ful in a military point of view." The 
"Edinburgh Review" (April, 1909, 
p. 95) said: "Our naval greatness 
* * * was conspicuous before 
our navigation laws were framed. It 
existed then, as it had done before 
and has done since, in a degree com- 
mensurate with our commerce, which 
will be found the regulator of naval 
power in all countries." These ideas, 
simply expressed, mean that naval 
power tends to vary directly with the 
amount of commerce and the prosper- 
ity of a nation. It is this principle 
which accounts for much of Ger- 
many's naval growth. 

Mr. Verney in the House of Com- 
mons on March 17, 1910, after pre- 
senting figures as to Germany's mar- 
ine development, commented: "I 
wanted to account, if I may, at all 
events to some extent, for the growth 



in their navy by reference to the 
growth in their mercantile marine. I 
think that tells entirely against the 
idea of any scare being got up in j 
this country by reason of the growth 
of the German navy." The "Edin- 
burgh Review" of April, 1914 (p. 
448), says: "The German navy has 
grown with the growth of national 
spirit in Germany and with the con- 
sciousness of necessity. The increase 
of manufactures, the expansion of 
foreign commerce, the progressive 
change which is converting Germany 
from an agricultural into an in- 
dustrial country, and the develop- 
ment of German interests throughout 
the world, are the causes of the 
growth of the German navy." 

Dr. Gibbons, in his book "The New 
Map of Europe," refers to the navy 
as "the safeguard of commerce." 
Nor is this doctrine peculiar to Eu- 
rope. Hilary A. Herbert, our former 
Secretary of the Navy, wrote in the 
"Forum" of Sept., 1897: "We should 
be able to protect our commerce in- 
stantly, and see that such questions 
(trade relations) are not decided 
wrongfully to our detriment. We 
cannot afford to be in the condition 
we occupied during the Napoleonic 
era, when Great Britain and France 
* * * warred on our commerce 
until we were compelled « • « 
to fight." 

Rear-Admiral Melville believes that 
"it is not only our right to extend 
our trade, but it is our duty to pre- 
vent foreign markets from being un- 
justly taken away * * * It is certain 
that in order to hold on to what 
we have secured through conquest 
or industrial superiority we must 
maintain an armed force of sufficient 
strength to manifest our readiness 
and ability to protect commercial 
rights and privileges." Why con- 
demn Germany because along with 
her enormous increase in commerce 
she has increased her naval power at 
the same time? German naval 
growth is entirely logical. 

Conelvision. 

To sum up the points made. The 
historical record shows Germany to 
be the most peaceful of all the great 
powers. The war cannot be traced 
to the Kaiser, to Nietzsche, Treit- 
schke, Bernhardi, or to any other man 
or group of men, but is the struggle 
of a whole nation fighting shoulder 
to shoulder and with but a single 
thought — the Fatherland. The Ger- 
man Army is an inexorable necessity 
of Germany's geographical situation; 
her navy has grown because of ag- 
gressive English tactics; and the in- 
crease of German militarism, weighed 
by facts, vanishes. 



MODERN DIPLOMACY 
ESPECIALLY ''SECRET" DIPLOMACY 

Discussion on General and Special Diplomatic Questions 



Vital Causes of the War 
The Mystery of Diplomacy and International Politics 



WHY GERMANY IS AT WAR. 



"The Irish Voice," March 17, 1015. 

In the last few months responsible 
and irresponsible persons In the coun- 
tries now at war with Germany have 
repeatedly made the assertion that 
the European War broke out because 
Germany desired it and that it is now 
being waged in the name of European 
civilization, in the interest of the 
smaller democratic nations against 
Prussian militarism. These state- 
ments are one and all incorrect. 

The Causes of the War. 

The international crisis which led 
up to the present war is rooted in 
the conflict of interests between Aus- 
tria-Hungary and Servia. On the 28th 
of June, 1914, this opposition de- 
veloped into an acute situation through 
the murder of the Austro-Hungarian 
heir-apparent and his wife. In the 
course of the investigation of this de- 
spicable crime the Austro-Hungarian 
authorities discovered that it had been 
committed in the name of the Pan- 
Servian propaganda, that this propa- 
ganda had its origin in Servia, that 
its ultimate goal was the destruction 
of Austria-Himgary and that Servian 
officers and officials were directly, as 
well as indirectly accomplices in the 
murder. Since Servia had on March 
31, 1909, made Austria-Hungary the 
promise that she would put an end 
to the Pan-Servian agitation, Austria- 
Hungary was now compelled not only 
to seek reparation for the murder of 
Sarajewo but also to insist upon guar- 
antees that the Servian government 
would keep its pledge and actually 
suppress this propaganda. In this 
matter Austria-Hungary had a right 
to expect the sympathy of the entire 
civilized world. For, not only had the 
murder of Sarajewo aroused the 
greatest repugnance all over Europe, 
but it also recalled the fact that the 
present Servian government and a 
considerable portion of its personnel 
had been concerned in the no less hor- 
rible murder of King Alexander and 
Queen Draga. England in particular 
had for years refused to send diplo- 
matic representatives to a country 
'svhose authorities had , in part thus 
soiled their hands with blood. 

The Austro-Hungarian note which 
was delivered in Belgrade July 23, 
1914, clearly expressed these convic- 



tions and desires. The Servian an- 
swer, which had to be delivered with- 
in 48 hours, did not, however, in 
sufficient measure comply with the 
wishes of the Austro-Hungarian gov- 
ernment because the kingdom of 
Servia, as has been clearly proved by 
disclosures of the Novoye Vremva of 
the 10th and 23rd of December, 1914, 
was certain of Russian protection. 
Consequently Austria-Hungary saw 
herself compelled to break off diplo- 
matic relations with Servia and de- 
clared war on July 28. In doing so 
Austria-Hungary by no means intended 
to annex Servian territory or to bring 
about a displacement of the balance of 
power in the Balkan States, as she 
very soon made known in Petrograd 
in order to calm the uneasiness that 
had been caused there. 

Germany as the ally of Austria- 
Hungary from the very beginning of 
the crisis took the stand that the con- 
flict of her ally with Servia was of 
a local nature and would therefore 
have to be localized. And in the 
course of the succeeding international 
negotiations which endeavored to 
smooth the differences and solve the 
crisis, Germany could not give up this 
standpoint. 

Russia. 

Soon after the conflict between Aus- 
tria-Hungary and Servia had become 
acute a great unrest became notice- 
able in Russia. For years Russia had 
assumed the r61e of guardian to the 
southern Slav nations. Inasmuch 
this attitude had met with little favor 
and in part with open opposition in 
Bulgaria, but was welcomed all the 
more in Servia, Russia interpreted 
this r61e, which was legalized by no 
international agreement, to mean that 
she was to protect Servia even against 
a just castigation for misdeeds com- 
mitted or abetted by Servian officers 
and officials. Although, as mentioned 
above, Austria-Hungary had already 
given the assurance that she in no 
wise intended to endanger the terri- 
torial integrity of Servia or disturb 
the distribution of power in the Balkan 
peninsula, Russia mobilized those por- 
tions of her troops which would be 
affected by a war against Austria-Hun- 
gary on July 29. 

Attempts at Mediation. 

The attempts at mediation which 
were made by the other European 



powers in the last weeks of July, 1914, 
centered in the last instance, though 
this was not acknowledged, around 
the question whether an understand- 
ing between Austria-Hungary and Rus- 
sia or Austria-Hungary and Servia 
were desirable. Germany was com- 
pelled to remain true to her convic- 
tion that mediation between her ally 
and Servia was not in place, especially 
since Austria-Hungary in making the 
above-mentioned declaration had al- 
ready complied with all of Russia's 
justified demands. Therefore, Germany 
could not agree to the proposals of 
Sir Edward Grey on July 26, accord- 
ing to which the London ambassadors 
of Germany, France and Italy were to 
meet in conference under his chairman- 
ship. Such a conference would have 
brought the Austro-Hungarian differ- 
ence with Servia before a European 
tribunal, which by no means harmo^ 
nized with the actual state of affairs 
or Germany's duties as an ally. Never- 
theless Germany, for her part, con- 
tinued in her efforts to bring about 
a peaceful solution. She brought about 
direct negotiations between Vienna and 
Petrograd and energetically furthered 
them although the mobilization of the 
Russian troops against Austria-Hun- 
gary hampered these efforts markedly. 
France looked with mistrust upon the 
German proposal because she feared 
thereby to compromise herself in the 
eyes of Russia (French Yellow Book 
No. 62). Formally England accepted 
Germany's proposal. But at the same 
time — she had already mobilized and 
concentrated her fleet as early as 
July 24. Besides the French charge 
d'affaires in London could report to 
his government already on July 25 
(French Yellow Book No. 37) that Sir 
Edward Grey had told the German 
ambassador, no European power could 
restrain itself in the case of war. This 
attitude on the part of the Triple 
Entente brought about a decided 
strengthening of the Russian war party. 
After Russia had mobilized against 
Austria-Hungary on July 29, it ordered 
a complete mobilization of its army 
and navy in the night from July 30 to 
July 31, which now threatened Germany. 
This was all the more dangerous be- 
cause Germany was not only constantly 
active in the interest of European 
peace but at that very time an inter- 
change of telegrams had begun between 
the German Emneror and the Czar. In 
the interests of her own safety Ger- 



44 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



many was now compelled to reply with 
a declaration of a state of impending 
war in Germany on July 31 and at the 
same time requested the Russian Gov- 
ernment to cease mobilizing. When 
no answer to this note was received 
from Petrograd, Germany was like- 
wise forced to a complete mobilization 
after the expiration of the appointed 
time on August 1. 

Under these circumstances it was 
entirely pointless of Sir Edward Grey 
to repeat at the last moment his pro- 
posal of an international conference 
to be held in London, which had pre- 
viously been rejected by Germany and 
Russia. For in the meantime the ob- 
ject of dispute between Austria-Hun- 
gary and Servia had in no wise been 
altered. But Grey had already in the 
above-mentioned manner given the 
German Ambassador in London to 
understand .that England would take 
part in a European war and had con- 
fidentially informed the members of 
the Entente of this warning given to 
Germany. And besides these powers 
had already a distinct advantage over 
Germany in having mobilized earlier. 
Long before the official mobilization 
Russian had begun a displacement of 
troops on a large scale ; since July 
24 the English fleet was mobilized and 
concentrated ; the military prepara- 
tions of Prance had begun on July 
27, or still earlier. Now since all new 
military preparations would have had 
to cease during such a conference on 
the part of all participants, the nego- 
tiations would have been carried on 
under the pressure of the bayonets 
and the threat of the ship's guns of 
the mobilized Entente powers, where- 
as Germany would not have even par- 
tially mobilized. Hence the acceptance 
of Grey's repeated proposal could mean 
nothing but war or humiliation for 
Germany. 

Since in the meantime the Russian 
and French forces had crossed the 
German borders on August 2, the 
European war had actually begun. 

France and England. 

The war between Germany and Rus- 
sia broke out because Russia denied 
Germany's ally the right to force the 
punishment for a mean crime com- 
mitted against a prominent member of 
Its royal family. It was to be assumed 
according to the treaties existing be- 
tween Prance and Russia that Prance 
would take part in a war even if Rus- 
sia were involved in it because she 
protected a country which harbored 
regicides. Nevertheless Germany made 
the effort to restrict the war to her 
Eastern border and to prevent it from 
becoming a European calamity. The 
inquiry of the German Ambassador in 
Paris respecting this question, was 
answered evasively by the French Pre- 
mier on August 1, that is, it was in 
reality very distinctly answered. For 
the attitude of Prance the circum- 
stance may have been decisive, that 
already on July 27 the German Am- 
bassador in London was informed that 
Germany could not count on English 
neutrality in the event of a European 
war (French Yellow Book No. 63) and 
that the French Ambassador Cambon 
could on July 31 report to his Govern- 
ment (French Yellow Book No. 110) 
that the British Secretary of Foreign 
Affairs had said to Prince Lichnowsky, 
England could not keep out of a war in 



which France was involved. On Au- 
gust 1, the French Ambassador was 
then able to add (French Yellow Book 
No. 126) that Sir Edward Grey was 
about to propose in the Cabinet meet- 
ing that the English fleet should pre- 
vent the German fleet from sailing 
through the Channel or making any 
demonstration whatever against the 
French coast. 

Accordingly France is at war with 
Germany because she was forced to it 
by her treaty with Russia, because 
she was assured in advance of English 
support, and because such a war was, 
in short, the final and logical result of 
the determined desire for revenge on 
the part of the French people and the 
French government. 

As for England, Sir Edward Grey 
had repeatedly given the assurance in 
Parliament that his government had 
entered upon no obligations that would 
tie its hands in the case of a European 
war. This was literally true but in 
spirit it was false. Sir Edward Grey 
had obligated himself to take counsel 
with Prance in the event of. war 
whether the proposed collaboration of 
the army and nav^ heads of the two 
nations should actually be materialized 
against Germany. In any case Ger- 
many had to attempt to assure herself 
of England's neutrality in the coming 
conflict. That these attempts were 
hopeless from the beginning is shown 
by the exposition of the state of af- 
fairs which Sir Edward Grey made in 
Parliament on August 3. He there de- 
clared that England would in no case 
have remained an idle spectator if the 
German fleet had attacked the French 
coast and merchant marine, because 
this coast was laid open to attack by 
the concentration of the French fleet 
in the Mediterranean on the ground of 
the agreement with England. Grey 
further openly declared in this speech 
that a German victory over France was 
opposed to English interests and could 
therefore not be permitted by England. 
Finally Grey expressed the opinion in 
the same speech that neutrality would 
be just as detrimental to England as 
participation in the war and that, 
moreover, England's most vital inter- 
ests would be imperilled by a neutral 
stand. 

Under these circumstances it was 
impossible for the German government 
to be assured of England's neutrality 
by any guarantees whatever, namely, 
that it would respect the French coast 
or guarantee not to make any conquest 
of French soil. The German inquiry 
under what circumstances England 
would remain neutral could hence not 
be answered. England had bound her- 
self over against France to such an ex- 
tent to a participation in the war — as 
Grey correctly stated on August 3 — 
that England would have imperilled 
her honor and reputation had she kept 
out of the war. 

By her attitude, therefore, England 
brought about the victory of the Rus- 
sian war party and thereby gave the 
impulse for the general mobilization in 
Russia, and thus assisted toward the 
war between Russia and Germany. She 
further abetted France in her inten- 
tion to enter into the war and herself 
took part in the war, because, accord- 
ing to Grey's views, this participation 
in no way hampered England but, on 
the contrary guaranteed the safety of 
her most vital Interests. 



Belgium. 

In his speech of August 3, 1914, 
which set forth the causes of England's 
participation in the war. Grey spoke 
only conditionally of the Belgian ques- 
tion. Subsequently England sought to 
conceal the true reasons for the par- 
ticipation in the war. She pleaded the 
protection of Belgian neutrality, where- 
as she entered the fray merely for the 
protection of her own material inter- 
ests. Herein the protection of Belgian 
neutrality rests solely on British Inter- 
ests, as Sir Edward Grey distinctly 
said on August 3, which demand that 
this portion of the North Sea coast 
should not fall into the hands of any 
great power. 

Belgian neutrality became Invalid 
for Germany in that no doubt existed 
on the part of France to concentrate 
her troops along the line Givet-Namur. 
The declarations made on August 2 In 
Brussels by the German Minister prove 
this. Documents which were later 
found by the Germans in Brussels fur- 
nish a further basis for it. According 
to them Belgium had for years nlade 
plans in conjunction with England and 
Prance for carrying out military oper- 
ations against Germany in common. In 
the eyes of every thoughtful non-parti- 
san these documents are tantamount 
to proof. They have already been pub- 
lished. It is unnecessary, therefore to 
enter upon them again here. 

Accordingly the European war broke 
out because Russia declared her 
solidarity with the Servian regicides, 
because Prance and Russia were allied, 
because both nations were abetted in 
their warlike intentions by England, 
and because England hoped to acom- 
plish through the war the defeat of 
Germany which seemed to her abso- 
lutely necessary. 

Thus we see that Germany In waging 
a war which Is purely and simply de- 
fensive and was forced upon her by 
her neighbors. 



Note. — See the Taile of Contents or 
the Index for the telegrams in the 
Diplomatic Correspondence and "The 
Case of Belgium" - referred to in this 
article. — The Editor. 



THE CASE OF AUSTRIA. 



(Editorial in the "Springfield Bepnb- 
lican.") 

That Austria is not wholly without 
a case may be seen by considering 
the part played by the Maine in our 
own Spanish war. The justification 
of a sort, urged for that war was 
that dangerous and intolerable con- 
ditions were maintained in Cuba near 
our shores, and the sinking of the 
Main was taken as a kind of dem- 
onstration, a concrete instance. It 
would be a closer parallel to suppose 
Texas filled with rebellious Mexicans 
anxious to secede to Mexico, and a 
President of the United States as- 
sassinated by a Texan affiliated with 
a band of conspirators at the Mexican 
capital. Under such conditions we 
may be sure that this country would 
be as hot for war as Austria, and 
that the demands made upon Mexico 
for apology and amendment would be 
quite as severe as those now im- 
posed upon Servia. 



DIPLOMACY AND INTERNATIONAL LAW 



45 



DIPIiOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



How The French-German Conflict 
Could Have Been Avoided. 



Xhe Chicago Herald. 

Under this title the German Gov- 
^ eminent has published a new pam- 
phlet containing the following corre- 
spondence between Prince Henry of 
Prussia, King George of England and 
the German Emperor. This serves to 
Illustrate the point that Russia at no 
time was willing to desist from her 
policy of mobilization. The burden 
of proof becomes stronger each day 
that had Russia been willing to ar- 
bitrate the questions at issue, the 
present war could have been averted. 

The text is reprinted from the 
"Chicago Herald" of September 11. 

Note Preceding the Correspondence. 

"The following documents refer to 
the exchange of views between Ger- 
many and England immediately be- 
fore the war broke out. It will be 
perceived from these documents that 
Germany was prepared to spare 
Prance in case England should re- 
main neutral and would guarantee 
the neutrality of Prance. 

We believe that historical docu- 
ments such as these telegrams re- 
quire a deeper study than the "Chi- 
cago Herald" seems willing to devote 
to them, judging from the flippant 
heading it gave these telegrams in 
its issue of September 11. The head- 
ing: "From Georgie to Nicky to 
Willy." We are not surprised that 
this strong pro-British daily should 
desire to treat these telegrams as a 
joke in order to distract its readers' 
attention from them ; for if they 
seriously considered and analyzed 
these messages, they would readily 
perceive how "English diplomacy 
faced right about, disavowed a peace 
proposal of England's King, and 
joined Russia." 

The Chicago "Daily News" there- 
fore deserves great credit for having 
published in Its issue of September 
11, the letter received from Berlin 
from its Special Correspondent, Mr. 
Raymond E. Swing, wherein these 
telegrams are analyzed and com- 
mented upon. 

Mr. Swing begins his letter thus: 

"Berlin, Germany, Aug. 24. — The 
accumulation of historical material, 
which is to help the world decide the 
causes of the present war, goes 
slowly forward. Battles make more 
interesting reading, but historical 
material, be it ever so uninteresting 
on first acquaintance, turns out to 
contain dramatic stuff of the finest 
^quality, and serves also as the only 
guide to the world's judgment. The 
battle decides only strength; these 
telegrams and notes decide right and 
wrong. 

"The latest array of telegrams 
made public in Berlin and herewith 
published comprises some of the com- 
munications between London and 
Berlin during the critical days pre- 
ceding the outbreak of the war. They 
are not so startling as the German 
"White Book," but* they make many 
significant points, two of which are 
highly important. One, which the 



St. Petersburg dispatches strongly 
indicated, is that Germany was work- 
ing to preserve peace. The other 
proves that England, up to one crit- 
ical moment, was co-operating in this 
movement, and that at this one 
moment English diplomacy faced 
right about, disavowed a peace pro- 
posal of England's king, and joined 
Russia in imposing a condition upon 
Austria in the Servian conflict which 
alone might have made war unavoid- 
able had not Russia's own mobiliza- 
tion interfered to break off negotia- 
tions. * * * " 

As we wish to make "War Echoes" 
a book for present as well as future 
reference, we hope our readers will 
find it convenient because we have 
not only reprinted in full the docu- 
ment as it appears in the pamphlet 
issued by the German Government, 
but also have added the complete 
analysis and comments made thereon 
by Mr. Swing. Our readers will find 
Mr. Swing's letter reproduced imme- 
diately following the above tele- 
grams. — Editor. 

"Telegram of his royal highness 
Prince Henry of Prussia to H. M. the 
King of England, of July 30, 1914: 

" 'Am here since yesterday; have 
informed William of what you kindly 
told me at Buckingham Palace last 
Sunday, who gratefully received your 
message. William, much preoc- 
cupied, is trying his utmost to fulfill 
Nicky's appeal to him to work for 
maintenance of peace and is in con- 
stant telegraphic communication with 
Nicky, who today confirms news that 
military measures have been ordered 
by him equal to mobilization, meas- 
ures which have been taken already 
five days ago. 

" 'We are furthermore informed 
that France is making military prep- 
arations, whereas we have taken no 
measures, but may be forced to do so 
any moment should our neighbors 
continue, which would then mean a 
European war. If you really and 
earnestly wish to prevent this terri- 
ble disaster, may I suggest you using 
your influence on France and also 
Russia to keep neutral, which seems 
to me would be most useful. This I 
consider a very good, perhaps the 
only chance, to maintain the peace of 
Europe. 

" 'I may add that now more than 
ever, Germany and England should 
lend each other mutual help to pre- 
vent a terrible catastrophe, which 
otherwise seems unavoidable. 

" 'Believe me that William is most 
sincere in his endeavors to maintain 
peace, but that the military prepara- 
tions of his two neighbors may at last 
force him to follow their example for 
the safety of his own country, which 
otherwise would remain defenseless. 

" 'I have informed William of my 
telegram to you, and hope you will 
receive my information in the same 
spirit of friendship which suggested 
them. (Signed) HENRY.' 

"Telegram of H. M. the King of 
England to Prince Henry of Prussia, 
July 30, 1914: 

" 'Thanks for your telegram. So 
pleased to hear of William's efforts to 
concert with Nicky to maintain peace. 



Indeed I am earnestly desirous that 
such an irreparable disaster as a 
European war should be averted. My 
government is doing its utmost sug- 
gesting to Russia and France to sus- 
pend further military preparations it 
Austria will consent to be satisfied 
with the occupation of Belgrade and 
neighboring Servian territory as a 
hostage for satisfactory settlement of 
her demands, other countries mean- 
while suspending their war prepara- 
tions. Trust William will use his great 
influence to induce Austria to accept 
this proposal, thus proving that Ger- 
many and England are working to- 
gether to prevent what would be an 
international catastrophe. Pray as- 
sure William I am doing and shall 
continue to do all that lies in my 
power to preserve peace of Europe. 
(Signed) GEORGE.' 

"Telegram of his majesty, the Em- 
peror, to his majesty, the King of 
England, of July 31, 1914: 

" 'Many thanks for your kind tele- 
gram. Your proposals coincide with 
my ideas, and with the statements I 
got this night from Vienna, which I 
have had forwarded to London. I 
just received news from the chancel- 
lor that official notification has just 
reached him that this night Nicky has 
ordered the mobilization of his whole 
army and fleet. He has not even 
awaited the results of the mediation I 
am working at and left me without 
any news. I am off for Berlin to 
take measures for insuring safety of 
my eastern frontiers where strong 
Russian troops are already posted. 
(Signed) WILLY.' 

"Telegram of the King of England 
to his majesty the Emperor, of Aug. 
31, 1914: 

" 'Many thanks for your telegram 
last night. I sent an urgent telegram 
to Nicky expressing my readiness to 
do everything in my power to assist 
in reopening conversations between 
powers concerned. 

"'(Signed) GEORGIE.' 

"Telegram of the German ambas- 
sador in London to the chancellor, at 
Aug. 1, 1914: 

" 'Sir E. Grey just asked me by 
telephone whether I believed I was 
in a position to be clear that we 
would not attack France in a war 
between Germany and Russia in case 
France should remain neutral. I de- 
clared I believed to be able to give 
such an understanding. 

"'(Signed) LICHNOWSKY.' 

"Telegram of his majesty the Em- 
peror to his majesty, the liing of 
England, of Aug. 1, 1914: 

" 'I just received the communica- 
tion from your government offering 
French neutrality under guarantee of 
Great Britain. Added to this offer 
was the inquiry whether, under the 
conditions, Germany would refraiii 
from attacking France. On technical 
grounds my mobilization, which had 
already been proclaimed this after- 
noon, must proceed against two 
fronts, east and west, as prepared; 
this cannot be countermanded be- 
cause, I am sorry, your telegram 
came so late. But if Prance offers 



46 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



me neutrality, which must be guar- 
anteed by the British fleet and army, 
I shall, of course, refrain from at- 
tacking France and employ my 
troops elsewhere. I hope that France 
will not become nervous. The troops 
on my frontier are in the act of being 
stopped by telegraph and telephone 
from crossing into France. 

"'(Signed) WILLIAM.' 

"Telegram from the chancellor to 
the German ambassador in JJondon, 
of Aug. 1, 1914: 

" 'Germany is ready to accept Brit- 
ish proposals in case England guaran- 
tees with all her forces absolute neu- 
trality of France in Russo-German 
conflict. German mobilization has 
been ordered today on account of 
Russian challenge before E3nglish 
proposal was known here. It is there- 
fore now impossible to make any 
change in strategical distribution of 
troops ordered to the French fron- 
tier. But we guarantee that our 
troops will not cross the French fron- 
tier before 7 p. m. on Monday, the 
3d inst., in case England will pledge 
herself meanwhile. (Signed) 

" 'BBTHMANN-HOLLWEG.' 

"Telegram of his majesty, the 
King of England to his majesty, the 
Emperor, of Ang. 1, 1914.: 

" 'In answer to your telegram just 
received, I think there must be some 
misunderstanding as to a suggestion 
that passed in friendly conversation, 
between Prince Lichnowsky and Sir 
Edward Grey this afternoon when 
they were discussing how actual 
fighting between German and French 
armies might be avoided while there 
Is still a chance of some agreement 
between Austria and Russia. Sir Ed- 
ward Grey will arrange to see Prince 
Lichnowsky early tomorrow morning 
to ascertain whether there is a mls- 
undertanding on his part. 

•"(Signed) GEORGE.' 

. . "Telegram of the German ambas- 
sador in London to the chancellor, of 
Ang. 2, 1914: 

" 'Sir E. Grey's suggestions were 
prompted by a desire to make it pos- 
sible for England to keep permanent 
neutrality, but as they were not 
based on a previous understanding 
with France and made without 
knowledge of our mobilization, they 
have been abandoned as absolutely 
hopeless. 

"•(Signed) LICHNOWSKY. 

"(Note following the correspon- 
dence. ) 

"The essence of Germany's decla- 
rations is contained in Emperor Wil- 
liam's telegram to the King of Eng- 
land, of Aug. 1, 1914. Even if there 
existed a misunderstanding as to an 
English proposal, the kaiser's ofl'er 
furnished England the opportunity to 
prove her pacific disposition and to 
prevent the Franco-German war." 



HOW THE KAISER WORKED TO 
AVOID WAR. 



Messages of the German Ruler and 
Prince Henry to King George — 
British Plan Withdrawn — Elev- 
enth Hour Efforts to Bring About 
an Understanding — Diplomacy by 
Telephone. 



Immense flocks of storks are re- 
ported in southern France. We 
know of nothing that Prance needs 
more. — From the "Boston Evening 
Transcript." 



The Chicago Daily News. 

Berlin, Germany, Aug. 24. — The ac- 
cumulation of historical material, 
which is to help the world decide the 
causes of the present war, goes slowly 
forward. Battles make more interest- 
ing reading, but historical material, be 
It ever so uninteresting on first ac- 
quaintance, turn out to contain dra- 
matic stuff of the finest quality, and 
serves also as the only guide to the 
world's judgment. The battle decides 
only strength ; these telegrams and 
notes decide right and wrong. 

The latest array of telegrams made 
public in Berlin and herewith published 
comprises some of the communications 
between London and Berlin during the 
critical days preceding the outbreak of 
the war. They are not so startling as 
the German "white book," but they 
make many significant points, two of 
which are highly important One, 
which the St. Petersburg dispatches 
strongly indicated, is that Germany was 
working to preserve peace. The other 
proves that England, up to one critical 
moment, was co-operating in this move- 
ment, and that at this one moment 
English diplomacy faced right about, 
disavowed a peace proposal of Eng- 
land's king, and joined Russia in im- 
posing a condition upon Austria in the 
Servian conflict which alone might 
have made war unavoidable had not 
Russia's own mobilization interfered to 
break off negotiations. 

How Kaiser Worked for Peace. 

The first point is quickly proved by 
combination of the white book and 
the telegrams that are here presented. 
Everyone of the kaiser's dispatches to 
the czar is impregnated with his desire 
for peace and his willingness to work 
for it to the end. The telegrams of his 
brother, Prince Henry, to King George 
adds to the kaiser's own telegrams most 
convincing evidence. 

"William, who is most concerned," 
telegraphs Prince Henry of Prussia, "is 
extending himself to the utmost." The 
language by its very straightforward 
strength gives a lucid picture of 
Brother William, his mind filled with 
information about Russia's and 
France's military preparations and con- 
sequent forebodings of war and himself 
"most concerned," since his ideal of 
peace was in danger. It must have 
been already apparent to William that 
Cousin Nicholas was allowing himself 
to pilot Russia outside of diplomatic 
waters. "Nicholas today confirmed the 
news that five days ago he ordered mil- 
itary measures — tantamount to mobil- 
ization." No doubt William was "most 
concerned." Then Prince Henry pro- 
ceeds: "If you really and uprightly 
wish to avert this frightful calamity 
may I suggest that you use your in- 
fluence upon Prance and also upon Rus- 
sia to keep them neutral. I believe it 
to be a sure and perhaps the only pos- 
sibility of maintaining peace." Then he 



continues : "Believe me that William Is 
utterly upright in his efforts to main- 
tain peace." The whole telegram Is a 
frank and manly statement between 
cousins. It was not intended for event- 
ual historical evidence. It rings with 
the vibrations of the moment. 

King George's Peace Plan. 

But the really significant telegram 
of the lot is the second, the answer 
of Cousin George, another document 
teeming with frankness and spirit. 
"Very glad to hear of William's ef- 
forts," replies George. George, too, 
has an "earnest wish" that the "Ir- 
reparable catastrophe should be pre- 
vented." His next sentence Is very 
important: 

"My government is doing its ut- 
most to induce Russia and France to 
defer further military preparations 
in case Austria is satisfied with the 
occupation of Belgrade and neigh- 
boring Servian territory as security 
for a peaceful adjustment of her de- 
mands, while at the same time other 
countries suspend their war prepa- 
rations." Here in one sentence is a 
solution of the Austrian-Servian con- 
fiict. With this proposal there could 
be no doubt where England stood. 
It was a strikingly intelligent pro- 
posal. The air was cleared. Read- 
ing on, William must have smiled 
gravely as he read, "I trust William 
will use his great influence to move 
Austria to accept this proposal." 

When Prince Henry received this 
telegram he was off at once to the 
Kaiser and thence to the chancellor's 
palace, and there they talked and 
argued until 2 o'clock in the morn- 
ing. A few hours later there was 
another long conference, with many 
taking part. The tone of this meet- 
ing was distinctly hopeful, one can 
easily imagine. 

The Fateful Word from Russia. 

Then a messenger enters. In the 
little red satchel attached to his red 
belt are many dispatches and these 
are laid upon the table. The chan- 
cellor starts to opening them and 
hands them to his secretary for di- 
ciphering. They soon come upon a 
vital message. We know it was 
short, but the text has not been 
made public. It was to this effect: 
"The Czar ordered full mobilization 
of army and navy today." It was 
signed by Pourtales, the German am- 
bassador at St. Petersburg. The 
fateful decision had been made. 

The next telegram of the series 
with London Is not by Henry, but by 
William himself. It voices bitter dis- 
appointment. "Your proposals coin- 
cide with my ideas and with messages 
from Vienna." In other words, the 
solution of the difiiculties has been 
found. But, he continues, Nicholas 
has ruined it all by mobilizing. 
There follows a human and moving 
complaint: "He did not even wait 
for the results of mediation and left 
me altogether without news." Can 
any one, reading this, doubt that the 
Kaiser wished peace? "I am going 
to Berlin to insure the safety of my 
eastern frontier where already strong 
Russian troops have taken up their 
position." This was defense, not at- 
tack. War had been forced upon 
him and Russia was the culprit. . 



DIPLOMACY AND INTERNATIONAL LAW 



47 



The Plan Evolved in St. Petersburg. 

So far, Russia had borne the brunt 
of the blame for this war from the 
Berlin point of view and not until a 
copy of the Russian "orange book," 
corresponding with the German 
"white book," arrived in Berlin, was 
there a hint of strange maneuverings 
in British diplomacy. Not forgetting 
that King George's solution had been 
suggested in a telegram of July 30, 
the Germans read with astonishment 
that the British ambassador in St. 
Petersburg, working together with 
Foreign Minister Sasonow, had 
evolved an entirely different solu- 
tion, and informed the Russian am- 
bassadors in other countries about it 
only July 31. The change in the 
proposal was radical. Instead of al- 
lowing Austria to hold Belgrade as 
security, Austria was to retire from 
Servia. She was to have no security 
other than a promised word. Within 
twenty-four hours England had 
changed her course; hitherto her at- 
titude as known in Berlin had been 
peaceful ; within a day it became pro- 
vocative. 

In the light of this fact, what can 
be thought of King George's next 
telegram to the Kaiser? "I have sent 
an urgent dispatch to Nicholas in 
which I have expressed my willing- 
ness to do everything in my power 
to further the resumption of the 
negotiations between the powers In- 
volved." What, then, is English di- 
plomacy? Did or did not George 
know of the action of his ambassador 
in St. Petersburg? If he did, what 
a lamentable deception this telegram 
appears! And if he did not, is not 
British diplomacy, by this very fail- 
ure, responsible in no small measure 
for the outbreak of this war? 

That Message by Telephone. 

The remaining telegrams are in- 
structive, though the die had already 
been cast. The telephone conversa- 
tion between Grey and Lichnowsky 
on the subject of French neutrality 
was immediately dispatched to Ber- 
lin. It is, by the way, unheard of 
in diplomatic circles thus to commit 
national destinies to telephonic com- 
munication. The chancellor received 
it about thirty-five minutes before 
the mobilization order was to be 
made public, though it appears that 
the order was already in force. In 
five minutes he was in the palace, 
closeted with the Kaiser. How they 
must have regretted the delay of 
Grey's suggestion! A few hours 
earlier and the mobilization toward 
the French frontier would have not 
been ordered. 

However, the message is not alto- 
gether too late. The Kaiser imme- 
diately writes his answer, possibly 
sitting to the task at once, and writ- 
ing in pencil with his clear, rapid 
hand the message to George, surely 
in English: "If France offers her 
neutrality X shall naturally avoid an 
attack upon France and shall dispose 
of my troops otherwise. I hope that 
France will not be nervous." — Al- 
most as though the Kaiser were 
thinking aloud — "The troops at my 
frontier are even now being held 
back by telegraph and telephone from 
crossing the French boundary." 



The palace must have presented a 
busy scene, the adjutants at the tele- 
phone, the chancellor perhaps at an- 
other table writing messages to the 
front, while William sent his tele- 
gram to Cousin George. 

But Something Went Wrong. 

But English diplomacy had slipped 
again. George's next telegram was 
not filled with the cousinly affection 
which shone out in previous mes- 
sages. It is not introduced with a 
word of thanks, as are his others, 
and it is tinctured this time with the 
odor of diplomatic evasion. "There 
must have been a misunderstand- 
ing." A diplomatic method of say- 
ing: "Things have changed" even 
as they changed the day before. 

The last telegram of the series 
shows why things had changed. 
"The proposals of Sir Edward Grey," 
wires the German Ambassador in 
London, "which are attributable t» 
a wish to assure the possibility of 
England's continuous neutrality were 
made without previously sounding 
France" — just as Sir Edward's am- 
bassadorial conference was suggested 
without previously sounding the 
powers involved — "and without 
knowledge of mobilization, and in 
the meantime have been given up as 
completely hopeless." When France 
was sounded, it follows, England 
found that its hasty suggestion was 
unfortunate and evidently found that 
the possibility of England's own con- 
tinuous neutrality was dimming. In 
three days England had, indeed, 
changed! 

These telegrams are, to be sure, 
incomplete. We do not yet know 
what occurred in these three days of 
England's change, nor what justifica- 
tion she can give for her own right 
about face. But in any attempt to 
hold certain individuals responsible 
for this war it becomes more and 
more obvious that the responsibility 
must be divided. And unless the 
peculiarities of these telegrams are 
illuminated by startling justifying 
facts a goodly quantity of the blame 
must fall in London. 

Prince Henry of Prussia to King 
George, July 30. 

"I arrived yesterday and having 
repeated what you so kindly told 
me at Buckingham palace to Wil- 
liam, who received your message 
gratefully. 

"William, who is much concerned, 
is extending himself to the utmost 
to comply with the request of Nich- 
olas to work for the maintenance 
of peace. He is in constant tele- 
graphic communication with Nich- 
olas, who. today confirmed the news 
that five days ago he ordered mili- 
tary measures which are tantamount 
to mobilization. 

"We also received information 
that France is making military prep- 
arations, while we have taken no 
similar measures; we shall, however, 
be forced into them at any moment 
if our neighbors continue In this way. 
That would mean European war. 

"If you really and uprightly wish 
to avert this frightful calamity, may 
I suggest to you that you use your 



influence upon France and also upon 
Russia to keep them neutral? That, 
in my opinion, would be of the great- 
est usefulness. I believe it to be a 
sure, and, perhaps the only, possi- 
bility of maintaining peace. I should 
like to add that now more than ever 
Germany and England must mutu- 
ally support each other to avert a 
terrible catastrophe which otherwise 
seems unpreventable. 

"Believe me that William is ut- 
terly upright in his efforts to main- 
tain peace. But the military prep- 
arations of his two neighbors can 
force him finally to follow their ex- 
ample in order that his otherwise un- 
protected country may be safe. I 
have informed William of my tele- 
gram to you and I hope that you will 
accept my message in the same 
friendly spirit in which it is sent. ' 
"HENRY." 

King George to Prince Henry, 
July 30. 

"Thanks for your telegram. "Very 
glad to hear of William's efforts to 
unite with Nicholas for preserving 
peace. I have the earnest wish that 
such an irreparable catastrophe as a 
European war should be prevented. 
My government is doing its utmost 
to induce Russia and France to defer 
further military preparations in case 
Austria Is satisfied with the occupa- 
tion of Belgrade and neighboriilfe 
Servian territory as security for a 
peaceful adjustment of her demands, 
while at the same time the other 
countries suspend their war prepa- 
rations. I trust that William will 
use his great influence to move Aus- 
tria to accept this proposal; that 
would be evidence that Germany and 
England are working together to 
avert what would be an international 
catastrophe. 

"Please assure William that I am 
doing everything and will do every- 
thing in my power to maintain Euro- 
pean peace. 

"GEORGE." 

Kaiser to King George, July 31. 

"Many thanks for your friendly 
message. Your proposals coincide 
with my ideas and with the mes- 
sages which I received this evening 
from Vienna and which I forwarded 
to London. I have just learned from 
the chancellor that he has just re- 
ceived the news that Nicholas this 
evening has ordered the mobilization 
of his entire army and fleet. He did 
not even wait for the results of medi- 
ation, for which I was working, and 
left me altogether without"' news. I 
am going to Berlin to insure thOi 
safety of my eastern frontier, where 
already strong Russian troops have 
taken up their position. 

"WILLIAM." 



Perhaps the everlasting height of 
optimism was contained in Gen. Gal- 
lieni's wards when the French state 
officials left Paris: "The members 
of the government of the republic 
have left Paris to give new impetus 
to the defense of the nation." — From 
"The Daily News," Chicago, Septem- 
ber 4, 1914. 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



THE HISTORY OF EIGHT DAYS. 



Translation of Editorial. 
Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 

We have demonstrated several 
times how England has worked 
against Germany. In the course of 
the last year, however, it seemed aS 
If the British politicians could not 
reconcile themselves to being on 
friendly terms with Germany, be- 
cause the latter was a great indus- 
trial competitor, and also because of 
the trouble over the Bagdad Railway. 

The future may prove that Eng- 
land broke the bonds of friendship 
with Germany because the situation 
became too serious, and that this will 
be the British excuse for hostility. 
This also may account for there be- 
ing only ten days' interval between 
the Austrian ultimatum to Servia 
and the British declaration of war 
on Germany. 

On July 23 the Austrian govern- 
ment sent its demands to Belgrade, 
and this action caused a great storm 
in the European press. Both the 
German and Italian newspapers ex- 
pressed their belief that the demands 
were entirely justified in view of the 
murder of Serajevo. The English 
press took the same stand even more 
strongly, as nobody thought of the 
possibility that the murder might 
have been committed with a view to 
causing war with Germany. 

The Pall Mall Gazette, for example, 
on July 24, said that it was Servia's 
duty to meet the Austrian demands, 
while the Westminster Gazette, organ 
of the liberal party, asserted that no 
power, not even Russia, could say 
that Servia should not give Austria 
the satisfaction demanded. 

But St. Petersburg and Paris al- 
ready had decided otherwise. The 
Novoje Vremya on July 24 again gave 
the opinion of the Russian minister 
of foreign affairs, that Russia could 
not remain indifferent to such action, 
and the Paris Temps strongly stated 
that the Vienna ultimatum should 
find a tremendous echo in Russia. 

These opinions opened the eyes of 
the politicians at London to the op- 
portunity for making political capital 
out of the affair, which the British 
press twenty-four hours before had 
agreed was justified. Consequently 
on July 25 one could read in the 
Times: "All who have universal 
peace at heart should earnestly hope 
that Austria-Hungary had not spoken 
its last word in the Servian note. If 
this is the case, however, we would 
face a war that would be of unlimit- 
ed danger to all the great powers of 
Europe." 

London believed in the possibility 
of war long before Secretary Grey 
urged mediation of the trouble, and 
this gives any fair-minded person the 
impression that England did not care 
to maintain peace after It ascertained 
the position of Russia and Prance 
and realized how favorable was the 
opportunity for war upon Germany. 
Each of the following days afiirmed 
this opinion. In order to prove this 
it may be cited that the English gov- 
ernment spoke with two mouths. In 
some newspapers were found optimis- 



tic governmental expressions, while 
in others war views were expressed. 
For example, the Westminster Ga- 
zette on July 25 said the European 
situation showed great dangers, 
while the Novoje Vremya openly 
spoke of Russian mobilization. The 
following day an order was issued in 
St. Petersburg stopping all news of 
military operations. On that same 
day the mobilization order was se- 
cretly issued, but, notwithstanding 
the censorship, the Echo de Paris told 
its readers that Russia was preparing 
for war. * * * 

An echo of these preparations was 
seen in an article in the London 
Morning Post of July 27, which stated 
that England's duty as a nation was 
to assist friendly powers in case of 
necessity. 

The kaiser returned from his trip 
to Norway on July 28 and was wel- 
comed by a hypocritical telegram 
from the czar, indicating that the 
Russian ruler wanted him to be the 
mediator in the trouble. The kaiser 
immediately took hold of the media- 
tion proposals with Sir Edward Grey, 
while Russia was making great prep- 
erations for war, the French ad- 
miral, Lapeyrere, was ordering the 
concentration of the Mediterranean 
fleet at Toulon, and the commander 
of the English fleet in the same wa- 
ters had called his ships, which were 
scattered all over the Levant, to as- 
semble at Malta. 

It was not until July 31 that Ger- 
many and the kaiser became ac- 
quainted with the exact state of af- 
fairs and learned of the manner In 
which the triple entente had bull- 
dozed the true friends of p^ace in or- 
der to gain time for their own prep- 
erations for war. After this the 
ultimatum went to St. Petersburg and 
war followed by a formal declaration 
of war. 



BERNARD SHAW CLAIMS RUSS 

PERIL OF WESTERN 

EUROPE. 



"Our Trade Ambassador." 

"The trade embassador of the Na- 
tional Chamber of Commerce to 
South America will find his work cut 
out for him. If he or the organiza- 
tion which commissions him is under 
a contrary impression they will be 
painfully disillusioned. 

"He will find a well defined po- 
litical distrust of us that does not 
help trade relations. He will find 
differences of manners that mean 
more than the mannerless American 
suspects. He will find competitors 
with established relations, competi- 
tors who take the trouble to please, 
and have not at all the American at- 
titude of "be pleased or be d d;" 

competitors who study conditions, 
commercial, financial, and social, and 
who meet them. He will find a sin- 
gular absence at belief in the innate 
superiority and manifest destiny of 
North Americans. 

"In a word, he will find uphill 
York, and he will return, we hope, to 
tell some neglected truths to a peo- 
ple too much given to the doctrine 
that 'we kin lick all creation' in 
the arena of world trade." — The pub- 
lisher of "War Echoes." 



By George Bernard Shaw. 

London, Aug. 20 (by mail to New 
York, Sept. 1.) — It is idle and 
somewhat exasperating to talk of 
"lifting the acts and thoughts of the 
British people to the plane of the 
noblest and purest patriotism," with 
such a business in hand as the pres- 
ent war. 

The hard fact is that we have 
placed ourselves in such a position 
that we cannot, without the most 
cowardly treachery, refuse to throw 
ourselves with all our might into 
the war on the side of Prance. 

But we are all three — France, 
Germany and England alike — com- 
mitting a crime against civilization 
for the benefit of Russia, and to ask 
me or any other sane man to create 
an illusion of nobility and purity 
and patriotism around such a crime 
is to ask honest people to do the 
work of dupes and fools. 

We Must Fight and Die. 

We shall have to fight and die and 
pay and suffer with the grim knowl- 
edge that we are sacrificing our- 
selves in an insane cause, and that 
only by putting up a particularly 
good fight can we bring ourselves 
out of it with credit. 

For my part I can only hope that 
all the western powers quoted will 
acquit themselves so heroically that 
they will be forced to divide the 
honors of war and shake hands for- 
ever. 

For what is to happen if we smash 
Germany and smash Sweden, If we 
have forced Sweden to join Ger- 
many? 

Simply that we shall have to de- 
fend both Sweden and Germany 
against Russia, and to defend them 
when we are exhausted by a fratri- 
cidal war. 

And if Germany smashes us and 
annexes the coast of the North Sea, 
what sort of back seat shall we and 
Prance occupy — we, who might have 
dictated the destinies of Western 
Europe if we had stood for civili- 
zation and not for loans to Russia 
and capitalistic exploits in Persia? 
Draft Peace During War. 

It is fortunate for us all that 
smashing is school boy brag. We 
can display tremendous bravery and 
exhaust one another in the face of 
inexhaustible Russia (not more in- 
exhaustible, however, than we three 
shall be when we unite), but we can- 
not smash one another. 

For the present there is only one 
thing to be done besides fighting for 
all we are worth, lest we be ashamed 
as weaklings and cowards as well as 
fools and madmen, until we learn to 
respect one another and respect our 
high destiny as the joint standard- 
bearers of Western civilization as 
against the half-civilized Eastern le- 
gions to whom we have taught the 
art of killing by machinery. 

And that one thing is to set to 
work immediately to draft the in- 
evitable treaty of peace, which we 
must all sign when we have had 
our bellyful of murder and destruc- 
tion. 



FURTHER CAUSES OF THE GREAT WAR 

The Nations are all to Blame and all are Right from a Certain Point of View 
Causes and the Occasion of the War 



Great Britain and Germany 
A Manly and Peaceful Pursuit of Industry and Progress Spurned 



LETTER OF AN ENGLISHMAN TO 
HIS GERMAN FRIEND. 

Althougb I am an Englishman and 
my country is at war witti yours, I do 
not consider, however, that my loyalty 
to England need necessarily compel me 
to obliterate from my memory the long 
years of friendship I have entertained 
for Germany. Ever since I first went 
there as a student some nineteen years 
ago. I have always remained one of her 
staunchest friends and most enthus- 
iastic admirers, and I am still so today, 
though in certain quarters it may be 
considered heretical to admit it. I have 
mixed so much with Germans and have 
been afforded such exceptional oppor- 
tunities for studying their splendid 
State and Municipal governmental sys- 
tems and, in fact, the entire civil and 
military administrative machinery oq 
which German power and greatness de- 
pends. I am possibly, therefore, better 
qualified to estimate correctly what 
Germany's tremendous powers of re- 
sistance are destined to be during this 
conflict, than many of those whose 
knowledge of German international af- 
fairs is based mostly on hearsay, but 
who publish columns on the subject 
daily in the French and British presses. 
It is a pity that so many Englishmen 
when they visit foreign countries and 
especially European ones, are usually 
incapable of divesting themselves of 
their inherent insularity and racial 
prejudices. Because, by failing to real- 
ize that there is something new worth 
learning, or at any rate investigating, 
in every civilized land, much useful 
information slips by them unperceived 
to the detriment of their own country. 
The average Britisher's conception of 
patriotism is to entertain a pitying con- 
tempt for everybody (and everything) 
Willi hiis hnd the misfortune of being 
created outside the British Isles, and 
it is entirely due to this unfortunate 
temperamental characteristic that all 
we English have had such an unpleas- 
ant and rough awakening concerning 
Germany's might since the outbreak of 
this war. Individuals often get angry 
at first when suddenly startled, and 
this is exactly what has happened in 
England. She embarked on this cam- 
paign thoroughly convinced that at the 
first shout of the Triple Entente, the 
"Walls of Jericho" would almost in- 
stantly collapse and that within three 
months the German Empire would be 



in extremis. But to her disgust she 
has discovered that the Germans are 
not perturbed In the very least at tak- 
ing on the whole of Europe, and if 
necessary any interested spectators who 
may care to take a hand In the game. 
In consequence, the disillusionment of 
my "sporting" compatriots knows no 
bounds, and the only comfort they get 
is by reading the volumes of the above, 
interwoven with slander, belched forth 
daily by their press at Germany's ex- 
pense. But there Is a comical side to 
the present situation which disinter- 
ested spectators are not likely to over- 
look. — Because the Germans have so 
far succeeded in withstanding, prac- 
tically single handed, the onslaught of 
a gigantic coalition, the object of which 
was the total annihilation of their Em- 
pire, they are now being accused of 
having secretly spent years in prepar- 
ing their defensive military machine 
for the sole purpose of subjugating 
Europe and especially poor little Eng- 
land. Personally, I have not the faint- 
est notion whether the German Govern- 
ment Is directly or indirectly respon- 
sible for this terrible conflagration, but 
what I do know is, that the German 
Nation has got its back to the wall and 
is flghting the largest military powers 
of the world, and such being the case, 
if any of the English people have a 
spark of sporting instinct remaining in 
them, they who, hitherto, have always 
been believed to be the admirers of true 
sport and of everything that is sports- 
manlike in the noblest and highest 
sense of the word, then in my opinion, 
they should be the first to acknowledge 
what a magnificent fight the German 
nation is putting up ! Even if your 
country should T)e eventually defeated, 
the terrifflc odds against which she is 
fighting will roT) the victors of all glory, 
and impartial historians of future gen- 
erations tcill assuredly dedicate it all 
to her. 

For years I have incessantly im- 
pressed on my countrymen what a 
stupendous power the German Empire 
is, but my opinions were scoffed at and 
I, myself, was "dubbed" pro-German 
and was told that I was unpatriotic 
and belittled my own country, because 
I maintained that in certain respects 
Germany was a greater country than 
England owing to the superiority of 
her military and educational systems. 
Now, if I, a private individual, could 
collect sufficient data for the purpose 



of enabling me to assess her strength 
at its true value, how much more 
should our Military Attaches have been 
able to do so, possessing all the ad- 
vantages which the sacred robes of oflS- 
cialdom bestowed on them. It is evi- 
dent, therefore, that our military rep- 
resentatives in Berlin were either crim- 
inally negligent and apathetic, or else 
hopelessly incompetent, and I should 
be inclined rather to believe the latter. 
But in either case, it is preposterous 
for us now to accuse the German Gov- 
ernment of wilful duplicity and Im- 
pute to it aggressive motives for adopt- 
ing precautionary defensive measures 
while the British nation peacefully 
slumbered. Such a point of view is 
as irrational as that of the Peace-at- 
any-price Party in the House of Com- 
mons who, prior to the war, was con- 
tinually beseeching the Germans to 
disarm, so that Great Britain, with her 
vast colonial possessions wrapt tightly 
around her, might continue to sleep In 
perfect tranquility and free from all 
anxiety for the future. But when sug- 
gesting such an unbusinesslike and un- 
practical arrangement, British politi- 
cians completely ignored the fact, that 
were she to have adopted such a fatu- 
ously short-sighted policy, Germany 
would speedily have been smothered by 
her French and Russian neighbors and 
their cohorts of hangers-on. Instead 
of attempting to usher in the millenlum 
before the world was ready for It, these 
well-meaning but misguided Idealists 
would have served the case of civiliza- 
tion far better, had they directed their 
energies in bringing pressure to bear 
on their Government to heed the old 
classical dictum "Si vis pacem, para 
liellum" (If you wish peace, prepare 
for war), but which preferred to pan- 
der to the ignorant proletariat for the 
sake of obtaining its manhood votes on 
which depended ministerial posts and 
huge yearly salaries regardless of na- 
tional security. So obsessed was the 
Government with Social reform, that 
had this war been postponed but a few 
years more, the probabilities are that 
we should have had an appalling na- 
tional disaster. 

For some years prior to this war I 
contributed innumerable articles to our 
press, in which I showed how utterly 
futile it was to try to prevent a 
country like the German Empire, con- 
taining a population of sixty-eight mil- 
lions and possessing the most perfectly 



50 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



organized and trained army -which has 
ever existed, the second largest Navy 
and mercantile marine, and an ever in- 
creasing commercial and industrial 
prosperity, from expanding and ac- 
quiring Colonies, Protectorates, Com- 
mercial spheres of influence, or what- 
ever you choose for convenience sake 
to call them. I emphasized the fact, 
that quite apart from all equitable con- 
siderations, such a systematic and 
ruthless blocking policy as was being 
pursued by our Government with re- 
gard to Germany's legitimate territorial 
aggrandizement aspirations, would 
most certainly culminate in some such 
frightful world-wide cataclysm as has 
now actually come to pass. In direct 
contradistinction to this negative line 
of policy. I strongly advocated a rap- 
prochement with her, based on an ami- 
cable and equitable settlement by which 
she would be allotted certain spheres 
of influence in Asia Minor and Africa. 
I was opposed all along to the Franco- 
British Entente and still more so to the 
fatal Triple Entente, as I foresaw 
clearly that both these agreements con- 
tained the germs of future interna- 
tional complications, and were thus 
bound to defeat their ostensible "raison 
d'etre" namely, to safeguard the peace 
of Europe. To wish to cultivate 
friendly relations with France was ad- 
mirable, but the modus operandi em- 
ployed for doing so could not have been 
more clumsily devised and more cal- 
culated to injure rather than benefit 
France's interests, by the mere fact 
that the terms of the "Entente Cor- 
diale" were shrouded in so much mys- 
tery, that nobody knew what they were 
or to what extent England had pledged 
herself to assist France, should Bhe 
be involved in a war. Besides, from 
the very outset, the French were per- 
mitted to exaggerate its political sig- 
nificance and placed an entirely differ- 
ent interpretation on it to that which 
the British Government had originally 
intended. Its natural tendency, there- 
fore, was to foster in them a spirit of 
misplaced confidence in their ability of 
waging a successful war of revenge 
against their old enemy and so recover 
their lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine. 
But, as might well have been expected, 
the Germans viewed the whole transac- 
tion with the utmost suspicion and dis- 
like, and especially the Triple Entente, 
because they firmly believed, that its 
primary object was to head them off 
in every direction, and definitely pre- 
vent them from ever obtaining those 
outlets, the possession of which is es- 
sential for ensuring the future economic 
and commercial prosperity of their Em- 
pire. The immediate result of this 
threatening coalition was to compel 
Germany to redouble her armament 
efforts, and for having done so she is 
now being roundly abused by Great 
Britain and accused of compassing the 
destruction of Europe. If she had not 
maintained her lead in armaments I 
should like to know whether there is a 
single English Statesman worthy of 
the name, who would have been willing 
to stake his personal honor, that imme- 
diately the military preparations of 
France and Russia had been completed 
and they believed themselves suffi- 
ciently strong to crush her, that they 
would not have hesitated to seize upon 
the first opportune moment for picking 



a quarrel with Germany and forcing a 
war upon her. Sandwiched in as she 
is between two avowed and implacable 
foes such as they are, what else could 
she do than prepare for all eventuali- 
ties? Is it conceivable that a great 
and progressive nation as Germany 
is, was gomg to incur the risk of being 
reduced to the status of a second 
class Power? The fact that Germany 
did not go to war with France in 1905 
when the Moroccan crisis arose, speaks 
volumes for her peaceful intentions. 
Then, if ever, vcas the psychological 
moment for her to have done so, as 
France, Russia, England and Belgium 
were wholly unprepared for war, their 
military affairs being in a chaotic con- 
dition. 

No, in my opinion, a combination of 
unfortunate circumstances, but not Ger- 
many, were the cause of this terrible 
conflict, however much in certain quar- 
ters it may be desired to attribute it 
to her. To act in self defense is fre- 
quently mistaken for aggression. For 
instance, suppose two persons have an 
altercation and one of them is sud- 
denly seen to strike the other, would 
he not appear to be the aggressor in 
the eyes of anybody watching the scene 
a way off and to whom the words which 
were exchanged between them were in- 
audible? May not one man have said 
something to the other which compelled 
him to act as he did? Moreover, is it 
not conceivable that believing himself 
to be the weaker of the two, and realiz- 
ing that the other was fast losing con- 
trol of himself, but deemed it expedi- 
ent, therefore, to hit first and not in- 
cur the risk of receiving a staggering 
knock-out blow? This is exactly what 
happened in Germany's case. The pre- 
mature mobilization of the Russian 
troops coupled with France's truculent 
and threatening attitude obliged the 
Germans for the sake of their own 
safety to declare war, and thus en- 
deavour to deal the enemy a decisive 
blow before he was ready. But Ger- 
man critics declare that if Germany 
had not desired war, her military mo- 
bilization could not have been com- 
pleted prior to that of her opponents. 
But they forget that her peculiar 
geographical position, namely between 
France and Russia, necessitated that 
her troops should always be in a 
constant state of preparedness to take 
the field at a moment's notice, just as 
the British fleet is maintained on a 
war footing and is always ready for 
active service. The fact is, that by 
their clever scheming, the Russians suc- 
ceeded in making the German govern- 
ment appear to be the aggressor, when 
in reality it was merely dealing a de- 
fensive blow. But now because the 
Germans have objected to being annihi- 
lated ("butchered, to make a Triple 
Entente holiday") and are defending 
themselves heroically in the face of 
overwhelming odds, their foes now 
blame them for their extraordinary 
powers of resistance and accuse them of 
having secretly compassed the down- 
fall of Europe. 

In order to gain the sympathy of 
neutral states. Great Britain has ad- 
vanced the preposterous plea that she is 
championing the case of freedom 
against militarism. If this were the 
case, she should then be waging this 
war against the whole world, as all 



civilized countries except the Americas 
have adopted compulsory military serv- I 
ice and maintain large armies. Be- 
sides, she herself has of late become an 
ultra military power, and has even gone 
so far as to adopt a veiled form of 
military dictatorship which is one of 
the most sensible things she has done, 
especially as Lord Kitchener is one of 
the very ablest of great statesmen we 
have ever had. No ! let us admit frank- 
ly that we are not fighting militarism, 
but only the wonderful German mili- 
tary machine that has raised the stand- 
ard of military efliclency to such a 
pitch that it has so far enabled the 
German Empire to withstand, practi- 
cally single-handed, the onslaught of 
the hordes of a united Europe. The 
fact is that England realizes only too 
well that Germany's homogeneous mili- 
tary governmental system is what 
stands between her and becoming the 
dominant commercial power of Europe 
and which proud position she is per- 
fectly justified in coveting. For, if it 
were not for the inconvenient counter- 
balancing effect of German military 
power, our naval preponderance would 
permit of our playing off one country 
against the other and whilst they were 
scrambling for the fence we should be 
gathering in the sovereigns. We are 
hearing a great deal just at present con- 
cerning the iniquities of this brutal and 
tyrannical German militarism, but 
what about navalism? Has it ever 
dawned on English people how lu- 
dicrously inconsistent their abuse of 
German militarism on land Is, consider- 
ing the fact that Great Britain's naval- 
ism aids at playing identically the same 
game on sea ; also that It is of equally 
vital importance to the German Em- 
pire's existence as a great power for 
her to retain her military supremacy 
as it is to our existence to retain our 
naval supremacy. 

I am fully aware that the German 
people are convinced that England was 
the evil genius who caused this war, 
but I venture to differ with them on 
that point. There is not the least 
shadow of a doubt that the British 
Isles were madly jealous of Germany, 
and what is more, feared her. They 
knew that her commerce was on the 
increase and that her navy was grow- 
ing stronger year by year, necessitat- 
ing a proportional Increase in that of 
theirs and which was already costing 
them £45,000,000 annually. As it 
would have been suicidal for her to 
abandon the race in naval armaments, 
England was obliged, therefore,- to re- 
double her efforts in the hope that the 
German government would either tire 
of the contest or else go bankrupt, and 
which was a most probable contingency 
seeing that, not only had it to meet 
naval expenses but ever-increasing 
colossal military ones as well. How- 
ever, in spite of her heavy naval expen- 
diture England had no desire to become 
embroiled herself in a conflict with 
the Germans, although she may not 
have been adverse to seeing them hum- 
bled by other powers. The flirtatious 
British government had unquestionably 
whispered many "sweet nothings" into 
France's loving ear during those early 
halcyon days of the courtship, and prior 
to the conclusion of the mysterious 
"Triple Mgnage." But judging from 
the lack of martial ardour displayed by 



MEETING A NEIGHBOR AS A COMPETITOR 



51 



the British government by not adopt- 
ing the most trivial and palpable piill- 
tary precautions commensurate with 
the foreign policy to which it had com- 
mitted itself, I think I am justified in 
declaring that the one prayer it offered 
daily to Heaven was that no occasion 
would arise necessitating the fulfill- 
ment of those promises it had made its 
mistress. Hence, my contention that 
we were not the instigators, but invol- 
untary participators in this upheaval. 
When the Austro-Servian crisis arose 
in July, 1914, followed by the Austro- 
German-Eussian one, the English cab- 
inet was placed in an appalling di- 
lemma, and however much Germans 
may be incensed against us today, those 
of them who have studied political 
questions will, I feel sure, agree with 
me in this. On the one hand, the gov- 
ernment knew it had guaraiiteed to 
support France should she be attacked, 
but what was even worse still, it real- 
ized that if Russia should again re- 
ceive an unavenged rebufif on Servia's 
behalf (she had already received sev- 
eral since the annexation of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina by Austria in 1909), the 
probabilities were that she would 
sicken of the paralytic and impotent 
policy of the Triple Entente, and, in 
consequence, would conclude an inde- 
pendent agreement with Germany to 
the serious detriment of British inter- 
ests in Asia Minor and Persia. But 
besides all this, there was yet another 
reason, no less important, which im- 
pelled the government to adopt the 
course it did. For ten years that scur- 
rilous rag and insatiable scavenger, 
"The Daily Mail," Lord NorthclifEe's 
personal property and mouthpiece, and 
supported by its foster brother, the 
once distinguished "Times," carried on 
a systematic and ruthless anti-German 
campaign with a view to terrifying the 
gullible public and arousing its insen- 
sate hatred for Germany and all her 
works! The immediate result of this 
iniquitous policy was, -that when the 
European crisis arose in July last, pub- 
lic opinion in England was already 
inflamed against the Germans, that 
however much one government might 
have wished to do so, it would never 
have been permitted to draw back at 
the eleventh hour and leave France to 
her fate. Had it done so, it would not 
have remained in office twenty-four 
hours. But what I am particularly de- 
sirous of impressing on the German na- 
tion, is the importance of differentiat- 
ing in its hatred of England, between 
the individual Englishman and his 
press-ridden government. I can assure 
you. that had the question of war or 
peace been submitted in the form of 
a referendum to the people, there 
would have been an overwhelming ma- 
jority in favour of peace because none 
of our working classes wanted war 
with the Germans, however much they 
may have been interested in the "Daily 
Mail's" exciting and sensational nov- 
elette anti-German jargon. They were 
simply rushed headlong into heel by 
their government and its inexorable 
taskmaster, the prePs. Do not imagine 
that the mush you vend in our daily 
newspapers Is th:' true voice of the 
English nation. The childish and fu- 
tile abuse which is now being heaped 
upon Germany comes solely from the 
pens of that handful of scum of scum 



of Fleet Street editors, who by their 
maniacal ravings have succeeded In 
hypnotizing my compatriots into be- 
lieving that they abhor Germany and 
Germans, that the latter are barbari- 
ans but that the Russians are saints. 
If, however, the "Daily Mail" suddenly 
veered around and commenced publish- 
ing leading articles rigorously decrying 
the war, and showing what economic 
and commercial suicide it was, what 
a baneful effect it would ultimately 
have on the interests of our working 
classes and on those of all other coun- 
tries, and how unnecessary it was, see- 
ing that prior to the July European 
crisis, we had no tangible reason what- 
soever, for quarreling with Germany, 
the latter would speedUy witness the 
most startling revulsion of feeling im- 
aginable against this conflict in Great 
Britain. Consequently. I maintain that 
it is the fault of our fespective presses, 
we are all now murdering each other 
and are. thereby, retarding our civil- 
ization by hundreds of years. 

But the question is : How can peace 
be once more restored? Unfortunately 
so long as both Germany and England 
are both quite convinced that each is 
certain eventually to smash the other 
there can be no possible prospect of a 
speedy settlement. However, those of 
us Germans and English who have still 
retained our mental equilibrium and 
have not allowed the war fever to take 
too strong a hold upon us, must strive 
to instil a little common sense into 
our respective unhappy compatriots. 
If ever there were an opportunity for 
the press to prove what a mighty 
power for good it can be, this is most 
certainly the moment of all others for 
doing so. Public opinion today is 
formed and influenced almost entirely 
by what the various daily newspapers 
write ; of what vital importance it is. 
therefore, that they should, one and 
all, endeavour to uphold unflinchingly 
the standard of right or their inter- 
pretation of it, in as charitable a spirit 
as possible for those whose opinions 
differ from theirs and thus, to quiet 
rather than excite the unreasonable 
and harmful passions by which the ig- 
norant masses are swayed. Only by 
this means it is possible to guide 
them along the path which is best 
calculated to lead to the most satis- 
factory results both for themselves and 
the good of the whole world. — The 
"Continental Times," Berlin. 



THE WAR AND AMERICA. 



H. B. M. When was Sir Arthur 
Conan Doyle knighted? Was it after 
he had written and circulated in Eu- 
rope his famous pamphlet defending 
Great Britain in the South African 
War? Is he writing a similar de- 
fense for the present occasions? 

Sir Arthur was knighted in 1902, 
subsequent to the publication and 
distribution of the pamphlet to which 
yoli allude and two years after the 
appearance of "The Great Boer 
War." It has been announced in the 
press that he is now working on a 
book having to do with the present 
war. — From the "Questions and An- 
swers" column in the "New Yorker 
Staats-Zeitung," November 9, 1914. 



"And the Lord our God delivered 
him before us: and we smote him, 
and his sons, and all his people." 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, New 
York. 

Herman Ridder. 

When so much is being written on 
every angle of the European war, so 
much that will serve its purpose of 
creating a temporary misconception 
of the aims and ideals of Germany 
and Austria and then, having lived 
Its little day in type-metal, will pass 
into the limbo of the past, a mono- 
graph on the war from the able pen 
of Professor Hugo Muensterberg, of 
Harvard University, is not only time- 
ly but to those Americans who are 
striving to maintain a neutral mind 
and who desire only fair play, ex- 
ceedingly welcome. 

It Is not necessary to Introduce 
Prof. Muensterberg to the reading 
public in America, or in Europe. 
For twenty years his pen has been 
active on both sides of the Atlantic, 
defending In turn American ideals In 
Europe and German ideals in Amer- 
ica. I know of no man, now living, 
who has sought more consistently or 
more intelligently to promote a prop- 
er understanding not alone between 
Americans and Germans but also be- 
tween Americans and Europeans in 
general, including the British peo- 
ple. 

The book which Professor Muens- 
terberg has written on the war, and 
which Messrs. Appleton will publish 
today, deals of necessity only with 
causes and morals. It is free from 
prophecies and does not even touch 
on the military operations which have 
already taken place. Its great value 
lies in the clearly thought and con- 
cisely put causes which led up to 
the outbreak of hostilities, from the 
point of view of a man of superior 
intellect and education whose life 
has been divided nearly equally be- 
tween Germany and the United 
States. The spirit which permeates 
it is that of cold, logical reasoning, 
which alone, and more especially in 
times like the present, when the 
smoke of battle is still In our nos- 
trils, can be of assistance to those 
who wish to arrive at the truth. 

There is no attempt on the author's 
part to belittle, to slander or to con- 
done. He has a good word for each 
of the participants in the struggle. 
To him there is no immortality in 
the war. It is as moral a conflict as 
inevitability could make one. It had 
been building for many years. In 
the author's own words: 

"And yet was ever a war more 
natural, more unavoidable? It is 
central Europe's desperate defence 
against the mighty neighbors of East 
and West, who have prepared and 
prepared for the crushing blow to 
the German nations. This war had 
to come sooner or later. Russia spent 
billions to he ready to push the steam 
roller of its gigantic population over 
the German frontier. France armed 
as no civilized nation ever armed be- 
fore; even the educated had to serve 
three years in the army against the 
one year's service in Germany. For 
decades the French did not allow 
Germany an hour to rest without ar- 
mor. 



52 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



"Germany's pacific and industrious 
population had only the one wish: to 
develop its agricultural and indus- 
trial, its cultural and moral re- 
sources. It had no desire to expand 
its frontiers over a new square foot 
of land in Europe. It aimed to un- 
fold its commerce over the markets 
of the world and to build up a great 
national literature and art and sci- 
ence. It became prosperous and 
even luxurious. But never did th% 
neighbors allow Germany a pause in 
its training of patriotic defenders. 
The neighbors begrudged this pros- 
perity of the fatherland which had 
been weak and poor through cen- 
turies satisfied with songs and 
thoughts and dreams. They threat- 
ened and threatened by ever increas- 
ing armaments. Germany had to 
spend a vast part of its material and 
mental income in a hard preparation 
for defence." 

Six nations have cast their lots 
against Germany and Austria; yet for 
Prof. Muensterberg there is but one 
war — the war between Russia and 
Germany. A native of Danzig, reared 
under the shadow of the Russian ad- 
vance, he speaks with the voice of 
one who knows. The Slavic peril Is 
for him the one great fact which 
stands out, clear-cut and unmistak- 
able, among the varied dangers which 
are now threatening the German 
people. 

"All other nations are in a hurry, 
Russia has time; all others econo- 
mize with men, Russia can waste and 
waste and will always grow. All 
other nations have wavered in their 
enterprises, Russia remains unswerv- 
ingly loyal to its aim of world con- 
trol. Russia has seen reverses which 
would have crushed any weaker na- 
tion; defeats in Turkey, defeats in 
Asia; she hardly felt them. The 
clumsy bear withdrew his heavy paw 
for a while to put it forth with tre- 
mendous power at another spot. Rus- 
sia is the one nation on earth which 
is invincible." 

And yet Prof. Muensterberg has not 
one harsh word for this perpetual 
eternal, invincible foe of Germany. 
She, too, is moving in channels 
dredged for her by first causes. The 
meaning of Russian domination is 
not overlooked, however. "The 
Slavic world is full of deep melan- 
choly beauty, of devoted loyalty, of 
religious democracy, of sincere ideal- 
ism," but — "the Russian life is one 
of cultural inefficiency, a life from 
which no true inner progress may 
be hoped." 

The, diplomatic incidents which 
preceded the open declaration of war 
are condensed and reviewed in a 
spirit of broad non-partisanship. The 
conclusions at which the author ar- 
rives are those of every intelligent 
and unbiased reader of the corre- 
spondence which has been made pub- 
lic. The murder of the Archduke of 
Austria brought to a head the ma- 
chinations of the Pan-Slavs not alone 
in Servia but in the southern prov- 
inces of Austria-Hungary, and de- 
manded the ultimatum sent by Vi- 
enna to Belgrade. 

"Belgrade was willing to yield 
completely to its great neighbor, but 
at noontime of the day on which the 



ultimatum was to end, a cipher tele- 
gram from Petersburg arrived, and 
the message of the Russian govern- 
ment to the Servian reversed the 
mood of the little kingdom. The 
bellicose Servian Crown Prince, 
standing in his automobile, drove 
jubilantly through the excited crowds 
on the streets, and a few hours later 
a refusal was sent to Vienna which 
could mean nothing but war. The 
Czar had instigated it and was con- 
sistent: the Russian empire was to 
back little Servia against its foes." 

The immediate order which fol- 
lowed the mobilization of the Russian 
army, and which was carried out un- 
swervingly in the face of repeated 
protests and entreaties from the Ger- 
man Emperor, was the real declara- 
tion of war. If the Emperor erred 
at all, he erred in not meeting the 
challenge of Russia sooner. 

The part played by England in 
this "cosmic catastrophe" is so over- 
shadowed in Prof. Muensterberg's 
mind by that of the Russian danger, 
that little space is given to it. And 
perhaps rightly so in a work from 
the pen of a philosopher. The Rus- 
sian danger is racial and cultural, 
the British economic and commercial. 
The Russianization of Germany, or 
of an essential part of it, would mean 
the turning back of the hands on 
the clock of cultural progress not 
alone for Germany but for all Eu- 
rope and the whole world — the 
achievement of British aims would 
mean no more than a temporary eco- 
nomic set-back which in time the 
inner virility of the German people 
might be looked to recoup. There 
are not wanting those, however, who 
see behind the "clumsy bear" of Rus- 
sia the work of Britain's far-reaching 
diplomacy, and feel that as the in- 
stigator and abettor of the Russian 
advance. Great Britain demands 
more attention than is generally ac- 
corded her. The entrance into the 
war of England is condoned on the 
grounds of national expediency. 
There is no bitterness expressed on 
account of race treachery. 

"The whole idea of race obliga- 
tion and race treachery is a con- 
struction which has never really been 
accepted by the political powers of 
the world . . .There cannot be 
a more unlike racial companionship 
than England, Russia, France, Servia 
and Japan, and yet the whole history 
of mankind justifies the welding to- 
gether of strange elements. The 
cousinship of Germans and English- 
men is no political tie." 

That England, while committing 
no crime, has "committed a great 
historical blunder" is clear to the 
author, however. 

"But will England pluck the fruits 
for which it reaches out its hand 
even if Germany is crushed? The 
German defeat will satisfy the longr 
Ing of France without strengthening 
it strategically, but it will immense- 
ly strengthen the Slavic nations. Rus- 
sia will be the great winner, and the 
new strength of Russia will be the 
real danger to the British Empire, 
which will be weakened anyhow by 
the exhausting war. Russia will at 
once push forward in Asia; India 
will be liberated, and if India secures 



Its independence, Canada and Aus- 
tralia will be lost. If the German 
dam against the Russian-Servian 
flood is broken, twenty years later the 
area of the British Empire will be 
pitifully small." 

The inconsistency of the Anglo- 
phile element in the American press 
is alluded to, and explained on the 
basis of "the psychology of the 
crowd." A year ago, on the occasion 
of the celebration of the twenty-fifth 
anniversary of the inception of the 
present German Emperor's reign of 
unbroken peace, it lauded Germany 
and its Emperor to the skies. Today 
there is nothing too wild, too imag- 
inative, too ridiculous and untrue to 
ascribe to the aims and ideals of 
both. The German cables were cut 
at the beginning of the war and the 
American press Was flooded with 
anti-German reports colored by the 
enemy. Acting on first impulses and 
first "news," the campaign of vilifi- 
cation was set in motion and it is 
only now, when the truth is begin- 
ning to come in from Germany, that 
the better element among the Amer- 
ican papers is returning to the nor- 
mal. The writings of H. G. Wells, 
for England, Henri Bergson, for 
Prance, and Dr. Charles W. Eliot, for 
the United States, are disposed of by 
dignified controversion — those of the 
petty "penny-a-liners," who have 
turned their pens alike against Ger- 
many and the truth, by an expres- 
sion of poorly veiled contempt. 

"They are hardly conscious lies; 
they are the hysteric illusions of 
over-excited brains. The bystanders 
are really convinced that they saw 
the horrible ferocities. I fancy 
Richard Harding Davis believed sin- 
cerely that he actually saw those 
wild impossibilities with which his 
reports are bristling. 

There is not a line in the two hun- 
dred and ten pages which make up 
"The War, and America" which will 
not repay reading. They are pages 
pleasantly written but nevertheless 
calmly thought out and concisely put. 
As a contribution to the literature 
of the present war and to the philos- 
ophy of war in general, their place 
is assured. In the concluding chap- 
ter, on "The Morals of the War," the 
reader will find in the suggestion of 
a novel basis for world peace, "cos- 
mochorism," food for new thought 
and perhaps the solution of the ques- 
tion now uppermost in all American 
minds: Why is war? When will the 
necessity for It cease to be? 



FOREIGN CHARITY AND NATIVE 
WAGES. 



From "The Chicago Tribune," No- 
vember 14, 1914. 

Clinton, la., Nov. 12. — [Editor of 
"The Tribune."] — Will some gentle- 
man kindly explain to the writer 
through the columns of "The Trib- 
une" why some people "sincerely 
trust" that $5,000,000 of America's 
money be sent abroad to help the 
needy, and kick like Texas steers if 
they have to pay living wages for 
American skilled labor? 

H. F. S. 



MEETING A NEIGHBOR AS A COMPETITOR 



53- 



A GERMAN MENACE. 



A letter written to the Chicago 
"Tribune" in, reply to an article on 
the German Menace to Great Britain 
— Its Rising -Navy. — By the Editor o/ 
"War Echoes^' 

The Editor in iChief, 

The Tribxiiie, Chicago, 111. 
Dear Sir: 

I am frankly and honestly a Ger- 
man sympathizer in thepresent Euro- 
pean conflict, and, no , doubt, pri- 
marily so, because of my deep-seated 
conviction of the justice of the Ger- 
man-Austrian cause, and, conse- 
quently, I have an abiding faith in 
them. To be sure the Historian will 
some day settle this question to the 
satisfaction of most enlightened and 
disciplined people, settling their 
cause in its true light. And not un- 
til this is done, and until we refuse 
to hear a verdict with but a part of 
the evidence and only some of the 
witnesses in the case, shall I lose 
faith in a country that bears the 
reputation aiid character of that of 
Germany. 

It is simply faith based on knowl- 
edge. It is fact and truth. It is 
certainly the more abiding thing we 
have to judge by; this spiritual, 
intellectual, and practical Germany 
is universally acknowledged where 
people have not been too much con- 
cerned with fear, prejudice, jealousy, 
revenge, ambition, etc. Can it pos- 
sibly fail to appeal to us that we are 
dealing with a situation created by 
Germany's bitterest enemies? I 
venture to predict that Germany will 
retain her abiding character, in spite 
of all the abuse, vilification and 
slander heaped upon her in this 
crisis. Be not deceived; History 
shows that strength, character and 
courage are made in such trying 
times. But the thing created by the 
passions of man against her, un- 
justly, will pass away, with traces of 
guilt and contrition, let us hope, 
from the guilty. 

I am indeed gratified for the let- 
ters appearing under "Voice of the 
People," for it is precisely the want 
of such a Forum in the popular press, 
publishing overwhelming material 
from England and her Allies, while 
their enemies have been shut out 
from the world, that I am ready to 
make any possible sacrifice to de- 
fend Germany. For the press It 
simply spells BUSINESS. Could 
Germany and Austria assure us im- 
mediate and ultimate financial gain 
by boosting her, she would get the 
support. I have been told that Ger- 
many lacked practical wisdom by re- 
futing to spend several millions to 
this end, that she will have to pay 
it anyway, and that in an infinitely 
harder way, by much suffering and 
making additional human sacrifices 
for the sale of ideals and patriotism, 
than she would have been obliged to 
sacrifice by the every-day practise of 
bribing, such as is common even in 
our very households; why then cher- 
ish high ideals In regard to how we 
may "get there" in relations with our 
neighbor nations. 

To defend her, not so much in her 
claims, though I feel that I have just 



reason to have more faith in their 
claims than in those of her enemies, 
but as against the claims of her ene- 
mies. From the very first of the 
conflict I have had a genuine reluc- 
tance to mete out in the same 
kind, style and measure in Which it 
was meted out by the Anti-German 
press the world over. This has had 
one inevitable result; nine out of 
every ten responsible persons we 
meet, who have any interest in the 
conflict at all, are still harping the 
echoes of the first impressions, made 
upon them by the Allies literature: 
now it is "German Militarism," now 
"Prussian Militarism;" it is "German 
Conceit" and "German Culture." We 
could stand their "Kultur" if we 
would never see it or hear of it, but 
"to choke it down our throats," that 
is what we object to. Then it is the 
"Militarism Supreme," the "Autocrat 
Kaiser," the "degenerate Crown 
Prince," and so forth without end. 
But one thing is certain that we have 
not been honest and fair, for it is 
evident that we have not availed our- 
selves of the many, most excellent 
articles on these and many similar 
questions by a number of American 
writers of character, learning and 
spirit unquestioned. Are we ac- 
quainted, for instance, with such 
men as Dr. John W. Burgess, Dr. 
Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Hon. Peter 
S. Grosscup, Dr. George Stuart Ful- 
lerton. Dr. F. Westfall Thompson, 
Dr. Ferdinand Schevill, Dr. Herbert 
Sanborn and many others, whose 
non-German names will indicate that 
they are not defending Germany from 
sentiment alone. Have we who have 
so much to say about German sins 
and crime, read and digested what 
these great American scholars have 
to say to this? 

Now, as voiced by your recent cor- 
respondent in this department, Mr. 
Owen Howard Owen, we finally have 
also to hear of the "German Naval 
Menace." To be more exact, in 
speaking of Germany, Mr. Owen de- 
clares that "if they could prove that 
the German Naval program was not 
a distinct MENACE to Great Britain" 
(Tribune, March 22, Voice of the 
People). Now, Mr. Owen, honor 
bright, as man to man, why should 
Germany be obliged to make a con- 
fession on this point? If she said 
it is to protect our growing com- 
merce, they would give her the lie; 
if she said, straightforwardly, with 
her customary candor and frankness 
(where the (jerman philosopher has 
no doubt been at fault for the non- 
Teutonic world) that this navy is to 
protect us against our neighbors in 
case of war, they would brand her 
with "Ambition," "World Emperor- 
ism," "Menace," etc. I cannot see 
why Germany should have to explain 
her conduct in this particular at all. 
Did England make apologies for her 
growing navy? Do you, Mr. Owen, 
make apologies to your competitor 
when you strip him in honest business 
and other competition? Or, if your 
competitor should think you "a 
menace" to him in your prospering 
business? X trust I have heard the 
last such unreasonable objections. I 
would let such statements pass alto- 
gether if it were not that the unrea- 



soning masses swallow in a most 
pathetic manner everything they hear 
and see; then they try to digest it 
as best they can — since it is spoken 
of the unpopular element among us 
to the popular. Give us this day 
our daily sensation and some poor, 
devils at war to lie about. 

You observe, Mr. Owen, that I fail 
to see the logic of speaking of a 
"German Naval Menace" inasmuch as 
Germany has never had more than 
half of the British naval force, that 
is, in the number of ships, their man- 
ning, and the money invested. This 
fact ought, also, by the way, settle 
that question of "Militarism." Brit- 
ish Navalism, of course, is not "Mili- 
tarism." And now, through British 
maneuvering, since the opening of the 
war, Germany is easily opposed in the 
present naval warfare, by five to one 
in the number of ships, and by even 
more in the cost of their equipment. 
Is it, Mr. Owen, that the British Em- 
pire realized that the German Navy 
would be more than a match for them 
in case of war? If this is the" case 
and especially so, in the light of the 
part that Great Britain played in 
getting into the slaughter-game to 
cripple an honest competition, when 
she had as good a chance to make a 
military showing as she might ever 
expect to have again, that is while 
other nations would be sure to do the 
bulk of the fighting — -then she ought 
to be defeated. 

The idea was this, that the com- 
bination of naval and land forces of 
the Allies would be irresistible; alone 
or with one power she would not have 
had a ghost of a show to force her 
will among nations. It must not be 
overlooked, moreover, that England 
was in as good a position, both from 
point of view of influence, and honor 
at stake, to prevent the war by sim- 
ply putting her finger on Russia — 
yes, and Prance and Belgium — and 
say that she would. not back Russia 
up in her interests in the Serbian- 
Balkan policy. I wish somebody 
would point out to me where Eng- 
land had more at stake, both in hon- 
or and other national interests, than 
Germany. Hence, why could she not 
have honorably done this? 

Is a small man a menace to a large 
man simply because the small man de- 
velops to the utmost? Why should 
we expect the small man to make ex- 
planations and apologies for the de- 
velopment of his powers? You say 
he might some day give me a thrash- 
ing. But are we so certain that the 
big fellow ought not to have a thrash- 
ing, that the little fellow has a 
weaker cause just because he has 
come into the limelight? Any way 
you wish to take it, Mr. Owen, I fail 
to see the point ; and have you not 
observed how this "Menace," the Ger- 
man Fleet, has been utterly incapable 
of protecting the German commerce, 
for which purpose it was called into 
existence? We were not called into 
existence, primarily to fight, but to be 
happy in constructive work and yet I 
see a VIRTUE in using force at times. 
And so the German Navy does not be- 
come a menace, even if It finds duties 
other than protecting German com,^ 
merce. Or, don't you trouble your- 
self in trying to see the other fel- 



54- 



THE VITAL CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR 



low's situation, Mr. Owen? Can we 
not even see so simple a point? Is 
it because of our selfishness or what? 

Did Great Britain really expect the 
world to come to her assistance, to 
defend her against Germany in case 
of war? If you will recognize a 
menace when you see one, Mr. Owen, 
behold Russia mobilizing, egged on 
by France and Great Britain; here 
you have a real cause for a declara- 
tion of war and they got it. Russia 
succeeded in becoming a real menace 
to Germany, but by this trick alone. 
Can you show me that England and 
France are not also guilty of this? 
Is Germany not guilty with Austria, 
if the Austrian-Balkan policy is repre- 
hensible? And, mind you, this Balk- 
an question, ultimately the real issue, 
was of no primary concern to Great 
Britain, perhaps not to France even. 
I would ask: Is it Germany's fault 
that her fleet of about one-fifth the 
size and number of ships and of 
about one-sixth the cost of the Allied 
fleets is yet "a menace" to them? , If 
this is your real meaning, Mr. Owen, 
then I say it serves them right that 
they are facing a menace. Is a man 
a menace simply because he is capa- 
ble of holding his own and protect- 
ing his home, his all, against three 
or four who have plotted "to get 
him"? Or, are Germans a menace be- 
cause they are intelligent, industri- 
ous and serious in the tasks of life? 

I would not be surprised if a fur- 
ther complaint were lodged against 
Germany because she is getting more 
effective results with her fifty sub- 
marines than all her enemies com- 
bined with five times that number? 
Hence, next, the Submarine Menace. 
Oh, yes, the submarine is "a menace" 
too, because of its efficiency. And 
here we come to the crux of the whole 
controversy about Germany and her 
enemies — Efficiency, "Made in Ger- 
many." We cannot compete with 
you, Germany, and so you must be 
crushed. But there is no end to this. 
It is common knowledge that Ger- 
many has made more of her native as 
well as created resources, when taken 
together, than perhaps any other peo- 
ple. Why should that be a menace? 
Why should it be a menace to be able 
to read and write, to think hard, rea- 
son, take discipline, learn to obey, 



command and serve? Why should it 
be a menace to be able to make a 
better article and sell it cheaper than 
some one else can do? No, competi- 
tion along these lines is too hard and 
takes too long; it is too laborious, 
for England impossible. There was 
one idea with France and Great Brit- 
ain in this competition problem: the 
"Bear" must save us. We shall settle 
this question in quite a unique and 
original fashion. We know how to 
unite the "Gordian Knot." 

When speaking of menaces, I have 
often observed that "the menace" is 
very frequently well named. You 
could easily show and that with ex- 
cellent reason, how the British navy 
has been and still is a menace. Con- 
sult Washington, for example, at 
present. Consult the spirit of Wash- 
ington and Lincoln. Consult the 
American archives from 1800 to 1812. 
Nor need we go outside of our own 
country to settle this question, Mr. 
Owen. But this philosophizing is a 
mighty slow and inexpedient busi- 
ness, hence the war; it is certainly 
not Germany's fault if not enough 
philosophizing was done. You, Mr. 
Owen, and your sympathizers in this 
connection may console yourselves 
with the thought that he who would 
rise and maintain his position honor- 
ably, nobly and in righteousness must 
pay the price, must win his spurs, 
just as Spain, France, England in 
turn, had done. They all have passed 
through these critical moments. 
They ought to know upon what their 
laws and morals are written. You 
may console yourselves, moreover, 
in the fact that the literature writ- 
ten against the menace of the British 
navy will make interesting reading to 
you all in times of trouble. It Is 
quite possible, too, that you could 
not take this record seriously, as 
Great Britain may have been the 
Chosen People, in your eyes, to enjoy 
the privilege of a large navy alone, 
and by virtue of "Divine Right." Of 
course, it is a heinous crime for the 
Turk or the Jap to cherish such an 
ambition. Yes, even for our kin, the 
Germans. Has not our own Secretary 
of State clearly implied in his recent 
analysis of cases coming under inter- 
national law that Great Britain is 
getting the better of it at sea in the 



present conflict, not by any illegal 
act, but by sheer virtue of posession 
is 99 per cent of the law "she can 
get away with it" in every day slang. 

The implication is clear and sim- 
ple. German sympathizers may re- 
gret it and other sympathizers may 
congratulate themselves, secretly, for 
the good fortune, but what are we 
going to do about it? You see we 
all face the same law, and there it 
is hard and fast. It certainly does 
not take a bright man to see the 
great realm of human endeavor that 
lies between the "Letter of the Law" 
and the "Spirit of the Law" within 
which latitude we might commit 
plenty that were questionable and 
wrong if the shoe were on the other 
foot, but a region within which we 
may steer safely to the harbor of 
temporary success. Just let unfor- 
tunate Spain or Japan do one-half 
what Great Britain has done, even in 
the present crisis and you will see 
another type of neutrality and even 
getting away around the law. Why 
in the case of the Maine, we did not 
even wait to investigate. The offense 
rests so much in the offender; it 
grows so much out of our feelings in 
relation to the offender. 

I find this an opportune time, also, 
to say what I have often said in this 
connection, and what to the best of 
my knowledge thousands of good and 
able sympathizers all over this coun- 
try have been saying; let us set our- 
selves the noble task of clearing up 
misconceptions, too hastily formed by 
the helpless innocent, who do not 
think for themselves; let us neu- 
tralize the venom and poison sent 
into the minds and hearts of millions 
of innocent Americans by the enemies 
of Germany. We can also prevent 
the still further evitable damage that 
would be done by inflammatory 
writers by inspiring leaders to a 
manly and womanly dignity, to speak 
evil of no man and to cultivate an 
insatiable thirst for facts, truths, fair 
play, and above all, for us Americans 
to be neutral in Spirit as well as Word 
— in this task America always first, 
we may not dare or do too much. 
Sincerely yours. 

Hotel Holland. 
Chicago, 111. 



Further Evidence of the Work of the War Makers 

TWO EXTREME VIEWS. 



Editorial from "The DaUy News," 
Chicago, November 10, 1914. 

Mr. Roosevelt is indignant because 
the United States has not taken ag- 
gressive steps on behalf of Belgium. 
He does not go the length of saying 
in so many words that we should 
have declared war on Germany, but 
many persons will think they dis- 
cover this to be his meaning on read- 
ing the sixth of his papers on the 
war appearing in The Daily News. 
Although this country is not one of 
the signatories to the two long stand- 
ing treaties which guarantee Bel- 
gium's neutrality, the ex-president is 
of the opinion that our participation 



in The Hague conventions obligates 
us to take cognizance of any infrac- 
tion of those stipulations. It is on 
this ground that he declares the 
present administration has failed in 
its duty. 

The United States is called upon as 
a "trustee of civilization," Mr Roose- 
velt thinks, to investigate all the 
charges made against Germany. "If 
such an investigation is made," he 
writes, "and if the charges prove well 
founded, then it is the duty of the 
United States to take whatever action 
may be necessary to vindicate the 
principles of international law set 
forth in these [The Hague] conven- 
tions." 

This is vague, though forceful. 
Apparently, it points down the red 
pathway of war. 



While Mr. Roosevelt is crying out 
for direct interference by the United 
States in European affairs, it is in- 
teresting to discover how far peace 
advocates will allow themselves to 
go in the other direction. Writing 
in the current number of the North 
American Review, Prof. Phelps of 
Yale shows how easy it is for well 
meaning persons to become extrem- 
ists in their enthusiasm for a cause. 
In the course of his appeal for peace 
Prof. Phelps exclaims: "Would it not 
be fine in the future if the United 
States of America should make some 
actual sacrifice to prevent war? 
Would it not be splendid if we actu- 
ally sustained insults and material 
damage from some other country and 
did not fight?" 



MEETING A NEIGHBOR AS A COMPETITOR 



55 



lilBEBAIiS PliEAD FOB CO- 
OPERATION. 



lieaders Object to British Policy 

Which Preceded the Present 

War Encouraged by Great 

Britain. 

Prominent members of the Liberal 
organization are taking measures to 
direct public policy toward the re- 
form of European methods of shap- 
ing the destinies of the various na- 
tions. It is the purpose of these 
leaders to carry on a vigorous cam- 
paign, in which their plans will be 
outlined and the thinking public 
urged to co-oprate. The following 
letter to the London "Morning Post" 
has been sent broadcast as the fore- 
runner of the movement for govern- 
mental reform: 

"There are many thousands of 
people in the country who are pro- 
foundly dissatisfied with the general 
course of policy which preceded the 
war. They are feeling that a divid- 
ing point has come in national his- 
tory; that the old traditions of secret 
and class diplomacy, the old control 
of foreign policy by a narrow clique 
and the power of the armament 
organizations have got henceforth to 
be combated by a great, conscien- 
tious and well directed effort of the 
democracy. 

"We are anxious to take the meas- 
ures which may focus this feeling 
and help to direct public policy on 
broad lines which may build up on 
a more secure and permanent foun- 
dation the hopes which have been 
shattered for our generation in the 
last month. The objects we have in 
view are: 

"First. — To secure real parlia- 
mentary control over foreign policy 
and to prevent it being again shaped 
in secret and forced upon the 
country as an accomplished fact. 

"Second. — ^When peace returns to 
open direct and deliberate negotia- 
tions with the democratic parties and 
influences on the continent, so as to 
form an international understanding 
depending on popular parties rather 
than on governments. 



"Third. — To aim at securing such 
terms that this war will not, either 
through the humiliation of the de- 
feated nation or an artificial rear- 
rangement of frontiers, merely be- 
come the starting point for new na- 
tional antagonisms and future wars. 
When the time is ripe for it, but not 
before the country is secure from 
danger, meetings will be organized 
and speakers provided. But the im- 
mediate need is, in our opinion, to 
prepare for the issue of books, 
pamphlets and leaflets dealing with 
the course of recent policy and sug- 
gesting the lines of action for the 
future. Measures are being taken 
to prepare these at once, and they 
will be ready for publication when 
the proper opportunity occurs. For 
this we shall be glad of any subscrip- 
tion which you can spare and would 
like to know if you are willing to 
support us in this effort in order that 
we may communicate with you as 
occasion arises. 

"There may be other ways in 
which voluntary help may be of 
value. We shall be glad of the 
names and addresses of any of your 
friends who you think are likely to 
share the views expressed in this 
letter." 

The foregoing communication 
bears the signatures of B. Ramsay 
MacDonald, Charles Trevelyan, Nor- 
man Angeli and E. D. Bord, who will 
have direct charge of the campaign. 
— Reprinted from the "News of the 
War in Europe," supplied by "The 
Fatherland," New York. 



THE BRITISH AND GERMAN 
WHITE PAPERS. 



HORNET STINGS. 



From "The Hornet," Chicago, Octo- 
ber 15, 1914. 

Did you notice the fragrant bou- 
quets which the French and British 
army commanders are lately throw- 
ing at each other? General French 
is simply de-lighted about the dash 
and bravery of Jean Crapaud and 
Joffre is just tickled about the mag- 
nificent courage of Tommy Atkins. 
It reminds one of two boys whistling 
as they pass a graveyard after dark. 
They are trying to keep up their 
courage. * * * 



(From an Editorial in "The Boston 
Herald," Aug. 28, 1914.) 

Occasionally the public interest to 
be served by the distribution of a 
pamphlet is so great that the news- 
papers owe it all the free advertis- 
ing they can give. Such is the case 
with the full text of the White Pa- 
per of the British Foreign Office and 
the memorandum issued by the Ger- 
man Government, which the New 
York "Times" has brought out in 
pamphlet form and is selling at ten 
cents. 

Everybody who wishes to form a 
coherent and unprejudiced opinion 
of the relations of the two great 
powers — Great Britain and Germany 
— should read the diplomatic corre- 
spondence. And no one who fails 
to do so has longer any intellectual 
right to express a cocksure opinion 
on the struggle. Here is a body of 
evidence of the most substantial char- 
acter. It deserves the attention of 
every thoughtful citizen. Up to date 
nothing has thrown such a clear 
white light on the sources of the 
present desperate calamity as the 
full text of the diplomatic correspond- 
ence of the two powers, in whose 
leadership a large share of the civ- 
ilization of the world rests. 



How deficient is our English lan- 
guage when It comes to describing 
colors! Thus we all remember Rich- 
ard Harding Davis' wonderful de- 
scription of the almost invisible 
"gray" uniforms of the Germans, 
which so melted into the landscape 
that they could hardly be seen, ex- 
cept as a mist, across a city square, 
while from St. Louis comes a dis- 
patch that says: "A British agent 
who is buying 10,000 horses and 
mules in Missouri is rejecting gray 
ones. He says they can be seen far- 
ther than animals of any other 
color." — From "The Boston Globe," 
September 9, 1914. 



SECOND CHAPTER 

UNFORTUNATE BELGIUM 

PROCLAIMING A VIRTUE LONG SINCE SURRENDERED 
BELGIAN NEUTRALITY A MYTH 



GERMANY AND THE TRIPLE ENTENTE 
THEIR BELGIAN POLICY 

Their Position and Consequent Attitude in regard to the Future of Belgium 
Belgium Co-operates with France and England Against Germany 
In Consequence Belgium Loses her Neutrality 



■ THE GERMAN GEOGRAPHIC POSITION 
HER CONSEQUENT ATTITUDE BEFORE THE WAR AND NOW 

Germany's Honorable Proposal to Belgium 
Even after Belgium's Secret Dealing with the Entente 

Evidence of these Secret Negotiations — Meaning Trouble for Germany 
Great Britain, France, Belgium 



THE NON-TEUTONIC NATIONS OF EUROPE 
THE CASE OF BELGIUM AND THE OTHER NATIONS 

The Interesting Position of the Teutonic Nations in this Great World Conflict 
The Deeper Meaning of the Alignment of Nations at War 



THE ENGLISH-FRENCH-BELGIAN POSITION 
THEIR CONSEQUENT ATTITUDE 

The Popular Notion that there was a Neutrahty to Violate 
That the Entente were Duty-bound to Protect Belgium in This Sham Neutrality 



BELGIAN NEUTRALITY— ITS REAL MEANING 
A "SCRAP OF PAPER" 

What the German Chancellor meant by thus describing the Belgium Neutrality Guarantee 

INTRODUCTION 



BELGIAN NEUTBAIilTY — ITS 
REAL, MEANING. 



The Vital Issue. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: 

This article by Professor John W. 
Burgess was released to the press of 
this great country two weeks ago. 
Which newspaper printed it? If 
our readers will give us the name of 
the paper in which it appeared before 
this copy of the "Vital Issue" goes 
to press we would be glad to give 
them credit for their sense of honor 
and fairness.* Is it not strange that 
a special paper has to be founded 
to print such material as is contained 
in our magazine? In spite of the im- 
mense difficulties this paper will con- 
tinue to throw a true light on the 
present European crisis. 



BY PROFESSOR JOHN W. BUR- 
GESS. 

Of Columbia University, New York. 

So much has been said about "Bel- 
gian Neutrality," so much assumed, 
and it has been spoken of as such 
a sacred thing, that it may be well 
to examine the basis of it and get 
an exact idea of its scope. It is not 
a moral question. It is a question of 
truth. It is a question purely of in- 



*The "Milwaukee Free Press" 
printed this article of Professor Bur- 
gess under the heading of "What 
Belgian Neutrality Really Means," 
on its editorial page of October 13, 
1914. 

Read also the paragraphs headed: 
"The Case of Belgium," in the article 
by Professor John W. Burgess, entitled, 
"Why I Champion Germany," and also 
article entitled: "Has Germany Vio- 
lated Belgian Neutrality," both of 
which important papers have been re- 
printed elsewhere in this book. — 
Editor, War Echoes. 



DOCTOR JOHN W. BURGESS 

ternational agreement and we must 
find for it such an agreement and 
the agreement must not have been 
abrogated nor have become, by 
change of conditions, obsolete. Of 
course by the term "Belgian neu- 
trality" is meant guaranteed neutral- 
ity, not simply the "general neutral- 
ity of all states not at war" at a time 
when other states are at war. 

On the 19th day of April, 1839, 
Belgium and Holland, which had 
from 1815 to 1830 formed the 
United Kingdom of the Netherlands, 
signed a treaty of separation from, 
and independence of, each other. It 
is in this treaty that the original 
pledge of Belgian neutrality is to be 
found. The clause in the treaty 
reads: "Belgium in the limits above 
described shall form an independent 
neutral state and shall be bound to 
observe the sBme neutrality towards 
aU other states." On the same day 
and at the same place, London, a 
treaty, known in the history of di- 
plomacy as the "Quintuple Treaty," 
was signed by Great Britain, Prance, 
Prussia, Austria and Russia, approv- 
ing and adopting the treaty between 
Belgium and Holland. A little later. 
May 11th, the German Confederation, 
of which both Prussia and Austria 
were states, also ratified this treaty. 

In the year 186 6 the German Con- 
federation was dissolved by the short 
war between Prussia and Austria. In 
1867 the "North German Union" was 
formed, of which Prussia was the 
largest state. 

Did these changes abrogate the 
guarantee of the Treaty of 1839, or 
make it obsolete? The test of this 
came in the year 1870, at the begin- 
ning of hostilities between France 
and the North German Union. Great 
Britain, the power most interested in 
the maintenance of Belgian neutral- 
ity, seems to have had considerable 
apprehension about it. Mr. Glad- 



stone, then Prime Minister, said in 
the House of Commons on the 2nd 
of August, 1870: "I am not able 
to subscribe to the doctrine of those 
who have held in this House what 
plainly amounts to an assertion that 
the simple fact of the existence of a 
guarantee is binding on every party 
to it, irrespective altogether of the 
particular position in which it may 
find itself at the time when the oc- 
casion for acting on the guarantee 
arises." 

Acting on this view, the British 
government then sought and procured 
from the French government, and 
from the government of the North 
German Union separate but identical 
treaties, ratified on the 9th and 26th 
of August, 1870, respectively, guar- 
anteeing the neutrality of Belgium 
during the period of the war be- 
tween France and the North German 
Union (the so-caUed Franco-Prussian 
war) , which had just broken out, and 
for one year from the date of its 
close. In these treaties Great Brit- 
ain limited the possible operation of 
her military forces in maintaining the 
neutrality of Belgium to the territory 
of the state of Belgium. 

These treaties expired in the year 
1872, and the present German Em- 
pire has never signed any treaty 
guaranteeing the neutrality of Bel- 
gium. If the Treaty of 1839 had be- 
come so unreliable in 1870 as to re- 
quire, in the opinion of the British 
government, the new treaties of 1870 
in order to make sure of the guar- 
antee of Belgian neutrality, what 
shall we say about it in 1914, 42 
years after these treaties of 1870 
have expired, and after the North 
German Union, which was party to 
them, has given way to the present 
German Empire? 

Finally, The Hague Conference of 
1907 drafted a convention which 
reads: 



60 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM' 



"The territory of neutral powers is 
Inviolable. Belligerents are forbid- 
den to move troops or convoys of 
either munitions of war or supplies 
across the territory of a neutral 
power." 

Great Britain, Germany, Austria- 
Hungary and Italy refused to sign it 
and did not sign it. Russia was not 
represented. 

Perhaps we may now somewhat 
more clearly understand, why the 
German Chancellor referred to the 
guarantee of Belgian neutrality as a 
"scrap of paper." At any rate, 
these facts, taken together with the 
facts that- Great Britain refused to 
pledge her own neutrality In the 
present war even on tke condition 
that Germany would agree not to 
move her troops through Belgium 
and not to attack the north coast of 
France, and declined to formulate 
any conditions upon w^hich she would 
remain neutral, clearly reduce Eng- 
land's much vaunted altruistic rea- 
son for entering upon this war to a 
diplomatic subterfuge. 

JOHN W. BURGESS. 
Athenwood, Newport, R. I., Septem- 
ber 11, 1914. 



'SOME BBAIi NEWS." 



Editorial from "The Vital Issue," 
New York, October 10, 1914. 

We believe our readers and the un- 
told millions of sympathizers of Ger- 
many will surely consider it a treat to 
read the many interesting articles 
which appear in the present copy of 
"The Vital Issue." 

The article by Professor Burgess 
proves so convincingly that somebody 
has lied about the Belgian Neutrality 
Question. Will the British Govern- 
ment sit up and take notice of "The 
Vital Issue?" We think it will. It 
will be much upset by now reading 
the true facts about this Belgian is- 
sue, instead of seeing their lies con- 
tinually reprinted by American news- 
papers. More discoveries will follow. 
We will catch them again. 

With these new facts at hand, the 
statement Issued by Sir Edward Gos- 
chen, the then Ambassador to Ger- 
many, loses almost its entire force. 
Perhaps, it even does him an injury, 
because the statement issued by him 
is absolutely misleading, not to use 
stronger terms. However, he may 
not have been acquainted with the 
Btatus quo of the Belgian situation. 



and we will therefore be charitably 
Inclined and attribute his statement 
to a lack of knowledge rather than to 
malice. Inasmuch as Sir Edward 
Goschen's statement formed a part of 
the British White Paper, It becomes 
evident that the British White Paper 
loses in Importance and trustworthi- 
ness. 

Many editors will no doubt regret 
that they have been so Imposed upon 
and that they have innocently fallen 
to be a victim to the British wiles. 
Innocently, these editors have stirred 
up hatred against a friendly country. 
Let them beware in the future of 
British lies and British systematic se- 
cret work. 



Berlin's comment on the advance 
southeast of Verdun corroborates a 
French report of yesterday. Of the 
German claims of advance there is 
nothing from Paris except the vague 
remarks that the Kaiser's troops are 
in a strong position. However, siiice 
the war started, Berlin has made no 
claims which have not been proved 
later. When the German war oflSce 
has nothing favorable to report, it 
simply issues no report. — From the 
"Chicago Examiner," September 27, 
1914. 



Making a Fuss over a Virtue long since Surrendered 
Belgian Neutrality a Myth 



BEIiGIAN NEUXBAMTY. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, New 
York. 

Herman Kidder. 

So much has been written about 
the breach of Belgium's neutrality 
that I shall say a few words on the 
German side of this question. A spe- 
cial treaty provided for "Belgian neu- 
trality during warfare." England, 
France and Germany agreed to it. 
For many years past Prance has, in 
a measure violated the neutrality of 
Belgium by assisting that country in 
building the fortresses on the German 
frontier. The details of the fortifica- 
tions of Lifege and Namur were partly 
worked out by the French General 
Staff, giving them a decided military 
advantage over Germany. 

As far as we can learn from German 
sources, preceding the outbreak of hos- 
tilities, French officers. In larger num- 
bers than ordinarily, were active In 
Belgium. It is certain, at any rate, 
that the French had made extensive 
preparations in Belgian territory for 
the eventuality of a war with Germany. 
Not to take account of these prepa- 
rations would have been folly and sui- 
cide on Germany's part. 

More than this, the erection in Bel- 
gium of a series of great fortifications 
does not appeal to the unbiased mind 
as an act of pure Belgian initiation and 
violation. Neutralized as her territory 
Is by a European convention, what 
necessity could have prompted her to 
these steps? The answer must be 
sought not in Belgium but in Paris. 
The fortress of Lifege and Namur were 



designed for defense again Germany, 
but where are the fortresses to Insure 
the Belglun frontier against France? 

Germany requested Belgium to allow 
the transfer of German troops In Ger- 
man railroad cars over the Belgian 
lines. The bulk of Belgian traffic In 
times of peace is carried on in German 
cars, there being a tremendous through 
traffic of German goods. Germany of- 
fered to pay for these facilities and to 
pay for anything else that it might use 
at Belgium's own price, to put in order 
again anything that was destroyed and 
to guarantee the integrity of the terri- 
tory of Belgium In the fullest measure. 
This offer was not accepted and the 
simple law of self-preservation forced 
Germany to Its subsequent steps. As 
matters have turned out it would have 
been the part of wisdom of Belgium to 
have accepted the proposition of Ger- 
many. It was furthermore, increas- 
ingly clear to the German government 
that England wanted to keep its hands 
free to join the fray whenever the time 
seemed favorable. The consideration of 
the opportune moment and nothing else, 
has been the reason why skilful Eng- 
lish diplomacy, although we have only 
the English "White Paper" to go by, 
emphasized the Belgian neutrality In 
the final dealings, to the exclusion of 
almost everything else. 

England knew well, that Germany 
"in defence"' would quickly turn "to 
attack" ; that a man or a nation, fight- 
ing for its life, must anticipate the 
enemy's move and not wait for it. In 
view of the French activities in Bel- 
gium during times of peace, it was 
reasonable for Germany to assume that 
Prance would not hesitate to violate the 



neutrality in times of war. It was 
essentially a measure of defense on the 
part of Germany, and as the results 
show, an important part in the general 
strategy of the war. 

England never objected to France 
overseeing the military policy of Bel- 
gium. Would England have warred on 
France If France had violated Bel- 
gium's neutrality in actual warfare? Is 
there anything In the "White Paper" to 
indicate that England applied the same 
hypocritical morality to France and 
Russia which It adopted towards Ger- 
many? Do we find any sharp English 
comment on the embargo placed on a 
German wheat shipment to Belgium 
previous to the outbreak of hostilities? 
Belgium was a convenient excuse, a 
very flimsy one at that, of English 
diplomatic hypocrisy. Perflde Albion! 

It would be well for we Americans, 
before rashly condemning Germany, to 
recall the many emergencies we had to 
meet in connection with the Panama 
Canal. We took the larger view of the 
situation and overlooked the technical- 
ities. The United States, Columbia, 
Panama, and the Hay-Pauncefote 
treaties present many analogies with 
the Belgian situation. 

The men who were intrusted with 
the safeguarding of Germany were 
actuated by a high consciousness of 
their mobilizations towards Germany. 
However imperative from a purely 
military point of view, the passage 
through Belgium may have been. It 
was undertaken with the greatest re- 
luctance and with every desire to avoid 
friction. The Belgian resistance is one 
of the most regrettable features of the 
war. 



BELGIAN NEUTRALITY A MYTH AND A SNARE 



61 




FURTHERING GERMAN "KULTUR" 
German OflBcers give Instructions in a School In Brussels 
(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 



BELGIUM'S CHANGE OP POLICX. 



Translation of Editorial Which Ap- 
peared in German in the "Illinois 
Staats-Zeitung," Cliicago, 
September 9, f914. 

The latter part of June, 1908, or 
more than six years ago, an article 
appeared in the Antwerp Matin, 
which read thus: "Belgium recog- 
nizes the value of Germany's constant 
mode of dealing governed as it is by 
a spirit of loyalty ; Germany wants 
no foreign property, and impressed 
with a regard for the rights of na- 
tions, would not impose on a weaker 
nation. England, according to U. S. 
Senator Harrison, has cast a longing 
eye on Belgian Congo, which lies be- 
tween English possessions and for 
that reason is an obstacle in the 
building of the railroad from the 
Cape to Cairo. She wants to wipe 
out the Congo as she did the Trans- 
vaal and Orange Free State and with 
this object began a campaign of def- 
amation, describing the Belgians as 
corrupt and cruel colonizers. If in 
the pursuit of her selfish policy Eng- 
land should be the cause of any more 
difficulties, we will be forced to talce 
the initiative and appeal to the states 
that took the place of god-father at 
the baptism of the Belgian kingdom, 
and ask them to decide, whether or 
not we had violated the articles of 
the Treaty of Berlin and sinned 
against civilization. Then with the 
mighty aid of Germany, on which we 
rely as we do also on the justice of 



our cause, righteousness will gain a 
victory over a policy, the brigandish 
aim of which is only too apparent." 

The Brussels "L'gtoile Beige," a 
paper that is entirely influenced by 
Parisian baiters, designated the 
above article as an excellent essay. 
Six years ago then Germany, in the 
eyes of the Belgian people, was the 
guardian of the rights and peace of 
nations. England on the other hand, 
the agent of a piratical policy. Has 
even the slightest evidence been fur- 
nished of German's intention of a 
similar policy as that England is 
charged with by the Belgians? No, 
indeed. The only increase, during 
this time, in German's colonial pos- 
sessions was a stretch in French 
Congo, and the Belgians well 
acquainted with the character of the 
backwoods in their own African 
colony, are best able to conceive that 
only a desire to keep peace could 
have induced Germany to accept this 
swamp and fever-ridden district in 
exchange for her claims on Morocco. 

Now when the imperial govern- 
ment in the early days of August 
solemnly assured the Belgian govern- 
ment that it had no intention of 
seizing Belgian territory and added 
that it would at the close of hostili- 
ties with France immediately with- 
draw all its troops from Belgian soil 
and make full reparation for any 
damage done, Belgium had no cause 
to doubt these assurances. The fact 
is, that Belgium which in the mean- 
time had completely succumbed to 



British and French influence in case 
of war was to figure as an ally of 
these powers, and by pretending to 
uphold their neutrality, aid in veiling 
the extensive strategic plans of the 
French military. The tales of the 
violation of Belgian neutrality by 
Germany, of the disregard and in- 
fringement of the rights of nations 
shown by this same Germany, of the 
desperate struggle of the Belgian's 
against suppression, should finally 
disappear from the columns of Amer- 
ican newspapers. Germany has hun- 
dreds of witnesses to testify that on 
the eve of August 1st, the railway 
station at Exquelinnes had already 
been occupied by French troops. 
Even those, whose fanatical hatred 
of Germany would not admit that 
an alliance between Brussels, Paris 
and London existed, must confess 
that this was undoubtedly a violation 
of Belgium's neutrality by the 
French. Although King Albert made 
no attempt to call on Germany, one 
of the Treaty powers for protection 
in this war, in addition to Servia, 
the country of assassins, Belgium has 
assumed the most disgraceful and 
treacherous role, in that, being too 
cowardly to confess its alliance with 
England and France, demands strict 
neutrality of Germany, after having 
basely violated it herself. It would 
be well to compare the statement of 
the Antwerp paper with the charges 
now brought against Germany by 
Belgium, in order to fully judge the 
faithlessness of Belgium and the in- 
credibility of her accusations. 



62 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM" 



THE CAT IS LET OUT OF THE 
BAG. 



Translation of Editorial, 
niinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 

An article appearing in the "Taeg- 
liche Rundschau." a Berlin newspa- 
per, in which it is said to advocate 
the annexation of that part of Bel- 
gium occupied at the present time by 
the German troops, has aroused the 
ire of our anglo-American colleague, 
"The Chicago Tribune." Our col- 
league assures us that such an act 
would prove Germany unworthy of 
the sympathy of the Americans which 
they are catering to, because, as the 
"Tribune" further reasons, Belgium 
should not be punished for having 
fulfilled her international duty in 
such a heroic manner. We do not 
know to what extent the "Taegliche 
Rundschau" is justified in its as- 
sumption that Germany will annex 
Belgian territory, but we do know, 
that if Belgium's fulfillment of her 
international treaty" were reviewed 
through a strong lense another con- 
struction would be put on it. We 
have shown in a previous article that 
Belgium was not entitled to a guar- 
antee of neutrality by another power 
until it had given absolute proof of 
its intentions to remain neutral. Bel- 
gium has done just the reverse, for 
she has not made the slightest pro- 
test against the massing of French 
troops on her border and she was 
stricken with blindness when French 
aviators crossed through her prov- 
inces to spy on the movements of 
German troops. 

Belgium saw no breach of neutral- 
ity whatever in permitting French 
troops to further strengthen her for- 
tifications. Only when the Germans 
ask permission to march through her 
territory, vouching full reparation for 
any damages done, did she remember 
that strict neutrality had been guar- 
anteed her, while Belgium with the 
aid of guns was trying to maintain 
her neutrality so far as Germany was 
concerned, she made no attempt to 
conceal her recent negotiations with 
France and England and offered no 
protest when France claimed her as 
an ally. 

And now the cat has been let out 
of the bag. 

Now that the Belgians after suf- 
fering heavy losses have been van- 
quished by the Germans and the rem- 
nants of her army found their way 
to the French, the Germans in pos- 
session of almost her whole kingdom, 
now again Kaiser Wilhelm proffers 
his hand for peace. The Kaiser 
notes that the honor of the Belgian 
army has been preserved by their 
heroic deeds on the field of battle and 
has appealed to the king and the 
government of Belgium to avoid fur- 
ther unnecessary bloodshed. He as- 
sured them that any agreement with 
Belgium would be acceptable, that 
would not interfere with the war 
with France, and that he has no in- 
tention whatever of annexing Belgian 
territory, and that as soon as condi- 
tions will permit all German troops 
will be withdrawn from Belgium. 

More generosity could hardly be 
expected from a victor, but Belgium 



has rejected the generous proffer. 
She is determined to continue her 
struggle against Germany in conjunc- 
tion with Prance and England. Thus, 
Belgium is not defending its neutral- 
ity. It is an ally of the Triple En- 
tente. Will our esteemed colleague, 
the "Tribune" still feign indignation 
that Germany is treating a foe as a 
foe? And will our worthy anglo- 
American contemporary ape England, 
that she make Belgium a pretense 
for renouncing her friendship for the 
Germans? The "Tribune" should 
submit the neutrality cat that has 
been let out of the Belgian bag to a 
closer inspection before she expresses 
an opinion. 



AN AUTHORITY ON NEUTBAXITY. 



THE "LOQUACIOUS" AMBAS- 
SADOR. 



(From "The Fatherland," New York, 
September 23, 1914.) 

The anti-German press is pleased 
to refer to Count Bernstorffi as Ger- 
many's "loquacious" ambassador. 

The Russian and the English am- 
bassador, we are told, do not talk 
half so much. But we feel sure that 
both England and Russia would be 
mightily pleased if their ambassadors 
could talk half so well and to such 
excellent purpose. Everything that 
Count Bernstorff has touched has 
been successful, just as the mythical 
touch of Midas turned all things upon 
which he laid his hands into gold. 

Count Bernstorff asked for the 
opening of the wireless station at 
Tuckerton; his request was granted. 

Count Bernstorff protested against 
the habit of regarding this country 
as a naval base for belligerent pow- 
ers; his protest was heeded. 

Count Bernstorff protested against 
the arming of British commercial ves- 
sels leaving from American ports; 
again the American Government, 
with admirable fairness, met the am- 
bassador's wishes. 

Bernstorff's articles in the Times 
and in the Independent have already 
been too widely printed to need re- 
capitulation here. All in all, Ger- 
many is to be congratulated on pos- 
sessing so wide awake a spokesman. 
Count Bernstorff owes his success to 
his moderation. He never speaks 
without just cause; he never asks 
unless his request is righteous. 
There is nothing back-handed in his 
methods, he meets America fairly 
and squarely, in the same spirit in 
which our own Government is accus- 
tomed to act. No wonder England 
and Russia would like to cut the 
freedom of speech of the German 
ambassador as they have cut the 
German cable. 



Note: Moreover, it requires the 
greater diplomat to talk freely and 
unhampered and yet discreetly and 
wisely! Any fool can play doctor by 
looking wise and saying nothing. — 
Editor. 



Probably by this time the "movie" 
actors are fighting European battles 
in New Jersey. — From "Waterville 
Sentinel." 



Milwaukee Free Press. 

To the Editor of the Milwaukee 
Free Press: Anent the hue and cry 
raised by the Anglo-American press 
against the German violation of Bel- 
gium neutrality — the protection of 
which was England's only pretext 
for entering the war — a quotation 
from a well-known English political 
writer. Homer Lea, in his "Day of 
the Saxon," published in 1912, is 
extremely apropos. 

On page 213, he says: "The neu- 
trality of a minor state once it is 
included in the theater of war waged 
between greater nations, becomes an 
anomaly. A kingdom in such a po- 
sition invariably constitutes an area 
over which war is waged until one 
or the other combatants is capable 
of incorporating it within his base 
and forcing the confiict into the ter- 
ritories of the enemy. The neutral- 
ity of these three countries (Bel- 
gium, Holland and Denmark) has 
increased, not diminished the prob- 
abilities of war." 

On page 215, "The northern stra- 
tegic sphere (for England in time 
of war) includes military control 
over Belgium, the Netherlands and 
Denmark." 

On page 226: "The occupation of 
the Persian and Afghanistan fron- 
tier prior to the war with Russia, 
or the European frontiers (Belgium, 
Holland and Denmark) in a con- 
flict with Germany, arouses in the 
British nation an appearance of 
great opposition to the violation of 
neutral territory. 

"This is false for the empire has 
never been moved by the sanctity of 
neutrality. 

"It is only a means of evading 
responsibility and shifting it upon 
these nations, deluding themselves 
with the belief that such declarations 
are inviolable; whereas no nation 
has violated neutral territory and 
denied their obligations more fre- 
quently than England." 

On page 227: "Neutrality of 
states under the conditions just men- 
tioned has never heretofore nor will 
in future have any place in inter- 
national association in time of war. 
Such neutrality is a modern delusion. 
It is an excrescence. 

"In 1801 Maderia was taken pos- 
session of by the British without any 
previous communication to the court 
of Lisbon, in order that it should 
not fall into the hands of the French, 
observing in this action the true 
principle governing such activities in 
war. 

"In 1807 the British flieet, without 
any notification, with no intimation 
given of hostile intentions, no com- 
plaint of misconduct on the part of 
Denmark, entered the Baltic, seized 
the Danish fleet and blockaded the 
island of Zealand on which is situ- 
ated the city of Copenhagen. 

"The purpose of this attack was to 
anticipate the occupation of Den- 
mark and the use of her fleets by 
France. So correct is the principle 
of this initiation that it stands out 
with remarkable brilliancy in the 
darkness of innumerable military er- 
rors made by the Saxon race. 



BELGIAN NEUTRALITY A MYTH AND A SNARE 



63 



"It England were therefore Justi- 
fied in seizing Denmark in the be- 
ginning of the nineteenth century 
for no other heason than to prevent 
the employment of the Danish fleet 
by the French, bow much more is 
she justified during peace in the 
twentieth century, In the occupation 
of its southern frontiers. . . ." 

"That this principle was applicable 
in the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, but is not so under the civ- 
ilization of the twentieth, is an er- 
roneous conception of the principles 
that direct the conflict of nations. 
While England and other nations 
violated both peace and neutrality 
in the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, we flnd Russia and Japan 
doing the same thing in China and 
Korea in the beginning of the twen- 
tieth." 

"Wars Involving neutral states are 
governed by the following principles: 

"1. Whenever a minor state rests 
between the bases of two combat- 
ants and constitutes a portion of the 
subsequent theater of war, it is es- 
sential to seize that state prior to 
or at the beginning of a war, either 
for one's own advantage or to pre- 
vent it from falling in the hands of 
the enemy. 

"2. When the neutrality of a 
minor state constitutes an element 
of weakness to a great power, those 
frontiers from which arise the weak- 
ness should always be subject to the 
control of the military power. 

"3. When the continental neu- 
trality or independence of a minor 
state threatens the existence of a 
great power, as Korea threatened Ja- 
pan, it should be deprived of its In- 
dependence and absorbed by the 
greater power." 

Now, Mr. Editor, it is a poor rule 
that doesn't work both ways. It 
strikes me this is a case of sauce 
for the goose — and another example 
of England's hypocrisy. 

MARY BLAKE BROECKER. 

Milwaukee, Sept. 27. 



AN EXCUSE FOB A MINISTER'S 
MISTAKES. 



C. L. B. How would you justify 
von Bethmann-Holweg's reference to 
"a scrap of paper"? 

I would justify it on the ground 
that the Chancellor of the German 
Empire knew exactly what he was 
talking about and was man enough 
to speak the truth. That the treaty 
which guaranteed Belgian neutrality 
had been rendered of no more value 
than the paper upon which it was 
written, by England, France and Bel- 
glum, was known to him when he 
made the remark and has since be- 
come known to the world at large. 
The blunt frankness of the Chan- 
cellor has been worked to death by 
England and will probably live in 
her histories along with the distorted 
"blood and iron" of Bismarck. It 
will live, however, as a monument to 
the frank and open diplomacy of Ger- 
many, in contradistinction to the se- 
cret intrigues of England, Russia and 
Prance. — From the "Questions and 
Answers" column of the "New 
Yorker Staats-Zeitung," October 27, 
1914. — The Publisher of "War 
Echoes." 



Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 
Horace li. Brand. 

The "Literary Digest" is the name 
of a weekly magazine published in 
New York by the Funk & Wagnalls 
Company. 

We reprint below from its issue 
of September 26, 1914: 

"Thus a bitter objection to the 
intervention of England in the Eu- 
ropean struggle is expressed by Mr. 
Ramsay MacDonald, a labor member 
of Parliament, who published in the 
"Labor Leader" (Manhattan, Eng- 
land) the following severe criticism 
of Sir Edward Grey: 

"The justifications offered are 
nothing but the excuses which min- 
isters can always produce for mis- 
takes. It has been known for years, 
that, in the event of a war between 
Russia and France on the one hand, 
and Germany on the other, the only 
possible military tactics for Germany 
to pursue were to attack France hot- 
foot through Belgium and then re- 
turn to meet the Russians. The plans 
were in our war oflice. They were 
discussed quite openly during the 
Agadir trouble, and were the subject 
of some magazine articles, particu- 
larly one Mr. Belloc. Mr. Gladstone 
made it clear in 1870 that in a gen- 
eral conflict formal neutrality might 
be violated. He said in the House 
of Commons in August, 1870: 

"I am not able to subscribe to the 
doctrine of those who have held in 
this house what plainly amounts to 
an assertion, that the simple fact of 
the existence of guarantee is binding 
on every party to it, irrespective al- 
together of the particular position in 
which it may find itself at the time 
when the occasion for acting on the 
guarantee arises." 

"Germany's guarantee to Belgium 
would have been accepted by Mr. 
Gladstone. If France had decided to 
attack Germany through Belgium, 
Sir Edward Grey would not have 
objected, but would have justified 
himself by Mr. Gladstone's opinion." 

Thus far the words of Mr. Ram- 
say MacDonald, labor member of the 
British Parliament. 

Mr. Keir Hardie — says the Lit- 
erary Digest — also a labor member 
of Parliament, is a "brilliant sup- 
porter of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald." 

It is common knowledge that the 
English people are NOT a unit in 
favor of England's participation in 
the war. But the "official class" in 
England is also divided, for two 
members of the British Council (viz: 
Lord Morley and Hon. John Burns) 
resigned their portfolios rather than 
follow Sir Edward Grey in his war 
upon Germany. 

And now we learn that a labor 
member of Parliament openly ac- 
cuses his government of making the 
so-called "violation of Belgian neu- 
trality" an excuse "for mistakes 
made by ministers." 

And England's own great states- 
man, Gladstone, made it clear that 
"in a general conflict formal neutral- 
ity might be violated." 

Therefore Germany — according to 
the English view in 1870 — was justi- 



fled "in a general conflict" of violat- 
ing the neutrality of Belgium. Why 
is the English view in 1914 differ- 
ent? 

Because in 1870 England feared 
Prance more than Prussia and want- 
ed to see France crushed. But in 
1914 England feared Germany most 
and WANTED TO ENGAGE GER- 
MANY IN WAR, so as to help Prance 
and Russia crush Germany's military 
power, while England destroyed its 
navy and commerce. 

But the ILLINOIS STAATS ZEI- 
TUNG has repeatedly printed proof 
that Belgium had committed breeches 
of her neutrality long before German 
soldiers set foot upon Belgian soil 
and Prance violated Belgian neutral- 
ity because French troops crossed 
the Belgian frontier even before 
Germany declared war on Prance or 
France on Germany. 

Thus England can find neither 
reasonable justification nor a plaus- 
ible excuse for warring upon Ger- 
many, because "Belgian neutrality 
was violated by Germany" and Mr. 
Ramsay MacDonald is another Eng- 
lishman who is brave enough to tear 
the mask from official England's 
hypocritical face. 



IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION? 



Editorial in The Chicago Tribune, 
August 26, 1914. 

The assertion ascribed to the Taeg- 
llsche Rundschau that Germany would 
retain all of Belgium which she occu- 
pies in this war is not consistent with 
the claims for American sympathy 
made by Germans and by German- 
Americans. The kaiser would have not 
a moral leg to stand on if he absorbed 
Belgium. His case against her is of the 
weakest. It is merely a case of mil- 
itary necessity, a case that may be con- 
ceded, for the time being under the law 
of self-preservation. 

But if Germany asserts that she 
has a right to punish Belgium with 
the loss of her Independence because 
Belgium refused to assent to the nul- 
lification of her pledged neutrality 
and thus to become a passive ally 
of Germany against a nation with 
which she was at peace, then Ger- 
many will forfeit the approval of the 
neutral world. 

Let there be no doubt about this. 
If there is one nation in the Euro- 
pean conflict which has the unmeas- 
ured sympathy and admiration of the 
American people it is Belgium. She 
has done her full duty under inter- 
national law, and she has asserted 
her independence with splendid gal- 
lantry and heroic sacrifice. If there 
is any excuse for Germany's action 
against her it is only that of the di- 
rect necessity, and such excuse ceases 
with a German triumph. If, then, 
Germany insists upon taking Bel- 
gium, she will be punishing Belgium 
for doing her duty. 

With such action Germany's policy 
would be stripped naked of moral 
claims and stand forth in the ugly 
guise of remorseless conquest. There 
would be nothing left of her claim, 
then, that she is defending civiliza- 
tion from barbarism, even if there 
were much to it now. 



64 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM" 



THE EXPOSURE OF THE BEIiGIAN 
NEUTRAIilTY FRAUD. 

An astounding discovery has been 
made by the German authorities in the 
Belgian capitol. Amongst the archives 
of the military staff in Brussels, our 
authorities found nothing more nor 
less than a neatly vpritten agreement 
between Belgium and England in 
which Belgium (Belgium, who was, oh ! 
so neutral) is assigned the part which 
she was to play in the war against 
Germany. The "Nordd. Allg. Zeit." 
gives us the following information with 
regard to the discovered documents : 

The English assertion that the in- 
fringement upon Belgian neutrality by 
Germany caused England's interfer- 
ence in the present war, is proven to 
be false by Sir Edward Grey's own 
statements. By means of the discovery 
made by the German authorities in the 
archives of the military staff in Brus- 
sels, a new light has been cast upon 
the pathos of moral indignation, with 
which Germany's invasion of Belgium 
was used by England, for the purpose 
of stirring up wrath against us. By 
the contents of a folio which bears the 
superscription, "English intervention in 
Belgium," it is plain to see that as 
long ago as 1906 the sending to Belgium 
of an English expedition corps was 
planned in case of a war between 
France and Germany. According to a 
document written to the Belgian Min- 
ister of War, on April 10th, 1906, it is 
to be seen that the Chief of the Belgian 
Military Staff, in conjunction with, and 
on the repeated advices of, Lieutenant 
Colonel Barnardiston, who was at this 
time English Military Attache in Brus- 
sels, had worked out a definite plan 
for the combined operation of an Eng- 
lish army-corps of 100,000 men, with 
a Belgian army-corps against Germany. 
The plan received the approval of the 
Chief of the Military Staff, Major Gen- 
eral Geierson. The Belgian Military 
Staff was furnished with all informa- 
tion regarding the strength and mem- 
bership of the English troops, as well 
as to the formation of the expedition 
corps, points of embarkation and exact 
calculations for the time necessary for 
transport, etc., etc. 

With this information as a founda- 
tion, the Belgian Military Staff had 
prepared, in a detailed manner, plans 
for the transport of English troops, and 
for their shelter and maintenance. Co- 
operation was carefully planned far 
down to the very minutest details. The 
English army was to be supplied with 
a number of Belgian police, and the 
necessary interpreters and maps. Prep- 
arations were even made for the care 
of the English wounded. Dunkirk, 
Calais and Boulogne were designated 
as points of embarkation for the troops. 
From there they were to be transported 
by the French railways. The intended 
disembarkation in French harbors, and 
the transport through French territory, 
showed that these English-Belgian 
agreements had been preceded by ar- 
rangements with the French military 
staff. The three powers had made 
definite plans for the co-operation of 
the "combined armies." as the docu- 
ment reads. This is also made evident 
by the fact that to the secret papers 
a map of the French plan of march is 
joined. The above mentioned docu- 



ment contains some material of par- 
ticular interest. 

In one place we read that Lieutenant 
Colonel Bernardiston has stated that 
the support of Holland could not be 
relied upon. He also, communicated 
confidentially that the English govern- 
ment intended to transfer to Antwerp, 
the basis for reinforcements, as soon 
as the North Sea was cleared of all 
German warships. The remainder of 
the article consisted of suggestions 
made by the English Military Attache, 
for the establishment of a Belgian spy- 
ing agency in the Rhein Provinces. An 
important complement to this material 
was furnished by the discovery of a 
document amongst the private papers 
of Baron Greindl, for many years the 
■Belgian Minister to Berlin. In a com- 
munication to the Belgian Minister of 
the Exterior, the hidden designs which 
formed the foundation for England's 
offers are exposed with great acute- 
ness. The Ambassador points out here 
the earnestness of the situation in 
which Belgium has placed herself, by 
assuming a partial attitude in favor 
of the powers of the Entente. In the 
detailed report dated Dec. 23, 1911, the 
full publication of which is withheld. 
Baron Greindl goes to say that the 
plans of the Belgian Military Staff for 
a defense of Belgium's neutrality, in 
case of a German-French war, touch 
only upon the question of the meas- 
ures to be followed, in case of Ger- 
many's infringement upon Belgium's 
neutrality. The hypothesis of a French 
attack upon Germany through Belgium 
is equally probable. The Ambassador 
continues as follows : "From the 
French side, the danger threatens not 
only from the south from Luxembourg; 
it threatens upon all of our mutual 
boundary lines. This statement does 
not rest upon surmises ; we have posi- 
tive grounds for it." The thought of an 
encircling from the North doubtlessly 
originated with the combination of the 
Entente Cordiale. Had this not been 
the case, the plan to fortify Flushing 
would not have caused such an alarm 
in Paris and London. They made no 
secret whatever of their reasons for 
the Schelde to remain undefended. 
They expected to be able to transfer 
without hindrance an English garrison 
to Antwerp,, as well as to establish a 
base of operations for the offensive, in 
the direction of the lower Rhein and 
Westphalia, and in this way to be able 
to take us Germans by storm, which 
would not have been difficult. For, 
after having surrendered our national 
place of retreat, and having allowed 
their entrance, we would, by our own 
fault, have deprived ourselves of every 
possibility of offering resistance to 
their exactions. 

At the time of the founding of the 
Entente Cordiale, the utterances of Col. 
Barnardiston, which were as naive as 
they were perfidious, showed us Ger- 
mans plainly what we had to expect. 
As it became evident that we were 
not intimidated by the supposedly 
threatening danger of the closing 
of the Schelde, the plan was, to 
be sure, not given up, but changed, 
in so far as that the English auxil- 
iary army was landed, not on the 
Belgian coast, but in the nearest French 
harbors. Evidence of this is also found 
in the utterance of Capt. Faber, which 



were denied to the same extent, as were 
the reports in the papers, which con- 
firmed and completed the statements. 
The English troops which were to be 
landed at Calais and Dunkirk were 
not to have marched along the borders 
to Longwy, in order to reach Germany ; 
they were to force their way directly 
into the country from the northwest. 
This would give them the advantage of 
being able to meet the Belgian army in 
a region where we Germans would have 
no fortifications upon which to reply, in 
case we risked an encounter. It would 
make it possible for them to occupy 
provinces rich in all resources, and in 
any case to prevent our mobilization or 
to allow it, only after we had pledged 
ourselves to take up arms with Eng- 
land and her allies. 

It is earnestly advised to draw up a 
plan of action for the Belgian army in 
case of this event. This is necessary 
in the interest of our military defense, 
as well as for the carrying on of our 
foreign policy, in case of a war be- 
tween Germany and France. 

These utterances, from an impartial 
IK)int of view, confirm In a most con- 
vincing manner the fact that England, 
the same England which is now play- 
ing the part of protector of Belgian 
neutrality, had advised Belgium to as- 
sume a partial attitude in favor of the 
powers of the Entente, and that it had 
even planned an infringement of Hol- 
land's neutrality. For the rest, it is 
clear that the Belgian government, by 
succumbing to the enticements of Eng- 
land, committed a serious offense 
against its duties as a neutral power. 
The fulfillment of these duties would 
have required that the Belgian govern- 
ment forsee in her plans for the de- 
fense, the possibility of an infringe- 
ment of her neutrality by France, and 
that in this case, she would have made 
certain agreements with Germany, as 
well as with France and England. The 
discovered papers form a documentary 
proof of the fact of the Belgian con- 
nivance with the powers of .the En- 
tente, which fact , was known by the 
German authorities before the outbreak 
of war. They serve as a justification 
for German military action, and they 
confirm the information which the Ger- 
man military authorities have received 
regarding France's intentions. May 
these facts serve to enlighten the Bel- . 
gian people, as to whom thanks is 
due for the catastrophe which has over- 
taken their unfortunate country ! — 
"Hamburger Fremdenblatt." 



ENGLAND THE ARCH CONSPIR- 
ATOR. 



The Fatherland, New York. 

Ijmportant revelations are forcing 
their way into publicity in spite of 
widespread prejudice, and gradually 
the truth concerning those who in- 
spired the European war is coming 
to be understood. 

The finger of guilt is pointing at 
England as the arch conspirator. 

For weeks the American press or- 
gans of London and Paris had it their 
own way. This was a war of con- 
quest by the Kaiser, a dynastic war, 
the war of organized militarism, and 
an unpardonable breach of neutrality 



BELGIAN NEUTRALITY A MYTH AND A SNARE 



against Belgium, designed to over- 
whelm Prance and promote the ter- 
ritorial aggrandizement of Germany. 
To England was assigned the role of 
a benevolent power forced to take 
up arms in behalf of inoffensive Bel- 
gium, just as Russia was forced to 
take up arms in the defense of little 
Servia, threatened with national ex- 
tinction by Austria-Hungary. 

It was useless to quote from the 
London dispatches to the New York 
"Evening Post" that England had 
assembled her fleet in the North Sea, 
weeks before the war, in order to be 
ready to carry out her part in the 
preconcerted attack on Germany. It 
was useless to point out that the 
Paris "Gil Bias," a year before the 
war, announced that Maubeuge had 
been made a military emporium for 
British ammunition against the day 
when Germany was to be assaulted 
through Belgium, or that the Belgian 
forts were garrisoned with French 
troops, the French officers in Ger- 
man uniforms had been arrested 
at the German-Belgian frontier 
before a single German soldier had 
crossed the French border, and 
many other incidents proving that but 
for the prompt action of the German 
Government these various plans of 
invasion would have resulted in im- 
mediate disaster for the German na- 
tion. 

We now have even more conclu- 
sive evidence that Belgium was not 
an innocent victim of a land-hungry 
War Lord, but a designing party to a 
preconcerted conspiracy to crush Ger- 
many. 

This evidence consists of important 
documents discovered by the German 
military authorities in the archives 
of the Belgian General Staff at Brus- 
sels, documents found in a portfolio 
inscribed: "Intervention Anglais-Bel- 
gique." One of these documents is 
a report to the Belgian Minister of 
War, dated April 10, 190 6, which 
gives the result of detailed negotia- 
tions between the Chief of the Bel- 
gian General Staff and the British 
Military Attache at Brussels, Lieut.- 
Col. Bernardiston. 

This plan is of English origin and 
was sanctioned by Lieut.-Gen. Sir 
James M. Grierson, Chief of the Brit- 
ish General Staff. It sets forth the 
strength and formation, and desig- 
nates landing places for an expedi- 
tionary force of 160,000 men. 

Continuing, it gives the details of 
a plan for the Belgian General Staff 
to transport, fieed and find quarters 
for these men in Belgium, and pro- 
vides for Belgian interpreters. The 
landing places designated are Dun- 
kirk, Calais and Boulogne. 

Lieut.-Col. Bernardiston is quoted 
as having remarked that for the pres- 
ent Holland could not be relied upon. 

Another confidential communica- 
tion declares that the British Govern- 
ment, after the destruction of the 
German navy, would send supplies 
and provisions by way of Antwerp. 

There is also the suggestion from 
the English Military Attache that a 
Belgian system of espionage should 
be organized in the Prussian Rhine- 
land. 

A second document is a map show- 
ing the strategical positions of the 



French army and demonstrating the 
existence of a Franco-Belgian agree- 
ment, and a third is a report from 
Baron Greindl, the Belgian Minister 
at Berlin, to the Belgian Foreign Of- 
fice, dated December 23, 1911. Be 
it. said to the credit of the Belgian 
Minister, Baron Greindl, at Berlin, 
that he seriously objected to the fa- 
mous "Conversations." (See "Case 
of Belgium.") — Editor. 



The discovery of these incriminat- 
ing documents follows within six 
days of the denial made by the Lon- 
don official press bureau — not the 
foreign office, he it remembered — 
that England had stored ammunition 
at Maubeuge prior to the outbreak 
of the war. To this denial was added 
the statement that "the determina- 
tion to dispatch an expeditionary 
force to the Continent was not 
reached until Germany had violated 
the neutrality of Belgium, and Bel- 
gium had appealed for aid." 

There is further evidence of Ger- 
many's honest conduct in the recent 
Russian Orange Book, an analysis of 
which appeared in the London "Econ- 
omist" of September 12, and is all 
the more curious coming as it does 
from an organ of Russia's ally. We 
quote from it as follows: 

"The reason for the Russian mobil- 
ization is somewhat surprising. Ac- 
cording to the Orange Book, the gen- 
eral mobilization orders were signed 
in Austria on July 28, whereas, ac- 
cording to Baron de Bunsen, our Am- 
bassador in Vienna (White Paper No. 
127), general mobilization in Austria 
was ordered on August 1. Since the 
necessity for the Russian mobiliza- 
tion was based on the Austrian mo- 
bilization, and since the general Rus- 
sian mobilization was the direct cause 
of the German mobilization . . ., which 
made war inevitable, it would seen 
to be important that this point should 
be cleared up. A further telegram, 
in the Orange Book, frorn Berlin, 
describing the issue of German mo- 
bilization orders some time before it 
actually took place, suggests that the 
Russian envoys were occasionally 
mistaken in their information." 

That Germany wanted this war is 
so generally accepted that it is in- 
teresting to read what the Belgian 
Charge at St. Petersburg, M. De L'Es- 
calle, wrote to his government at 
Brussels July 30th in an exhaustive 
report on conditions in the Russian 
Capital, in part as follows: 

"The days of yesterday and today 
have been spent In the waiting for 
events that must follow the declara- 
tion of war by Austria-Hungary upon 
Servia. What is incontestable is, 
that Germany has striven here, as 
well as at Vienna, to find some means 
of avoiding a general conflict. 

"This morning an official communi- 
que to the newspapers announces that 
the reserves have been called under 
arms in a certain number of govern- 
ments. Knowing the discreet nature 
of the official communiques, one can, 
without fear, assert that mobiliza- 
tion is going on everywhere. 

"England began by allowing It to 
be understood that she did not want 



to be drawn into a conflict. Sir 
George Buchanan (British Ambassa- 
dor) said that openly, today one is 
firmly convinced at St. Petersburg 
■ — one has even the assurance of it — 
that England will support France. 
This support is of enormous weight, 
and has contributed not a little to 
give the upper hand to the war 
party." 

So here we have it that England 
would support Prance under any cir- 
cumstances, whether Belgian neu- 
trality were violated or not, and that 
this attitude of England was "of 
enormous weight and has contributed 
not a little to give the upper hand to 
the (Russian) war party." 

Germany, then, was expected to 
butt its brains against the Frenoh 
line of forts while England secretly 
landed her 160,000 men at Dunkirk 
or Calais and with her French ally 
attacked the German forces in the 
flank through Belgium. This, too, in 
shameful disregard of Mr. Gladstone's 
avowed conviction that treaties of 
neutrality were not considered bind- 
ing by England in an emergency such 
as confronted Germany in this in- 
. stance. We may well repeat here Mr. 
Gladstone's utterances in 1870 when 
the Belgian neutrality treaty was un- 
der discussion: 

"There is, I admit, the obligation 
of the treaty. It is not necessary, nor 
would time permit me, to enter into 
the complicated question of the na- 
ture of the obligation under that 
treaty. But I am not able to .sub- 
scribe to the doctrine of those who 
h.xve held in this house, what plainly 
amounts to the assertion, that the 
simple fact of the existence of a guar- 
antee is binding to every party to it, 
irrespective altogether of the particu- 
lar position in which it may find it- 
self at the time, when the occasion 
for acting on the question arises. The 
great authorities on foreign policy, to 
whom I have been accustomed to lis- 
ten, such as Lord Aberdeen and Lord 
Palmerston, never, to my knowledge, 
took that rigid, and, if I may venture 
to say so, that impracticable view of 
the guarantee." 

How baseless the assertion, so 
often repeated, that Germany's aim 
in the war was to subdue Belgium 
despite her statement to the contrary 
on August 2 that it felt obliged to 
prevent an attack from France 
through Belgium, and despite her of- 
fer to respect the integrity of the 
kingdom and its possession in return 
for the unobstructed passage of Ger- 
man troops, is shown in a new light 
by evidence developed since the fall 
of Liege. After that catastrophe, 
which should have satisfied the Bel- 
gian government of the futility of 
further resistance as well as satisfied 
the demands of national honor in 
fighting for a principle, Germany ad- 
dressed to the King's government a 
further note, as follows (Belgian 
Gray Book) : 

"The fortress of Liege has been 
taken by assault after a courageous 
defense. The German Government 
regrets that such bloody encounters 
should have occurred. It is only by 
reason of the military measures of 
Prance that it has been forced to 
take the grave determination of en- 



66 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM" 



tering Belgium and of occupying 
Liftge as a base for her further mili- 
tary operations. Now, that the Bel- 
gian Army has in heroic resistance 
against great superiority maintained 
the honor of its arms in the most 
brilliant fashion, the German Gov- 
ernment prays his Majesty the King 
and the Belgian Government to avert 
from Belgium the further horrors of 
war. The German Government is 
ready for any agreement with Bel- 
gium. Once more Germany offers 
her solemn assurance, that she has 
not been actuated by any intention to 
appropriate Belgian territory and 
that such intention is far from her." 
From these official statements and 
documentary evidence it requires a 
peculiarly warped mental attitude to 
gather the conclusion that Belgium 
was not hand-in-glove with England 
and France in a colossal conspiracy 
to destroy the German Empire. The 
proof of a military plan of co-opera- 
tion is in the hands of the German 
Government; Russia in her Orange 
Book deliberately sets back the date 
of Austrian mobilization three days in 
order to make it appear that she did 
not mobilize until after Austria; the 
Belgian Charge bears out the German 
White Book that Germany strove "to 
find some means of avoiding a gen- 
eral conflict" both in St. Petersburg 
and Vienna; Mr. Gladstone, it is 
shown, would not have respected the 
neutrality of Belgium under circum- 
stances such as environed Germany; 
England would have gone to war 
upon any other pretext, since she had 
her fleet assembled in the North Sea 
for the intended destruction of the 
German navy and the landing of 
marines at Antwerp, and Winston 
Churchill was quoted in London dis- 
patches to New York papers as "de- 
lighted at a bare prospect of demon- 
strating England's naval might at 
Germany's expense." (New York 
"World" London cable.) And fin- 
ally, so desirous of sparing Belgium 
was Germany that she sent another 
note to the Belgian Government after 
the fall of Liege and in the moment 
of an unexampled victory offering to 
make peace and disavowing all de- 
sire to appropriate Belgian territory. 
That, in brief, is the sum and sub- 
stance of this official manifest of Ger- 
many's enemies. 



BELGIUM NEUTRALITY MYTH, 
SAYS EMBASSY 



Von Bernstorff Says Documents 
Prove Compact With England 



(Reprinted from the "Milwaukee 
Free Press," October 4, 1914.) 

Washington, Oct. 13. — Count von 
Bernstorff, German Ambassador, to- 
day issued a statement in connec- 
tion with a telegram from Berlin an- 
nouncing the finding in the archives 
of the Belgian general staff at Brus- 
sels by the German military author- 
ities of documents which, it was 
claimed by Berlin, showed that de- 
tails of the plan for landing an ex- 
peditionary English force in Belgium 
had been provided for long before 
the war. The statement follows: 



"Neutrality Did Not Exist." 

"The German ambassador drew 
special attention today to the tele- 
gram which came from German 
headquarters. This telegram proves 
the German contention that the allies 
did not intend to respect Belgian 
neutrality. It even proves more — 
namely, that Belgian neutrality prac- 
tically did not exist and that the 
Belgian government was conspiring 
with the allies against Germany. 
Notwithstanding the denial coming 
from French sources, it Is a fact that 
French prisoners were taken at LiSge 
and at Namur who acknowledged that 
they had been in those fortresses be- 
fore the German troops entered Bel- 
gium. 

The Chancellor's Error. 

"On the French side it has been 
asserted that the German chancellor 
in parliament had acknowledged that 
Germany was doing wrong in violat- 
ing Belgian neutrality.* It must, 
however, not be overlooked that the 
chancellor further said: "We know 
that the allies do not intend to re- 
spect Belgian neutrality, and Ger- 
many, in the position she is in, at- 
tacked from three sides, cannot wait, 
while the allies can wait.' At that 
time the Belgian archives were not 
at the disposal of the German govern- 
ment." 

Chinese Neutrality Assailed. 

It the chancellor had known at 
the time he made his speech that 
Belgium was not neutral he would 
certainly have spoken of the alleged 
Belgian neutrality in a different way. 

"Germany has violated the fron- 
tiers of no really neutral country," 
the statement concludes, while the 
allies are on record for disregarding 
all obligations toward China. 



*We quote the following from an 
editorial entitled "Belgium the Step- 
Child of England. The Myth of Bel- 
gian Neutrality," In "The Father- 
land" (New York), for October 21, 
1914: 

The "violation" of Belgian terri- 
tory by Germany is still unforglven 
by those who have failed to grasp 
the full significance of the events 
leading up to the German invasion. 
We are told again and again that they 
admitted that Germany was commit- 
ting a "wrong" In trespassing upon 
this "neutral" kingdom. The facts 
In the case are that Bethmann-Holl- 
weg. Inspired by the same ethical 
spirit in International nolltlcs which 
dominates President Wilson, made 
an honest but Injudicious admission. 
He suspected that Belgium was no 
longer neutral. In the old days the 
suspicion itself would have justified 
the German raid. England would 
not have hesitated a minute in such 
a case. But, Bethmann-Hollweg, 
German Imperial Chancellor, over- 
scrupulous, made no accusation 
against Belgium. Even If his evi- 
dence had been incontrovertible, he 
would still have maintained his pe- 
culiar point of view. 

The Chancellor of the German 
Empire is certainly not a Nletz- 
schean. Bernhardi leaves him cold. 
He does not lean on Treltschke. In 



fact, Bethmann-Hollweg Is more of a 
moralist than a diplomat. To his 
mind two wrongs do not make a 
right. Belgium wronged Germany. 
Justice demanded a reparation. Ger- 
many's supreme duty of self-pres- 
ervation made such a reparation im- 
perative. Nevertheless the Chancel- 
lor held that such an action on Ger- 
many's part, even if practically nec- 
essary and entirely defensible from 
the point of everyday ethics, was 
wrong from the point of view of the 
new statesmanship which applies 
even to statecraft the tenets of 
Christianity. Belgium smote Ger- 
many on the left cheek. The Chan- 
cellor realized that from a certain 
idealistic point of view it would have 
been noble to turn the right. For 
practical reasons, Germany decided 
otherwise, and hit back. Hitting 
back may not be ethical, but it is 
Inevitable, sometimes. 

An English statesman In Beth- 
mann-Hollweg's place would have 
explained that it was Germany's 
"moral" duty to invade Belgium, 
but the German temperament de- 
spises hypocrisy. As a matter of 
fact, the Chancellor would have been 
justified if he had made such a state- 
ment. It WAS the moral duty of 
Germany to save the Belgian people 
from the intrigues of her ministers 
who played into the hand of the 
allies. When the Germans reached 
Belgium and, more recently In Ant- 
werp, they found incontrovertible 
evidence, cited by Dr. Dernburg and 
others, that Belgium had violated 
her neutrality, that she was conspir- 
ing with the enemy, that she was 
merely England's cat's paw in the 
great war game. 

This discovery justified any act of 
reprisal on the part of Germany. If 
It had not been for the flagrant 
breach of neutrality on the part of 
Belgium and the sniping of German 
soldiers, Germany would have been 
even more lenient In her treatment 
of the misguided people. As it was, 
after the fall of Liege, and before 
the fall of Brussels, Germany again' 
and again offered Belgium guaran- 
tees of her national Integrity and 
compensation for her losses, if she 
would desist from her unneutral 
policy into which her rulers, hiding 
behind a somewhat shadowy treaty, 
had plunged her. 

The neutrality treaty was Invalid 
legally, for it had never been signed 
by the German empire. The German 
empire was legally no more respon- 
sible for the action of the North Ger- 
man Confederacy than the United 
States assumes responsibility for the 
actions of states before their Incorpo- 
ration into the Union. Belgium's 
only claim was a moral claim. But 
even that was forfeited by her alli- 
ance with the enemies of Germany. 
In view of her unneutral acts the 
treaty, already antiquated, was in- 
deed a mere "scrap of paper." — 
From "The Fatherland." — Editor. 



America has two things to be 
thankful for In the present time of 
armed uproar. One is the Atlantic 
ocean and the other is the Pacific 
ocean. — From "The Daily News." 



WHY BELGIUM WAS NOT PROTECTED 



67 



The Heroic Deed of Protecting a Neutrality that was not 
Good Will and Ability to Protect Belgium ! 



BERNARD SHAW SHOWS UP 
ENGIiAND'S HYPOCRISY. 

Ijondon, February 21. — The "Nation" 
publishes the following from Bernard 
Shaw : 

"Neutrality Is an utter humbug. 
That is my position. There is no such 
thing as a breach of neutrality, because 
there is no such thing as neutrality. 
I hope that is clear enough. 

"The importance of bringing this 
simple and natural fact home at pres- 
ent arises from three considerations : 

"1. The danger of obscuring the 
real issue by the false issue of the 
neutrality of Belgium. 

"2. The danger that, instead of real 
terms of peace, flctitlous terms in the 
form of fresh guarantees of neutrality 
may be accepted as valid. 

"3. The general objection to throw- 
ing stones when you live in glass houses 
and are allied to Eastern Powers, 
whose whole history is a huge cucum- 
ber frame. 

Committed to These Propositions. 

"Those who insist that neutrality is 
real and sacred are committed by the 
facts to the following propositions : 

"1. Germany has not violated Bel- 
gian neutrality. She has made war on 
Belgium, which her guarantee of Bel- 
gium's neutrality in no way abrogated 
her right to do ; and her guarantee of 
Belgium's neutrality still stands in 
spite of the war. and actually entitles 
her to treat the violation of it by an^ 
other Power as a casus belli. 

"2. France and England have vio- 
lated the neutrality of Belgium by in- 
vading her and fighting on her soil, 
though they do not war upon her. 

"3. Germany offered to keep the 
peace with Belgium on condition of that 
right of way which Great Britain was 
the first to demand and enforce by 
war in China. 

"4. Great Britain and France re- 
fused to respect Belgian neutrality ex- 
cept on a condition which they knew 
would not be fulfilled, and which, in 
any case, Belgium could not control ; 
namely, that Germany would keep peace 
with Belgium. 

"5. Germany offered peace in Bel- 
gium. 

"6. Great Britain ordered war per- 
emptorily. 

Discredits Belgian Pretext for War. 

"I defy any international jurist to 
put a creditable complexion on these 
propositions, except by showing that 
they are the reductio ad absiirdum of 
the theory of neutrality, and by admit- 
ting that Belgium might as well have 
been a free country as a neutralized 
one, for all the use that the guaran- 
tee proved. And it is because I am 
not duped by that theory that I have 
set myself to discredit the Belgian pre- 
text for war, and to induce our min- 
isters and newspapers to drop it. 

"I did so even before the documents 
found in Brussels by the Germans left 
the foreign office so completely bowled 
out of the Belgian point by the Ger- 
man Chancellor that it had not a word 



to say, and was reduced to hiring a 
street boy to put out his tongue at 
him. That was what came of not 
taking my advice and evacuating an 
untenable position. 

"I pass on to the Monroe Doctrine, 
cited as the supreme modern case of 
neutralization. The Monroe Doctrine 
is balderdash. It is not a doctrine at 
all. Its validity to any intelligent per- 
son is exactly what it was to Cortez 
and Pizarro and the Mayflower Pil- 
grims, to Clive, to William the Con- 
queror, Caesar, Napoleon, Hengist and 
Horsa, Joshua in Canaan, Henry V. in 
France, Kitchener in the Sudan, Kruger 
and Cecil Rhodes in South Africa, 
Strongbow in Ireland, Edward in Scot- 
land, Russia in Siberia, and Japan in 
the advantage she has taken of the war 
to make a startling Frederican grab in 
Mongolia and Manchuria, which has 
just leaked out after months of con- 
cealment by our Government. 
WUl Not Notice Monroe Doctrine. 

"I have as much right to annex and 
ravage the State of Colorado as Rocke- 
feller. If the British Empire ever de- 
cides to annex the United States, say, 
with a view to improving the local 
Government, it will not take the slight- 
est notice of the Monroe Doctrine, nor 
will the public opinion of the world 
be in the very faintest degree biased 
by it by the breach thereof. 

"If the United States should ever de- 
cide to annex Canada or Alaska, on the 
ground that the Monroe Doctrine 
obviously requires the extrusion of 
Great Britain and Russia from the 
North American Continent, they will 
have to take exactly the same steps 
as if the Monroe Doctrine had never 
been formulated or thought of. The 
Monroe Doctrine did not help the red- 
skins against the white man, and it 
will not help the redskins' conqueror 
when his turn comes. 

"Why is it that the European mili- 
tarists who annex every country they 
can conquer are not at all likely to 
annex America, and even pretend to 
respect the Monroe Doctrine as an ex- 
cuse for not trying to? Because they 
are afraid of the army and navy and 
people of the United States. 

"Why did Germany make war on 
Belgium? Because she was afraid to 
delay the rush to Paris by attacking 
France through Lorraine and Alsace. 

"Why did she attack France? Be- 
cause she was terrified by Russian 
mobilization, and afraid France would 
strike her from behind when she was 
attacked by Russia. 

"Why did we attack Germany? Be- 
cause we were afraid of her growing 
naval strength, and believed she would 
be irresistible if she conquered Russia 
and France, and thus left us without 
effective allies. 

"Frightened animals are dangerous, 
and man is no exception. We in the 
west of Europe are all fighting because 
we were afraid not to. If the war is 
to be concluded on ethical principles 
of any sort, then the settlement will be 
exactly what it would have been if 
there had been no war."— The Cru- 
cible. 



GERMANY AND BELGIUM. 



Editorial. 
The Chicago Tribune. 

The German defense for its inva- 
sion of Belgium seems to be as mo- 
bile as its wonderful army. The 
most loyal pro-German must "move 
lively" to keep up with it. 

As we have understood the German 
position, it is about like this: In 
the first place, Germany invaded Bel- 
gium because necessity knows no 
law, and, regretting the wrong done 
her and Luxembourg, compensation 
would later be given. Second, Ger- 
many invaded Belgium because it was 
certain that Prance would invade 
Belgium to attack Germany. Third, 
Germany invaded Belgium because 
France had invaded Belgium first. 
Fourth, and latest, Germany's inva- 
sion of Belgium was not a breach of 
neutrality, because Belgium was not 
neutral, but had entered into a plot 
with England to help her in an at- 
tack on Germany. 

Doubtless in due time the reason 
why Germany invaded Belgium will 
become clear and settled, even in 
Germany.' In the meantime the world 
will continue to sympathize pro- 
foundly with the unhappy Belgian 
people, and attempts to fix upon them 
or even their government, responsi- 
bility for their tragic misfortunes 
will have to be sustained by the most 
indubitable of proofs if they are not 
to react against the German appeal 
to the world conscience.' 



'If the hysterical editorial writer 
of "The Tribune," who seems to take 
delight in sneering at Germany, 
would shed fewer crocodile tears 
for "poor, unhappy little Belgium," 
sympathize in less high sounding 
phrases, and would, instead, have 
told his audience in plain English 
what he knew about the sacredness 
of Belgian neutrality, there would 
not have been any necessity for his 
readers to be in doubt as to the Bel- 
gian neutrality myth. 

"The reason why Germany invaded 
Belgium" does not seem "clear and 
settled" to "The Tribune's" editorial 
writer at as late a date as October 
15. He should have informed him- 
self and his readers by availing him- 
self of Professor Burgess's article, 
"Belgian Neutrality, Its Real Mean- 
ing," which, "The Vital Issue" says, 
was released to the press of this 
country the latter part of September, 
i. e., some three weeks before "The 
Tribune's" champion of "poor, un- 
happy little Belgium" wrote that "at- 
tempts to fix upon them (the Bel- 
gian people) or even their govern- 
ment, responsibility for their tragic 
misfortunes will have to be sustained 
by the most indubitable of proofs if 
they are not to react against the 
German appeal to the world con- 
science." 

Facts are what the American peo- 
ple want, not crocodile tears or hys- 
terical editorials. Pacts, cold facts. 



68 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM' 



are contained in Professor Burgess's 
article which is reprinted in this 
section. 

Why did not the editorial writer 
of "The Tribune" or, as far as that 
goes any other Anglo-American edi- 
torial writer in Chicago, refer to Pro- 
fessor Burgess's article which cer- 
tainly throws the true light on "Bel- 
gian Neutrality?" 

Because it does not suit their pol- 
icy that the American people should 
know the whole truth! 

But all of the American people 
cannot be fooled all of the time. 

The anti-German editorial propa- 
gandists are finding this out. 

Apropos these sentiments, in Ger- 
niany, "why Germany invaded Bel- 
gium" has always been entirely 
"clear and settled." Any doubt 
about this "existed" only in the per- 
verse minds of the German-hating 
press on both sides of the water. — 
Editor. 

=We reprint below the first part of 
an editorial entitled "Belgium The 
Step Child of England — The Myth of 
Belgian Neutrality." This was pub- 
lished by "The Fatherland" (New 
York) in its issue for October 21. 
This may counteract in a measure 
the effect of the hysterical editorials 
written by fanatical writers, such as 
"The Chicago Tribune's" editorial 
writer and others of his ilk. 

"The Fatherland" says: 

"Antwerp has fallen after a brave 
defense by the Belgians (and fif- 
teen thousand English). Germany 
crushed the last stronghold of Bel- 
gium. "We are sorry for Belgium. 
But Antwerp was one of the strong- 
est fortresses in the world, second 
only to Paris. The 'little' Belgian 
nation has been annihilated by the 
Germans. But as far as numbers 
were concerned the Belgians and 
their allies outnumbered the Ger- 
mans. 'Little' Belgium stood alone. 
Possibly. But, behind her in battle 
array, were three of the greatest na- 
tions of Europe. To compare their 
defense of Antwerp to Thermopylae 
or to William Tell's defense of 
Switzerland is silly. The Spartans 
at Thermopylae and the Swiss under 
Tell were not financed, fed, sup- 
ported on land and sea by seven war- 
ring countries. The Belgians made 
a valiant defense of their country, 
but King Albert and a large part of 
his army fled from the invader un- 
like those braves of Leonidas, to 
whom the New York 'Evening Sun' 
lachrymosely compares them. How 
far more glorious, how far more 
heroic is the defense of Kiauchau, 
that lone lost German fortress in the 
Far East, battling without hope of 
relief, far from home, against the 
combined attacks of Japan, BngJand 
and Russia. Here indeed is a mod- 
ern parallel with Thermopylae and 
all the valiant deeds of history. For 
the little German garrison, posted 
there, is defending not only its own 
existence and the flag of its country, 
but civilization itself. 

"We do not know what sinister ad- 
vices were responsible for the action 
of Belgium. Surely it would have 
been wiser, and no less compatible 
with honor, to observe a benevolent 



neutrality, granting the passage of 
German troops through Belgium, 
than to subject the country to the 
devastation of modern warfare. 
When Belgium considers her situa- 
tion calmly she will realize that she 
has more to hope from Germany than 
from the Allies who first goaded her 
into war and then thrice betrayed 
her. They betrayed her when their 
armies fled from Belgium for 'strat- 
egic' reasons, leaving the little coun- 
try to her fate and to the German 
siege guns. They again betrayed her 
when they refused, for 'strategic' rea- 
sons, to come to her relief when Ant- 
werp was threatened. But worst of 
all is her final betrayal by England, 
who would rather see the last Bel- 
gian starve than one German sol- 
dier fed. 

"London reports that Brussels is 
fearing a famine. Yet, now that Bel- 
gium's usefulness is exhausted, Eng- 
land refuses to send food. She even 
refuses to permit ships carrying food 
supplies to land, unless Germany 
gives assurances that she will not 
supervise the division of the food. 
Inasmuch as Belgium is at present a 
part of the German Empire, Ger- 
many can give no such assurance. 
Hence John Bull permits four hun- 
dred thousand Belgian women and 
children to starve to death. Not that 
he loves Belgium less, but that he 
hates Germany more. England is not 
the foster-mother but the step- 
mother of Belgium. Fortunately 
Belgium can look to Germany for 
succor. She will not. starve as long 
as she remains under German rule, 
in spite of reports to the contrary. 
Betrayed, forsaken, bleeding, Bel- 
gium begins to realize her mistake. 
She will see that Germany holds her 
promises sacred, even if she calls 
them 'scraps of paper.' England 
calls them by all sorts of holy names, 
but has no compunction whatever to 
violate her most sacred obligations, 
if it suits her convenience." 



TREATY VIOIiATIONS. 



The Fatherland, New York. 

It is funny to hear England, 
France and Russia express their in- 
dignation over Germany's violation of 
written guarantees. Not one of 
these countries was ever known to 
keep a promise or a guarantee it 
suited her to break. 

The late Empress Dowager of 
China issued an edict against the 
cultivation and use of opium in the 
Empire, and provided for its com- 
plete extermination within ten years. 
Many Governments, including the 
United States and Great Britain, 
agreed to help enforce the edict. It 
seemed that the day of deliverance 
had come. 

But Great Britain broke faith in 
the matter, as she has done many 
times before. The Indian government, 
which receives a revenue of more 
than $10,000,000 a year from the 
opium traffic, is not willing to relin- 
quish that advantage and opium in 
enormous quantities is still being 
shipped into China in defiance of all 
protests. 



The island upon which Hongkong 
stands, giving British foothold in 
China, was exacted as indemnity for 
several shiploads of opium that were 
destroyed by the Chinese to prevent 
their accursed cargoes from reach- 
ing the people. 

Of late we have been hearing much 
of the Aland Islands, where the Ger- 
man ships were reported to have de- 
feated a Russian squadron. In 1907 
or 1908 the Russia Duma appropri- 
ated a large sum of money for the 
fortification of the Aland Islands, ly- 
ing off the coast of Finland in the 
Baltic Sea. As these islands lie 
nearer Sweden than Finland, and as 
Russia, by the treaty of March, 1856, 
pledged herself not to fortify them, 
representations were at once made 
to the St. Petersburg Government 
from Stockholm calling Russia's at- 
tention to the treaty and declaring 
that Sweden's defense would be se- 
riously menaced by such fortifica- 
tions. 

Sweden did not feel herself strong 
enough to go to war over the ques- 
tion, and as her protests were dis- 
regarded, she forthwith appealed to 
France and England, who were also 
signatories of the treaty of 1856, 
which specifically declared that "the 
Aland Island shall not be fortified 
and no naval or military force shall 
be established there." The appeal 
placed both England and France in 
an embarrassing position. Both 
countries guaranteed the perpetual 
neutrality of Sweden, but both were 
most favorably disposed toward Rus- 
sia; France on account of the dual 
alliance and England because of the 
Anglo-Russian agreement. And 
Stockholm was justified in her fear 
that neither France nor England 
would interfere, especially because 
the fortification by Russia of the is- 
lands in question served to diminish 
the preponderance of German influ- 
ence in the Baltic. 

Sweden ceded Finland, with the 
Aland Islands, to .Russia in 1809. 
Twenty years later, Russia proceeded 
to fortify the islands. England there- 
upon objected, but without avail. 
During the Crimean War, Bomarsund 
was built, and a combined French 
and English fleet had to blow its 
forts to pieces. 

France and England conveniently 
ignored Sweden's appeal, and per- 
mitted Russia to fortify the island 
against the day when they would be , 
joined in war against Germany. 

When Secretary Hay established 
"the open door in China" as a prin- 
ciple of American policy, the only 
nation that supported him was Ger- 
many. It still remains in active 
force. In total disregard of the 
United States, Russia seized Port Ar- 
thur and Ta-Lien-Wan and other 
Chinese possessions, but guaranteed 
to observe all treaty rights. But no 
sooner had she taken forcible pos- 
session of Manchuria than she 
showed her hand. Instead of keep- 
ing the door at Port Arthur open, 
the Russian Consul at Tien-Tsin one 
morning startled his colleagues by 
announcing that foreigners could not 
be allowed at Port Arthur or at Ta- 
Lien-Wan without passports issued 



WHY BELGIUM WAS NOT PROTECTED 



69 



by him. Both Chinese and foreigners 
bitterly complained, but no heed was 
paid to them. That was one reason 
why the United States strongly sym- 
pathized with Japan in her war with 
Russia. 

No doubt that in this country, a 
few years ago, thousands of honest 
people believed that Great Britain's 
war upon the Dutch republic in 
South Africa was a righteous and 
high-minded crusade. One heard on 
all hands that once more "dear old 
England" had taken up the banner 
of civilization and consecrated her- 
self to the salvation of mankind. 
The Boers were obstacles in the path- 
way of human progress. Down with 
them! We heard it in the clubs; we 
read it in the administration organs; 
we saw it in our foreign policy. 



NEUTRAMTY AaOIiATED BY ENG- 
LAND CUTTING CABLE. 



Translation of Editorial Which Ap- 
peared in the "Illinois Staats- 
Zeitnng," Chicago, August 
8, 1914, in German. 

England accuses Germany of vio- 
lation of neutrality laws, as has been 
previously reported, in order to cloak 
the definite objects and well formed 
plans for and by which it has for 
scores of years paved the way for 
war with Germany. At the same 
time it commits a more important 
breach of the laws of neutrality by 
cutting at the Azores the cable which 
connected Germany with America. 
Although the proposal of Cyrus Field 
in 1872 to place all transatlantic ca- 
bles in neutral zones during wars 
was not adopted at the third tele- 
graphic conference in Rome, still in 
Paris in 1884 the protocol of the 
convention of submarine cables was 
signed by thirty-eight states, among' 
which England was included; which 
convention established not only the 
political and commercial rights of the 
owners of submarine cables but also 
recognized the demands of cultured 
nations to possess rapid means of 
communication. 

The cutting of the German cable 
by the English warships was a dis- 
graceful act, and it shows up the 
English hypocrisy of striving for 
ideals of humanity, in its own mis- 
erableness. 

We German-Americans especially, 
but really the entire world outside of 
the Triple Alliance, are thus robbed 
of the possibility to obtain a true, un- 
colored picture of the events which 
are taking place upon the European 
battlefields, which we could have 
hoped to obtain only via the German 
cable Emden-Azores. 

The last possibility is now re- 
moved. To be sure the wireless sta- 
tion at Nauen, near Berlin, is able to 
send messages to the stations at 
Tuckerton and Sayville upon the At- 
lantic Ocean, but our government 
seems to intend to stretch its per- 
fectly proper stand of strict neutral- 
ity to such an extent that the suc- 
cessful operation of these stations 
will be stopped.* 

We must therefore be prepared to 
learn of a superabundance of vic- 
tories won by the English, French, 



Russians, Belgians, Servians and 
Montenegrins. We do not like to 
make bets, but we will bet a German 
battery against a Russian pocket pis- 
tol that such reports will be lies, and 
intended only to picture Germany as 
a forlorn loser. One feels so confi- 
dent that these barefaced lies cannot 
be controverted through any German 
corrections, that one only yesterday 
tried to convince us (Americans) 
that two German cavalry regiments 
attempted to capture the forts at 
Li&ge and thereby were totally anni- 
hilated. From such ridiculous state- 
ments we can judge how much cre- 
dence we can give to the reports 
emanating in the near future from 
English sources. 



*Since this editorial was pub- 
lished, these two wireless stations 
have been allowed to operate under 
the surveillance of U. S. Government 
officials in order to prevent messages 
from being sent to German warships 
at sea. This act would constitute a 
violation of U. S. neutrality. How- 
ever, some apparatus of the powerful 
Tuckerton station, which is the only 
one that can send as well as receive 
messages from Germany, has broken 
down, and up to the time of our go- 
ing to press with "War Echoes" it 
has been impossible to remedy the 
accident. We understand that the 
Sayville station can only receive mes- 
sages, as its apparatus is not power- 
ful enough to send them. — Editor. 

But on July 9 th the station was 
again taken over by the United 
States military authorities, evidently 
to act as a censor on the messages 
sent. — Editor, War Echoes. 



HAS GERMANY VIOLATED BEL- 
GIAN NEUTRALITY? 



Herman Schoenfeld, Ph. D., LL. D. 

Professor of Germanics, George 
Washington University. 



The Fatherland, New York. 

Of all the insinuations and asper- 
sions against Germany's sinful ag- 
gression none remains but the viola- 
tion of Belgian neutrality. It does 
not suflBce to exonerate Germany by 
stating even the true facts that Ger- 
many never guaranteed Belgium neu- 
trality, but Prussia did, and that 
Prussia's guarantee could not be 
binding upon the other twenty-four 
sovereign states of the empire. This 
would stand in law, but would not 
stand in ethics. Nor does it suffice 
to prove that French aviators used 
Belgian territory in all its breadth, 
without protest, to enter Germany 
and drop bombs on Cologne. 

Even the established fact that Bel- 
gium has for years leaned strongly 
on France, even if there did not exist 
a formal military convention, has ac- 
cepted French money and French of- 
ficers and engineers for building of 
gigantic fortifications against Ger- 
many, did not necessarily vitiate Bel- 
gian neutrality, since a neutralized 
state has the right to make its neu- 
trality respected. It is true that a 
question arises here in international 
law, whether a permanently neu- 
tralized state, by strong fortification 
and military armament, does not in- 



vite attack, since such military acts 
constitute a priori a contradiction of 
neutrality, and may be rightfully con- 
strued as a revocation of neutrality 
treaties by the neutralized state it- 
self, especially if the latter racially, 
politically, and in a military way has 
for years veered manifestly towards 
powerful, antagonistic and now open- 
ly hostile states, like France and 
England. 

The British pretext of war against 
Germany on the score of the viola- 
tion of Belgian neutrality sounds 
false and rings untrue on the part of 
England, which in a very much 
slighter emergency, without word of 
warning, steamed into the port of 
Copenhagen, carried away the unsus- 
pecting Danish fleet and occupied the 
port herself till after the Napoleonic 
wars. And when the British gov- 
ernment, upon the direct question of 
the German ambassador, Prince Lich- 
nowski, absolutely refused to bind it- 
self to respect Belgian neutrality to 
the end of this war, the powerful port 
of Antwerp in the hands of the Brit- 
ish being nothing less than Hamburg 
in the hands of the strongest naval 
enemy, it would have been absolute 
folly, on the part of Germany, still 
further to consider Belgium a neutral 
state. 

Even more hypocritical than the 
English standpoint towards the sa- 
credness of Belgian neutrality, has 
been the position of France toward it 
since the very inception of the ille- 
gitimate birth of that state. 

In an essay, "Theoretical Perma- 
nent Neutrality in Political Prac- 
tice" (Geo. Washington Univ. Publi- 
cations, Politics and Diplomacy Se- 
ries, vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 25-40, January 
1906), I have proven, I believe, that 
Belgium was founded as a neutral 
state solely to save her from the cu- 
pidity of France. 

The declaration of Belgium inde- 
pendence and neutrality in London, 
November 15, 1831, by the represen- 
tatives of England, Austria, Belgium, 
France and Russia (no Prussian rep- 
resentatives being present) was con- 
sidered merely the lesser evil; the 
other alternative was absorption by 
France. The Memoirs of Prince Tal- 
leyrand reveal unmistakably the fact 
that the French government fostered 
the plan, of the partition of Belgium. 
The Austrian envoy, Weissenburg, 
reported to Vienna: . . . "France 
arms from head to foot and burns 
with impatience to cross the frontier 
of Belgium." 

But this may seem old history. 
More recent events will be more con- 
vincing In my work, Bismarck s 
Speeches and Letters, D. Appleton & 
Co., New York, p. 314 ff., it is men- 
tioned that the revelation of secret 
state documents by Bismarck proves 
beyond a shadow of a doubt that an 
alliance with Prussia had been eag- 
erly sought by the French govern- 
ment for the entire acquisition or the 
partltionment of Belgium. These 
revelations, conclusive as they are, 
furnish one of the most painful chap- 
ters in diplomatic history, with re- 
gard to the French greed of terri- 
torial expansion, and the cruelty with 
which the iron chancellor exposed the 
unsatiety of French appetite. The 
condemnation of French perfidy 



70 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM' 



against Belgium's treaty rights was 
universal, and the purpose of her in- 
tegrity was attained. 

In a circular dispatch of July 29th, 
Bismarck revealed the existence of 
several draft treaties written by 
Count Benedetti on the official paper 
of the French embassy. All Europe 
was amazed when the London Times 
printed the draft treaty of the au- 
tumn of 18 6 6 which promised Prus- 
sia a free hand to deal with Germany 
as she pleased, for one compensation 
— Belgium. 

"From this time on," Bismarck 
writes, "the French ambassador never 
ceased to tempt us by offers at the 
expense of Germany or Belgium. The 
impossibility of accepting any offers 
of that kind was never doubtful to 
me; but I deemed it useful in the in- 
terest of peace to leave to the French 
statesmen the illusions peculiar to 
them, as long as this would be possi- 
ble without giving them any, even 
oral promises. I supposed the de- 
struction of every French hope would 
endanger the peace, to preserve which 
was to the interest of Germany and 
of Europe. 

"I was not of the opinion of those 
statesmen who advised not to try to 
prevent the war with France, because 
it was inevitable. No one penetrates 
so surely the purposes of divine 
providence with regard to the future, 
and I consider even a victorious war 
per se, as an evil which a wise states- 
manship must endeavor to spare to 
the nations. I had no right to cal- 
culate without the possibility that in 
the constitution and politics of 
France changes might take place 
which might have led the two great 
neighboring peoples above the neces- 
sity of a war — a hope which was 
benefitted by every delay of a rup- 
ture. For this reason I was silent 
concerning the suggestions made, 
and treated them in a dilatory way 
without, on my part, ever giving as 
much as a promise. I have the im- 
pression that only the definite convic- 
tion of France's inability to attain an 
extension of her boundaries with us, 
led her to the resolution of obtain- 
ing it against us. I have even good 
reasons to believe, that, if the pub- 
lication in question had not appeared, 
France would have offered to us, af- 
ter the completion of her own and 
our armaments, to carry out in com- 
mon the propositions made to us for- 
merly, as against unarmed Europe, 
at the head of a million of armed 
warriors, namely, to conclude a peace 
after or before the first battle, on 
the basis of Count Benedetti's prop- 
ositions, at the expense of Belgium. 

"After the negotiations with the 
king of the Netherlands concerning 
the purchase of Luxumburg had 
failed, the French proposals com- 
prising Belgium were constantly re- 
peated. 

"At this juncture occurred the 
communication of the Benedetti 
manuscript. 

"It was indicated to me that in the 
case of a French occupation of Bel- 
gium we should find our Belgium 
somewhere else ("nous trouverions 
notre Belgique ailleurs" ). 

"Concerning the text of these pro- 
posals, I remark that the draft in our 



hands is written from beginning to 
end by the hand of Count Benedetti, 
on the paper of the French Ambas- 
sador, and that the ambassadors, or 
envoys, of Austria, Great Britain, 
Russia, Bavaria, Belgium, Hesse, 
Italy, Saxony, Turkey, Wiirttemberg, 
who have seen the original, recog- 
nized the hand-writing." 

Bismarck's revelations, simulta- 
neously in Berlin and in London, as 
afore-mentioned, with regard to the 
French attempts at Belgian indepen- 
dence, produced a profound agita- 
tion in Belgium and in all Europe. 

It is more than likely that a differ- 
ent statesman from Bismarck might 
have succumbed to the almost irre- 
sistible temptaiton, and the French 
plot for the partitionment of Belgium 
would have succeeded then and there. 
And it is certain that against such a 
combination of force as France and 
Prussia, united would have offered, 
any protest from the other signatory 
powers would have been ineflicient, 
especially if means and ways had 
been found to equalize "the balance 
of power" by other compensations. 

But to the eternal glory and honor 
of Bismarck and Prussia be it said, 
the great chancellor built the German 
empire without sacrificing any Bel- 
gian territory to perfidious France, 
saving Belgium and frankly warning 
her of her danger. Knowing history 
and knowing the hankering of France 
for Belgium, the German government 
in the extreme hour of necessity 
pleaded with Belgium for a right of 
way, vowing every possible compen- 
sation and security and territorial in- 
tegrity, but the Belgian king and 
government, with that blindness 
which so often dooms — as it were, 
through the powers of darkness — • 
those who are ripe for a fall, pre- 
ferred to throw their country into the 
arms of their worst enemies and de- 
stroyers. 

When the French statesman. Count 
Benedetti, promised Bismarck, "You 
shall find your Belgium somewhere 
else," he did not dream that the no- 
ble kingdom, which was industrially, 
culturally, and politically one of the 
most advanced and progressive states 
in Europe, would be hurled by its 
own demented rulers into the arms 
of France, its destroyer and plotter, 
even before It emerged from the 
womb of time. There lies the viola- 
tion of Belgium neutrality, not in 
Germany's procedure, to whom she 
owed her independent existence, and 
who was eager and determined to 
guarantee it again and forever. 



GREAT BRITAIN'S CASE. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, New 
York. 

Herman Ridder. 

It is interesting to note that while 
our cousins across the water are at- 
tempting to open our eyes to the 
German propaganda, they are allow- 
ing no grass to grow under their own 
feet. There is little to be gained 
now by saying that Germany was the 
first — as she was not — to seek the 
moral support of the American peo- 
ple by such means, or that England 



was the first. Both nations have 
stated their case, each from its own 
point of view, for our benefit. The 
appearance, therefore, of "Great 
Britain's Case," the collaborated ef- 
fort of certain members of the Fac- 
ulty of Modern History at Oxford, 
has no external significance other 
than that England now confesses 
that she is calling upon her last line 
of reserves to carry the day. We 
welcome the brochure, not that we 
need it, but as additional evidence of 
the terrible sincerity of England's 
present day desire to chain us to her 
chariot wheels. 

As yet we haVe but the excerpts 
from the pamphlet made public by 
the British Embassy in Washington. 
We may with reasonable justice, 
however, assume that these contain 
in a large measure the cream of the 
pamphlet itself. And among these 
excerpts there is much that is good 
history and much that is not, and 
less that is good argument. My eye 
was caught by the following state- 
ment, in particular: "It is desirable 
to point out that Bismarck, in 1870, 
made full use of the Belgian treaty 
to prevent England from supporting 
the cause of France. The result was 
that Germany and France entered 
into an identical treaty with Great 
Britain (August, 18 70) to the effect 
that if either belligerent violated 
Belgian territory, Great Britain 
would co-operate with the other for 
the defense of it." This is unques- 
tionable good history. So let us 
profit by it. The neutralization of 
Belgium was accomplished originally 
by a treaty, concluded in 1839, to 
which England, Prussia, Russia and 
France were all signatory. By the 
time the Franco-Prussian war came 
upon the tapis, this treaty was ad- 
mittedly of little value for the par- 
ticular purpose for which in part it 
was written. England, with an eye 
ever to the sustenance of Belgium as 
an independent state to buffer the 
English coast, used the threat of in- 
terference to secure from both of the 
then belligerent nations a further 
guarantee of the integrity of Bel- 
gium. If we but apply the attitude 
of Gladstone to the conditions which 
existed immediately prior to the out- 
break of the present war, we are 
forced to a conclusion which absolves 
the Belgian question from any con- 
nection, except that of pretext, with 
England's motives for going to war 
with Germany. The offer made by 
the German Emperor on August 1, 
1914, through the Imperial Chancel- 
lor and the Ambassador at London, 
of the unconditional guarantee of 
Belgian neutrality in return for the 
neutrality of England, was in no es- 
sential sense different from the writ- 
ten agreement entered into by Bis- 
marck in 1870. The outcome has 
proven but one thing: that England, 
seeing in Germany nothing but dan- 
ger to her own ill-gotten Empire, 
reading in Germany nothing but the 
vaporings of the "Prussian School of 
History," had attired her attitude on 
the subject of Belgian neutrality, and 
no longer content with preserving 
the integrity of Belgium as a buffer 
state, was prepared to use the viola- 
tion of Belgian neutrality as an ex- 
cuse to be in "at the killing." She 



WHY BELGIUM WAS NOT PROTECTED 



had the same offer given her In 1914 
that was given her in 1870. Can her 
able defenders explain why she did 
not accept it? 

Again, in a very unhistorical man- 
ner, these historians formulate a 
journalistic phrase of convenience: 
"The war, in which England is now 
engaged with Germany, is fundamen- 
tally that of raison d'fitat (right of 
the state) against the rule of the 
law. One nation claims a preroga- 
tive to act outside and above the 
public law of Europe in order to se- 
cure the 'safety' of its own state, 
while the other stands for the rule of 
public law." Apparently the Oxford 
professors are eager to prove their 
Introductory assertion that "We are 
not politicians." They show them- 
selves hopelessly out of touch with 
the actualities of government; as we 
are indebted to the English, not to 
the German, Government, for the 
enlightening expression of the "Su- 
preme Duty to insure National 
Safety." The British Government 
has certainly acted more exclusively 
on the principle of "raison d'etat" 
than has Germany, which has been 
trying to make the sometimes in- 
evitable clash between raison d'fitat 
and the rule of the law least destruc- 
tive. It is necessary only to recall 
the conciliatory notes addressed by 
Berlin to Brussels. We have heard 
of no such considerate requests be- 
ing addressed by London to Con- 
stantinople in connection with the 
raison d'etat diplomatic expulsions 
from neutral Egypt or of such con- 
ciliatory requests being addressed by 
London to the powers which neu- 
tralized the Suez Canal in connection 
with the raison d'&tat use of the 
Suez Canal as a military base. We 
are unaware of any English protest 
against the Japanese raison d'6tat 
violation of Chinese neutrality or of 
an explanation of the" raison d'etat 
sinking by the English of the Kaiser 
Wilhelm der Grosse within the three 
mile limit of a neutral country. 

It is unfortunate that England 
should have found for her ultimate 
defense men apparently so little 
qualified to realize hard facts. 
It is, in turn, not surprising that 
Treitsohke and Bernhardi have once 
more been brought into the fray. 
Apparently quite a number of Eng- 
lishmen, now well advanced in 
years, were in Berlin when, 30 or 40 
years ago, Treitsohke was at the 
height of his always limited popular- 
ity, based chiefly, as I said the other 
day, on his brilliant, but very nar- 
rowly limited exposition of the 
forces of the young Empire. As to 
Bernhardi, it is worth while to re- 
peat, that up to the beginning of 
this year six editions only had ap- 
peared of his work on "the next 
war." The edition of a semi-scien- 
tific volume consists usually of about 
1,000 copies. It is clear, therefore, 
that very few Germans had, before 
the war, read Bernhardi's book. But 
enough has been said In the press on 
this point to make the outsider real- 
ize that neither Treitschke nor Bern- 
hardt can be fastened upon the Ger- 
man people as a typical representa- 
tive, any more than H. G. Wells and 
the others of his ilk can be made 



out to be typical representatives of 
the English people. 

Another item of important news, 
with reference to the causes of the 
war, is the discovery in Brussels of 
certain documents which clearly 
show a military understanding of 
some age between England and Bel- 
gium. The English government, in 
its attempt to explain away the sig- 
nificance of this discovery, admits 
that "some notes with reference to 
the subject may exist in the archives 
of Brussels." It merely deprecates 
their importance and seeks to show 
that they were of a defensive and not 
of an aggressive character. It con- 
tends that such arrangements with 
Belgium were justified in view of 
the provocation of Prance by Ger- 
many in the Morocco imbroglio, and 
of the construction by Germany of 
military railroads to the Belgian 
frontier. It tries, in other words, to 
shift the blame to Germany. It con- 
siders its action as one brought about 
purely by a desire to oppose German 
aggression. The action of Germany 
in the Morocco trouble was caused 
directly by the agreement between 
France and England allotting Moroc- 
co to the French sphere of Influence 
and Egypt to the English sphere of 
influence. As far as the construction 
of strategic Railroads is concerned, 
such railroads as exist from Germany 
into Belgium merely serve the enor- 
mous interchange of peaceful trafiic 
which has been growing in recent 
years at an amazing pace. There 
are no railroad lines to the Belgian 
frontier which can be designated as 
"strategic." Only a railroad which 
fails to maintain Itself in times of 
peace and which is at the same time 
of paramount value In times of war, 
may be called a strategic line. 

The notes dealing with the military 
arrangements between Great Britain 
and Belgium, may, when fuller re- 
ports become available, contain other 
interesting facts. One thing is already 
clear: the arrangements for the pro- 
tection of Belgian neutrality con- 
templated a co-operation with France 
against Germany, but not one with 
Germany against France. Why did 
the cherlsher and defender of small 
nations. Great Britain, arrange in so 
one-sided a manner for the main- 
tenance of the integrity of Belgium? 
Why did Belgium continue such a 
one-sided arrangement with Great 
Britain, when Belgium's own Min- 
ister reported on the "danger of 
French attack, threatening us not 
only near Luxemburg, but on the 
whole length of the common fron- 
tier," and impugned the motives of 
the French and English in volunteer- 
ing as special "protectors" of Bel- 
glum? AH that Germany has ever 
contended is proved by that part of 
these Brussels dispatches which has 
been accepted by England. Germany 
has maintained only that she had the 
gravest of reasons for assuming the 
existence of military plans prepared 
by the English and French and in- 
volving a passage through Belgium. 
For its conclusions, Germany had no 
other mode or code of reasoning than 
that adopted by England and France. 
England and France acted as soon as 
they thought that they detected Ger- 
man aggressiveness. Germany acted 



as soon as she thought she detected 
English and French aggressiveness. 
The General Staff of all of these 
countries had worked out plans 
against attacks by the others through 
Belgium. When Germany's repeated 
offers of neutrality for Belgium, 
France and England were rejected, 
she had no other choice than to in- 
terpret the Belgian, English and 
French military conventions as hos- 
tile rather than defensive. So, in the 
light of these latest disclosures and 
of England's comments thereon, all 
possible favorable allowances for the 
French and English having been 
made, neither the action of Germany 
nor that of England can be arraigned 
without the arraignment of bothr. 



POIVSONBY'S THIRTEEN QUES- 
TIONS. 



Translation of Editorial. 

Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 

The London government is BtiU 
pleased to adopt a loud tone when the 
final result of the war is discussed and 
displays an absurd self-conceit that con- 
trasts strangely with the successes of 
Great Britain in this war. Facts speak 
louder and clearer than all assurances 
of the government and the continual 
loss of British ships has brought the 
war closer to the minds of the masses 
in England. The evident dissatisfac- 
tion and mischief brewing among these 
masses has reached such a state that it 
was considered necessary in London to 
divert the rage of the mob, which was 
directed against the government. In 
consequence of this policy we hear to- 
day of the pillaging of all business 
houses in London that belong to Ger- 
mans. 

People who can think for themselves 
are not affected by such actions and 
when we consider the rapidly growing 
feeling against Britain's war policy we 
feel justified in asking how long these 
fathers of the war will continue to di- 
rect England's policy. The most severe 
criticism of England by an English- 
man may probably be found In the 
thirteen questions published by Mr. 
Ponsonhy, a member of parliament 
"If we," Mr. Ponsonby says in his ob- 
jections to England's participation In 
the war,, "who think that many fatal 
errors have been made would remain 
silent any longer these errors would 
never become known to the public and 
there would be no hope for enlight- 
enment in the future." Ponsonby then 
puts the questions and the answers Im- 
mediately following the questions show 
his views as well as those of his parti- 
sans. 

1. Does the corresjxmdence contained 
In our White Book show that we had 
assumed great obligations and become 
entangled in a net we had prepared 
ourselves? — Yes. 2. Is it just or even 
prudent to form alliances with one na- 
tion, without informing other nations 
thereof? — No. 3. Has our government 
emphatically declared it was under no 
obligations In case of war? — Yes. 4. 
Would we have declared war on France 
if that country had considered it neces- 
sary for Its own safety to send an army 
into Belgium? — No. 5. Was Germany 
aware that we had bound ourselves to 
support France and did Germany want 



72 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM" 



a war? — No. 6. Would Germany's at- 
titude not have been entirely different 
had she known our Intentions from 
the start? — Yes. 7. Was it not above 
all an attack by a Slavic race, that Is 
Russia, that Germany feared? — Yes. 
8. Is our support of Russia not equal 
to the strengthening of Russian auto- 
cracy and militarism and thereby ob- 
structing the development of the Rus- 
sian people? — Yes. 9. Would not Rus- 
sia's success in this war cause her to 
acquire new territory and would this 
not be a calamity? — Yes. 10. Is It 
possible or desirable that the German 
Empire be overthrown and that it cease 
to flourish? — No. 11. Is it probable 
that Germany would become an in- 
active and subordinate state by losing 
all her colonies? — No. 12. Was there 
any ill feeling towards the Germans 
shown by the British people at the out- 
break of the war? — No. 13. Have w« 
any reason to think that oflBclal Eng- 
land was pursuing an anti-German pol- 
icy? — Yes. 

Ponsonby's questions and answers 
cover all charges directed against Eng- 
land by the Germans and these objec- 
tions raised by an Englishman against 
the actions of his own country is a 
great moral support of the justice of 
the German joint of view. They show 
no more and no less than that England 
labored continually and systematically 
to bring about this war and started it 
by a false pretext. Germany has no 
occasion to parade this English witness 
in public because she requires no T«t- 
erences for the honesty of her policy: 
neither can she hope to gain by it, for 
words and declarations of sympathy, 
even though they come from the camp 
of the enemy, will have no influence on 
military events. But as an evidence of 
the growing feeling in England these 
questions and answers are interesting 
and even of historic value as Mr. Pon- 
sonby has for the past six years been 
one of the most prominent members of 
the liberal party, the party now in 
power and his utterances are all the 
more important as he, in his capacity 
as private secretary to the former lib- 
eral leader Campbell-Bannerman, has 
considerable influence. 



GREAT BRITAIN'S REAL MOTIVE 
FOR ENTERING THE WAR. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, New 

York. 

Herman Ridder. 

The veil of hypocritical altruism 
which the British Government has 
hung between its real motives for 
entering the present war and the 
searching eye of the world, torn 
asunder by the cold, crude and, in 
the logic of Great Britain, condemna- 
tory fact that in the twenty-five 
years from 1887 to 1912 the exports 
from the German Empire increased 
from $734,000,000 to $2,239,000,000 
while British exports advanced from 
$1,134,000,000 to no more than 
$2,486,000,000. Although Great 
Britain still leads in total value of 
exports, her rate of increase during 
these years has been so insignificant 
in comparison with Germany's as to 
give cause for serious alarm not 
alone to the British merchant but to 
his Government as well. This 



steady forging ahead by Germany in 
the world's markets, unassisted by 
extensive colonies such as Great Bri- 
tain possesses, has been for years in- 
terpreted in every conceivable man- 
ner by the British press. The phrase 
"Made in Germany" was coined to 
kill German trade, but today it is 
the coals of fire which are returning 
to burn the heads of those who 
coined it. 

That this is no unfounded as- 
sertion may be read in the British 
papers which have come to us since 
the beginning of the war or in that 
element of the American press which 
has joined in the campaign to sweep 
German commerce from the seas. 
The leading British newspapers find 
their one triumphant note in the 
thought, expressed in headline after 
headline, that out of this conflict will 
come the recapture of the fields lost 
to their merchants in the years of 
Germany's peaceful expansion. What 
she could not do by the fair means 
of commercial competition. Great 
Britain has set about to do by war. 
Baffled at every turn by German 
brains and enterprise, it was the only 
recourse left to her. 

The story of British diplomacy 
during the last years coincident with 
Germany's tremendous cutting down 
of Britain's commercial supremacy is 
punctuated with every conceivable 
form of possible interference with 
her rival's legitimate line of trade 
expansion. It was all done under the 
cover of that shibboleth of Downing 
Street "the status quo," but like 
other fabrics stretched to cover too 
much, the "status quo" became at 
last transparent. When that point 
was reached, war sooner or later was 
inevitable. 

It was Edward VII, who main- 
tained the "status quo" in northern 
Africa by bargaining with France for 
Egypt and giving in return a free 
hand to the French in Morocco, and 
thus closed both of these countries 
to German trade. The Treaty of 
Algeciras which subsequently "guar- 
anteed" the open-door in Morocco 
was never intended by Prance and 
Great Britain to be anything but a 
mantle to cover the insidious work- 
ings of French subtlety. Sir Edward 
Grey, with the same "status quo" 
ever uppermost in his mind, divided 
Persia between Russia and Great 
Britain and closed another door in 
the face of German expansion. In 
China the same objective was 
aimed at. 

There was not one field beyond her 
own borders in which Germany was 
unopposed not simply by the com- 
mercial competition of her rival but 
by all the diplomatic forces that 
could be brought to bear against her. 
Germany knew this, and Great Brit- 
ain knew that she knew it and that 
the hour of reckoning could not be 
long postponed. When her chain of 
allies had been completed. Great 
Britain needed only a pretext. 

The "White Paper" issued by the 
British Foreign Office and the tele- 
grams exchanged between Downing 
Street and the British Embassy in 
Washington show where this pretext 
was found and throw a strong light 
upon the principles which actuated 



Great Britain to declare war on Ger- 
many. The excuse given by Sir Ed- 
ward Grey for the declaration of war 
was the violation of the neutrality 
of Belgium, but anyone who can read 
will see for himself how little such 
altruistic motives moved the British 
Secretary for Foreign Affairs at a 
time when it was in his power to 
prevent the violation of Belgium soil. 

The following statement sent by 
the British Foreign Office to its Em- 
bassy in Washington subsequent to 
the seizure of the two warships 
building in British shipyards for 
Turkey enunciates a policy which 
exactly covers Germany's action in 
Belgium. 

"In accordance with the recog- 
nized principle of the right and su- 
preme duty to insure national safety 
in time of war. His Majesty's Gov- 
ernment took over two ships which 
were building in England for the 
Turkish government, but had not yet 
been delivered to them. 

"His Majesty's Government has 
not only offered to pay in full and 
return the ships in good condition 
after the war, or supply equivalent 
new ones, but also additional and 
generous compensation for the use 
of the preempted ships during the 
war." 

No simpler justifications of Ger- 
many's passage through Belgium 
could be supplied than this state- 
ment by the British Foreign Office. 
How much in harmony it is with the 
views of those responsible for Great 
Britain's policy and, as a conse- 
quence, how hypocritical their pro- 
fessed motives of highest interna- 
tional morality are, is best shown by 
quoting verbatim from the British 
"White Paper." These quotations 
clearly show that Great Britain 
WANTED to go to war and was 
merely looking, as usual, for the 
proverbial sheep-skin, in which to 
parade before an applauding audi- 
ence. 

Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. 
Goschen, London, Foreign Of- 
fice, Aug. 1st, 1914. 

Sir: I told the German Am- 
bassador today that the reply 
of the German Government with 
regard to the neutrality of Bel- 
gium was a matter of very great 
regret, because the neutrality of 
Belgium affected feeling in this 
country. 

He asked me whether, if Ger- 
many gave a promise not to vio- 
late Belgium neutrality, we 
could engage to remain neutral. 

I replied that I could not say 
that ; our hands were still free. 

The Ambassador pressed me 
as to whether I could not 
formulate conditions on which 
we would remain neutral. HE 
■ EVEN SUGGESTED THAT THE 
INTEGRITY OF FRANCE AND 
HER COLONIES MIGHT BE 
GUARANTEED. 

I SAID THAT I FELT 
OBLIGED TO REFUSE DEF- 
INITELY ANY PROMISE TO 
REMAIN NEUTRAL, AND I 
COULD ONLY SAY THAT WE 
MUST KEEP OUR HANDS 
FREE." 



WHY BELGIUM WAS NOT PROTECTED 



Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. 
Berite. ( Telegraphic. ) 

London, Foreign OJfice, Aug. 
2nd, 1914. 

After the. Cabinet Meeting 
this morning I gave M. Cambon 
the following memorandum: 

"I am authorized to give an 
assurance that, if the German 
fleet comes into the Channel or 
through the North Sea to under- 
take hostile operations against 
French coasts or shipping, the 
British fleet will give all the 
protection in its power. 

"This assurance must not be 
taken as binding his Majesty's 
Government to take any action 
until the above contingency of 
action by the German fleet takes 
place." 

M. CAMBON ASKED ME 
ABOUT THE VIOLATION OF 
LUXEMBURG. I TOLD HIM 
THE DOCTRINE ON THAT 
POINT. HE ASKED ME WHAT 
WE SHOULD SAY ABOUT 
THE VIOLATION OF THE 
NEUTRALITY OF BELGIUM. I 
SAID WE WERE CONSIDER- 
ING WHETHER WE SHOULD 
DECLARE VIOLATION OP 
BELGIAN NEUTRALITY TO 
BE CASUS BELLI." 

There appears to have been 
neither logic nor decisiveness in the 
attitude of Great Britain on the 
question of Belgium's neutrality. On 
the other hand, the question of na- 
tional safety is clearly expressed and 
unmistakable. Great Britain was 
ready to do anything to insure her 
national safety. Placed in a posi- 
tion similar to Germany's she could 
not but have announced to the 
world: "In accordance with the 
recognized principle of the right and 
supreme duty to insure- national safe- 
ty in time of war. His Majesty's 
Government was obliged to enter 
Belgium. 

"His Majesty's Government has 
not only offered to pay in full and 
return everything in good condition 
but also additional and generous 
compensation for the use of Belgian 
territory during the war." 

There is a great deal of hypocrisy 
about the value of international 
agreements. If all nations respected 
their treaties and conventions there 



would be no longer cause for war. 
The seizure of the Turkish ships was 
a necessity to England, and the oc- 
cupation of Belgium a necessity to 
Germany. Tlie extenuation of the 
German action is contained in these 
words of the British "White Paper": 

"Germany had consequently to dis- 
regard Belgian neutrality, it being 
for her a question of life or death to 
prevent French advance." 

When we have discarded the non- 
essential, the facts that stand out 
boldly are that Sir Edward Grey still 
had it in his power on August 2nd to 
determine whether Great Britain 
"should declare violation of Belgian 
neutrality to be casus belli,"* that he 
refused to give the German Ambassa- 
dor any satisfaction on this vital 
point, and that when the time was 
ripe he used the fa/it accompli of the 
German movement through Belgium, 
under circumstances warranted by 
his own pronunciamento in the case 
of the Turkish war-ships, as the pre- 
text so long sought to strike at Great 
Britain's commercial enemy. 



♦Consult the INDET for "An Au- 
thority on Neutrality" on this subject. 
—The Editor of War Echoes. 



UNFAIR AND INSINCERE. 



Editorial from the "Milwaulcee Free 
Press," October 13, 1914. 

Every civilized human being de- 
plores and regrets the destruction 
wrought by this European war. 
Whether it be the home of a peasant 
or a monument of ancient architec- 
ture that is damaged, the sentiment 
of mankind responds either on the 
human or on the aesthetic side, as 
the case may be. 

Admitting that and approving it, 
why should American publications 
generally sound this note, and at the 
same time either charge or insinuate 
that the Germans somehow are to 
blame for the destruction that is tak- 
ing place in France and Belgium? 

Pick up the "Saturday Evening 
Post," the "Literary Digest," "Col- 
lier's Weekly," in fact nine out of 
ten American publications devoted to 
current events — to say nothing of the 
newspapers — and we see articles and 
pictures emphasizing the destruction 
wrought by the war and always with 



this implication of German responsi- 
bility and German blame. 

We cannot help but wonder what 
these same publications would be do- 
ing if the French and English, or 
the Russians, ■ were fighting on Ger- 
man soil, if they were besieging and 
taking German cities. The same de^ 
struction that is now visited on Ant- 
werp or Rheims would then be the 
lot, say, of Strassburg or Hamburg. 

But would the lamentings of the 
American press be quite as loud as 
they are today? 

Let us hope so. And yet, when we 
think of the wide publicity given to 
alleged German atrocities, while sim- 
ilar charges, far more authentic, 
against the Belgians and Russians, 
have been passed over in compara- 
tive silence, we become a little doubt- 
ful. 

War is an engine of destruction, 
and the soil which has the misfortune 
to become its theater must bear the 
consequences. 

Germany did not invite this war. 
It was forced upon her. The prime 
mover was Russia. Had France, had 
England thought more of the de- 
struction that threatened their cities 
and their citizens, than they thought 
of inflicting destruction upon Ger- 
many, they would not have been 
found hand in glove with Russia's 
purpose; 

To expect Germany, fighting as she 
is against a world of enemies and for 
her very national existence, to bom- 
bard threatening cities with confetti 
and spare churches, when they are 
used by the enemy for military pur- 
poses, is to expect something pathet- 
ically absurd. 

She is doing only what that enemy 
would be doing were he fighting for 
advantage on German soil. If the 
French or the Belgians think more 
of their cities than they do of their 
strategic importance, all they have 
to do is surrender them before the 
work of destruction commences. 

The horror and the waste of war 
cannot be minimized, but it is no 
evidence of either the sanity or fair 
play of certain numerous American 
journals when they emphasize the 
havoc wrought by the triumphant 
German arms as if somehow that re- 
flected upon the character of their 
warfare or the civilization of the na- 
tion. 



GERMANY'S GEOGRAPHIC POSITION 
CONSEQUENTLY HER PLANS OF MILITARY STRATEGY 



GERMANY'S HONORABLE PROPOSAL TO BELGIUM 
EVEN AFTER BELGIUM HAD BROKEN FAITH WITH HER NEIGHBOR 
And Belgium finally Plotting Secretly against Germany 
Evidence of Secret Negotiations with France and England to this End 



Colossal Machinations and Intrigue against the Austro-Hungarian Empire 
and Consequently Against Germany 



KING AIjBERT'S POIilCT. 



By the Editor. 
The Open Court. 

It Is strange that although Bel- 
gium's policy is well known in Eu- 
rope and the questionable character 
of Belgium's neutrality is recognized 
hy Sir Edward Grey himself, yet in 
this country Belgium is persistently 
made the main reason for keeping up 
a propaganda against Germany and 
condemning her as the most faithless 
and barbarous of nations. Almost all 
my critics fall back on Belgium and 
treat the discoveries in the Brussels 
archives either as inventions or as 
of no significance. Nor have our 
daily papers been sufficiently unprej- 
udiced to publish the facts which 
speak loudly against British policy. 

One of the most important docu- 
ments discovered by the Germans in 
the Brussels archives is a letter writ- 
ten by Baron Greindl, Belgian am- 
bassador at the court of Berlin, who 
claims that in planning to enter into 
a close alliance with the Triple En- 
tente and open its country to a Brit- 
ish army for the purpose of proceed- 
ing against Germany, the Belgian 
government has violated the laws of 
neutrality and has thereby exposed 
herself to the danger of surrender- 
ing her fortresses to her foreign 
friends whom he deems not less dan- 
gerous than the Germans. The letter 
reads in part as follows: 

"From the French side danger not 
only threatens us in the south, by 
way of Luxemburg, but also along 
our whole common frontier. This 
assertion is not based on conjectures 
alone; we have positive support for 
it. An encircling movement from the 
north forms without doubt part of the 
scheme of the entente conliale. If that 
were not the case, the plan to fortify 
Flushing would not have raised such 
a hue and cry in Paris and London. 
There the reasons have by no means 
been kept secret, why it was desired 
that the Schelde should remain with- 
out defense. What-they wished was 
to be able to transport English troops 
to Antwerp without hindrance, i. e., 




Albert — King of Beleiunc 



to create with us a basis of opera- 
tion for an offensive movement 
against the Lower Rhine and West- 
phalia, and then to compel us to fall 
in line, a thing which would not have 
been difficult, for in handing over 
our national stronghold we should 
have deprived ourselves, by our own 
foolhardiness, of every possibility of 
resisting the demands of our ques- 
tionable protectors, once we had been 
so unwise as to let them in. The 
overtures, as perfidious as naive, of 
Colonel Bernardiston at the time of 
the conclusion of the entente cordiale 
have shown us plainly how the mat- 
ter really stood. When, eventually, 
we allowed ourselves to be intimi- 
dated by the pretended danger of a 
closing of the Schelde, the plan in- 
deed was not given up, but so altered 
that the English auxiliary army was 
not to be landed on the Belgian coast 
but at the nearest French ports. For 
this we have as witness the disclos- 
ures of Captain Faber which have 

74 



been contradicted just as little as 
the reports in the newspapers, by 
which they were confirmed or sup- 
plemented in individual points." 

We will not here condemn Bel- 
gium for breaking her neutrality, 
for to remain absolutely neutral un- 
der such circumstances is very diffi- 
cult and actually prevents the self- 
assertion of a small nation. Belgium 
had been Intended as a buffer state. 
It was established for the purpose of 
separating the frontiers between 
France and Germany and its estab- 
lishment was mainly in the interest 
of England, whose policy is well de- 
scribed in the recent article of Field 
Marshal Earl Roberts in the "Hib- 
bert Journal" of October, 1914.' 

England naturally has an interest 
in the coast of the continent facing 
her own shore and has always been 
anxious that it be retained in the 
hands of a weak nation. An invasion 
of Belgium is felt by English states- 
men as an invasion of English ter- 
ritory, and we must understand that 
this feeling is a sort of Monroe Doc- 
trine to Great Britain. This explains 
why the English could go to war in 
defense of Belgium. 

Upon the whole England has al- 
ways favored the smaller countries 
on the continent and has always 
been the enemy of whatever power 
took the lead in continental politics. 
Originally the neutrality of Belgium 
was aimed against Prance, but since 
the establishment of the German em- 
pire the tables turned and it was 
intended to be used against Ger- 
many. But just here lies the equivo- 
cal nature of England's attitude. She 
wished to use Belgian neutrality 
against either France or Germany, 
but did not intend to respect it her- 
self; this two-faced policy is posi- 
tively proved by the documents found 
in Brussels and is plainly indicated 
in Baron Greindl's letter. 

King Albert is apparently an am- 
bitious monarch. King Leopold, his 
uncle, had a keen mind and enriched 
himself as well as enlarged Belgium 
by the acquisition of African terrl- 



REASONS FOR GERMANY IN THE WORLD WAR 



75 



tory. Experts in international law 
have considered that this step threw 
doubt on the old neutral character 
of Belgium or even entirely disposed 
of it, and this view was shared by 
no less an authority than Gladstone. 
King Leopold's policy induced Glad- 
stone to establish a new treaty dur- 
ing the war of 1870-1871, which was 
to last for one year after the 
close of the war. A correspondent 
of mine who prefers that his name 
be omitted, writes to me as follows: 

"It has often occurred to me that 
very little explanation has yet been 
offered as to the real reason for 
Belgium's siding with the allies. 
They must have had more motives 
than just plain neutrality. Is there 
anything in the fact that the throne 
of Belgium personally owns such 
large tracts in Africa that, had the 
throne been neutral in spirit, they 
would have been endangered by the 
English and French? Might it not 
be a purely selfish motive which in- 
duced the king of Belgium to join 
with the Allies, believing that he 
would thereby avoid losing his estate, 
which I understand is the largest in 
the world?" 

Of whatever value, or lack of 
value, the old treaty concerning Bel- 
gium's neutrality may be. King Al- 
bert has certainly not respected it. 
He has been on very friendly terms 
with England, and this in itself is 
certainly commendable; but he has 
also shared the view of the British 
government which regards Germany 
as the main foe of English suprem- 
acy on the seas and is expressed in 
the formula, Germania est delenda. 
He did not doubt that Germany could 
easily be crushed between Prance 
and Russia. He seemed fully con- 
fident that Belgian forts could resist 
invaders for an indefinite length of 
time and could not be taken except 
at an enormous loss of life, and so 
he saw no danger in joining the Al- 
lies. He even ventured so far as to 
extend his own influence over the 
other small powers by proposing to 
establish an alliance among them of 
which he was to be the leading spirit. 
This in itself was also a breach of 
neutrality. Like the English he re- 
garded the neutrality of Belgium as 
a protective measure against Ger- 
many; he saw in it a privilege, not 
a duty. 

The alliance between the small 
states, however, fizzled out because 
Holland, which was the very first one 
approached, became suspicious of its 
purport and hesitated to join. And 
since Holland was more important to 
Belgium than Denmark, Sweden or 
Norway, and since the latter were in- 
fluenced by Holland's misgivings, the 
whole scheme was abandoned. 



We do not know what part Albert 
will play in the future, but it is cer- 
tain that he is a unique character not 
to be underrated. His wife, too, is 
a distinguished woman. She is the 
daughter of that Bavarian Prince, 
Rupert, who studied medicine and 
practiced among the poor just like 
any other physician except that he 
would not take fees. He lived like 
a civilian, and, among his children, 
the present Queen of Belgium was 
brought up like a professor's daugh- 
ter. 

We will repeat in extenuation of 
King Albert's mistakes that it is by 
no means an easy matter to play a 
truly neutral part; and while his am- 
bitious plans for an alliance of the 
smaller states failed, he has cut a 
dashing figure in recent history, and 
has shown sufficient energy to over- 
come even the traditional antipathy 
against royalty in democratic Bel- 
gium. He has never been so popular 
as now in times of war, and his popu- 
larity has spread into Prance so that 
in the present dissatisfaction with the 
republican government isolated voices 
have been heard which would wel- 
come him to the throne of Prance. 



MORE ENGLISH FAITHLESSNESS. 



Translation of Editorial. 
Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 

Just now Edward Grey is indulg- 
ing in filthy remarks about German 
violations of treaties, the expiation of 
which England must make a task of 
a lifetime. The fairy story of Bel- 
gian neutrality has already become 
stale and lost its attraction. All 
sorts of interesting secrets have 
reached us from the diplomatic 
world, that show that this Belgian 
neutrality was two-sided. 

Among the papers of General Bri- 
aillant, the constructor of the forts 
at LiCge and Namur, was found a 
statement, that work on these forts 
— intended to check a probable Ger- 
man invasion — was not begun until 
King Edward urged their erection. 
Colored sheets, showing all the dif- 
ferent uniforms worn by French and 
English troops, were found in pos- 
session of Belgian soldiers, and Bel- 
gian prisoners asserted, that they 
have to be instructed to become fa- 
miliar with the styles of these uni- 
forms. And finally we learn from 
the columns of Paris papers that dur- 
ing the months of May and June 
large quantities of ammunition for 
English cannon and small arms had 
been stored at Maubeuge — a prepa- 
ration for the war that was begun 
in August, which, according to Grey, 
England had not decided upon, until 



Germany avowed its inability to re- 
spect Belgium's neutrality. History 
then will be the unbiased judge in 
this case of breach of neutrality, 
violated tenfold in the grossest man- 
ner by the other party with a view 
of overthrowing Germany. 

The longer England parades this 
ghost of neutrality, the less the 
dread of it, while on the other hand 
her faithlessness and violations are 
more and more brought to light. In 
East Africa for instance, the English 
have bombarded Bar-es-Salaam, cap- 
tured the steamer "Herman Wiss- 
man" on the Victoria Nyanza, and 
with the aid of native troops de- 
stroyed German settlements. These 
actions of England are serious viola- 
tions of international treaties that 
had been proposed by her. Article 
11 of the Congo Act stipulates, that 
colonies lying in the central African 
free trade zone, among them Ger- 
man East Africa, should in case of 
war between their respective mother 
countries be considered neutral and 
enjoy all the rights of a neutral state. 
This was determined upon to avoid 
endangering European authority and 
as a show of regard for the natives. 
It equals throwing the principles of 
colonial policy to the winds when 
colored troops are brought in to fight 
in the battles of the white races. The 
history of the Boer war could have 
taught Germany, that England after 
having proposed such precautionary 
measures would entirely ignore them 
should it be to her momentary ben- 
efit to do so, but this present war 
has again shown that Germany's 
worst fault is her strong faith in 
others. 

The history of the near future 
will prove England guilty of show- 
ing outrageous disregard for her 
African treaties. If she teaches the 
natives of her colonies to use their 
arms against white people, she will 
not be spared the mortification of 
seeing the negroes make no distinc- 
tion between Britons and Germans. 
For the present the Germans will 
see to it, that England's brigandish 
policy will affect her stomach. After 
the British excesses, the weak forces 
of East African home guards crossed 
the frontier, took Poweto, levied 
contributions and destroyed sections 
of the Uganda railroad. Prom South- 
west Africa German troops have in- 
vaded Batshumland and their ad- 
vance has been such a rapid one, 
that the London diamond trust is 
fearing for the safety of its Kimber- 
ley mines. No doubt this advance 
of the Germans was undertaken in 
the hope of arousing the Boer 
element of South Africa, which as 
yet has not become reconciled to the 
English government. * * * 



Official Despatch of Belgian Charge d' Affaires in Petersburg to Minister of Foreign Affairs in Brussels. 

The semi-official Norddeutsche AUgemeine Zeitung of September 12th publishes the following highly interest- 
ing article: 

BELGIAN DIPLOMAT ANENT GERMANY'S EFFORTS FOR THE MAINTENANCE OP PEACE. 

On July 31a letter was mailed in Berlin, bearing the following address: 

Madame Costermans, 

107 Rue Proissard, 

Bruxelles, Belgique. 

Since as is known, a state of threatening danger of war was declared on the same day, for the territory of the 
German Empire, on account of which the transmission of private mail to foreign countries was suspended, the 



76 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM" 



Le 30 juillet 1914. 



Belgian Legation, 
St. Petersburg. 
795/402. 



(TRANSLATION.) 



The political situation. 



July 30, 1914.' 



letter in question was returned to the place of dispatch, viz., Berlin. There the letter was kept in the Dead Letter 
Department, and after the expiration of the prescribed term, was opened by the competent postal authority in order 
to ascertain the name of the sender. It was found that inside the envelope there was a second envelope, bearing the 

following address: ,, . ^ . 

"Son Excellence Monsieur Davignon, 

Ministre des Affaires Estrangeres." 

Since this envelope did not bear the name of the sender any more than the outside envelope, the letter was then 
opened It contained an official dispatch of the Royal Belgian Charge d'Affaires at St. Petersburg, Mr. B. de 
I'Escaille concerning the political situation in the said capital on July 30, which, in view of its political importance, 
was handed over to the German Foreign Office by the postal authorities. 

This dispatch reads: 

(ORIGINAL.) 

Legation de Belgique, 
> a St. Pgtersbourg. 
795/402. 

Situation politique. 

Monsieur le Ministre: 

Les joumfies d'hier et d'avant-hier se sont pass^es dans 
I'attente d'gvgnements qui devaient suivre la declaration de 
guerre de rAutriche-Hongrie a la Serbie. Les nouvelles les 
plus contradictories ont circuit sans qu'il soit possible de 
d6m€ler exactement le vrai du faux touchant les intentions du 
Gouvernement Imperial. Ce qui est incontestable c'est que 
I'Allemagne s'est efforcee, autant id qu'd, Vienne, de trouver un 
moyen quelconque d'eviter un conflict general, mais qu'lle a 
rencontre d'un cot6 I'obstination du Cabinet de Vienne a ne pas 
faire un pas en arrigre et de I'autre la mefiance du Cabinet de 
St. Petersbourg devant les assurances de I'Autriche-Hongrie 
qu'elle ne songeait qu'a punir la Serbie et non a s'en emparer. 

M. Sazonow a declare qu'il etait impossible a la Russie de 
ne pas se tenir prete et de ne pas mobiliser, mais que ces 
preparatifs n'6taient pas diriges centre I'Allemagne. Ce matin 
un coromunique official aux journaux annonce que "les reser- 
vistes ont ete appeles sous les armes dans un certain nombre 
de Gouvernements." Connaisant la discretion des com- 
muniques officiels russes, on peut hardiment pretendre qu'on 
mohilise partout. 

L'Ambassadeur d'Allemagne a declare ce matin qu'il etait 
a bout des essais de conciliation qu'il n'a cess6 de faire depuis 
samedi et qu'il n'avait plus guSre d'espoir. On vient de me 
dire que I'Ambassadeur d'Angleterre s'etait prononce dans le 
mgme sens. La Grande Bretagne a propose derniferement un 
arbitrage, M. Sazonow a depondu: "Nous I'avons propose 
nous m6mes a I'Autriche-Hongrie, elle I'a refuse." A la pro- 
position du'me Conference, I'Allemagne a repondu par- la pro- 
position d'une entente entre cabinets. On peut se demander 
vraiment si tout le monde ne desire pas la guerre, et tache 
seulement d'en retarder un pen la declaration pour gagner du 
temps. 

L'Angleterre a commence par donner a entendre qu'elle ne 
voulait pas se laisser entrainer dans in conflict. Sir George 
Buchanan de disait ouvertement. Aujourd' hui on est ferme- 
ment convaic-u a St. Petersbourg, on en a mSme I'assurance, 
que VAngleterre soutiendra la France. Get appui est d'wn 
poids enorme et n'a pas peu contribue a donner la haute ma/in 
OAi pa/rti de la guerre. 

Le Gouvernement Russe a laisse dans ces derniers jours 
libre cours a toutes les manifestations pro-Serbes et hostiles 
a I'Autriche et n'a aueunement cherche a les etouflfer. II 
s'est encore produit des divergences de vues dans le sein du 
Conseil des Ministres qui s'est reuni hier matin; on a retarde 
la publication de la mobilisation. Mais depuis s'est produit 
un revirement, le parti de la guerre a pris le dessus et ce matin 
a 4 heures cette mobilisation etait publiee. 

L'armee qui se sent forte est pleine d'enthousiasme et fondee 
de grandes esperances sur les enormes progrfis realises depuis' 
la guerre japonaise. La marine est si loin d'avoir realise le 
programme de sa reconstruction et de sa reorganisation qu'elle 
ne peut vraiment pas entrer en ligne de compte. C'est bien 
la le motif qui donnait tant d'importance a I'assurance de 
I'appui de I'Angleterre. 

Comme j'ai au I'honneur de vous le telegrapher aujourd'hui 
(T. 10) tout espoir de solution paciflque parait ecarte. C'est 
I'opinion des cercles diplomatiques. 

Je me suis servi pour mon telegramme de la voie via Stock- 
holm par le Nordisk Cabel comme plus sure que I'autre. Je 
confie cette depeche a un courrier prive qui la mettra a la 
poste en Allemagne. 

Veuillez agreer, Monsieur le Ministre, les assurances de 
mon plus profound respect. 

(gez.) B. de I'Escaille. 



Yesterday and the day before have passed in the expecta- 
tion of events which were bound to follow Austria-Hungary's 
declaration of war against Servia. Such conflicting news was 
circulated that it was not possible to disentangle the true 
from the false concerning the intentions of the Imperial 
(Russian) Government. Only one thing is incontestable, and 
that is, that Germany has made efforts, here as well as in 
Vietvna, to, find some means of avoiding a general conflict, and 
that she has met, on the one hand, with the Vienna Cabinet's 
obstinacy not to yield one step, on the other hand, with the 
distrust of the St. Petersburg Cabinet toward the assurances 
of Austria-Hungary that she intended only to punish Servia 
and not to seize her territory. 

Mr. Sazonow has declared that it was impossible for Russia 
not to hold herself in readiness and not to mobilize; that, 
however, these preparations were not directed against Ger- 
many. This morning an official communication to the news- 
papers declares that "the reserves have been called to the 
colors within a certain number of provinces." However, 
whosoever knows of the reticence of Russian official "com- 
muniques," can boldly assert that the mobilization is general. 

The German Ambassador declared this morning that he 
was at the end of his endeavors at conciliation, which he has 
not ceased making since Saturday, and that he scarcely enter- 
tained any more hope. I just hear that the British Ambassa- 
dor has expressed himself to the same effect. Great Britain 
has recently proposed arbitration. Mr. Sazonow replied: "We 
have ourselves made such a proposition to Austria-Hungary, 
but she declined." To the proposal of a conference, Germany 
answered by proposing an entente between the Cabinets. One 
can really ask one's self whether everybody does not want war 
and is only trying to postpone its declaration a little in order 
to gain time. 

England commenced by making it understood that she would 
not let herself be drawn into a conflict. Sir George Bu- 
chanan said this openly. Today, however, everybody in St. 
Petersburg is quite convinced — one has actually received the 
assurance — that England will stand by France. This support 
is of enormous weight and has contributed largely toward 
keeping the war-party above water. 

During the past few days the Russian Government has left 
free rein to all pro-Servian and anti-Austrian demonstrations, 
and has in no way attempted to check them. However, there 
were still differences of opinion within the Council of Min- 
isters which met yesterday morning; the publication of the 
order of mobilization has, therefore, been retarded. But since 
then a change has set in, the war-party has obtained the upper 
hand, and at 4 o'clock this morning, the order for that mobili- 
zation was given out. 

The army which believes itself strong, is full of enthusiasm 
and bases great hopes upon the enormous progress that has 
been made since the Japanese war. The navy is still so far 
removed from the realization of its plans of renewal and 
reorganization, that it can scarcely be counted upon. Just 
here lies the reason why tJve assurance of English support 
is of such great moment. 

As I had the honor to telegraph (T. 10) to you today, 
every hope of a peaceful solution seems past. That is the 
opinion of the diplomatic circles. 

For my telegram I used the route via Stockholm over the 
Nordick cable, because this is safer than the other. This 
dispatch I am entrusting to a private courier, who will mail 
it in Germany. 

Please accept, sir, the assurance of my most profound re- 
spect. B. de I'Escaille. 



REASONS FOR GERMANY IN THE WORLD WAR 77 

The Norddeutsclie Allgemeine Zeitung comments on this official dispatch in the following manner: 
"Today our enemies declare to the whole world deceitfully and with most practiced reversal of the true facts that 
the powers of the triple entente had worked until the last moment toward the preservation of peace, but through Ger- 
many's brusque attitude, which made every agreement impossible, were forced to war; Germany had, forsooth, in her 
wild lust for conquest, wanted the war under all circumstances. In comparison to this, the document in hand is 
valuable as a proof that even on July 30, two days before the German mobilization, the diplomatic circles in St. 
Petersburg were convinced that Germany had made the greatest effort, both in Vienna and St. Petersburg, to localize 
the Austro-Servian conflict and to prevent the outbreak of a world war. It is, furthermore, valuable as a proof that 
these same circles were already at that time convinced that England had strengthened the side of the Russian war 
party and hence added materially to the calling forth of the war, through her assurance that, in case of war, she 
would not remain neutral, but would support France against Germany. And, finally, this document is also of interest 
to us, because its diplomatic author believed that he should report to his government that he considered the assur- 
ance of Russia that troops were called to arms in only a few provinces, and that a general mobilization would not 
take place, a fraud." — Reprinted from the "News of the War in Europe," supplied by "The Fatherland," New York. 



A BOER'S OPINION. 



Prom the "lUinois Staats-Zeitung," 
Chicago, October 1, 1914. 

Editor "Illinois Staats-Zeitung." 

Sir: In reply to the German Im- 
perial Chancellor, Sir Edward Grey, 
British Foreign Secretary, authorized 
this statement: 

"The Imperial Chancellor refers to 
the dealings of Great Britain with 
the Boer republics, and suggests that 
she has been false therein to the 
cause of freedom. Without going into 
controversies now happily past we 
may recall what General Botha said 
in the South African Parliament a 
few days ago when expressing his 
conviction of the righteousness of 
Britain's cause and explaining the 
firm resolve of the South African 
Union to aid her in every possible 
way." He, Botha, used these words: 

"Great Britain had given them a 
constitution under which they (the 
Boers) could create a great nation- 
ality and had ever since regarded 
them as a free people and as a sister 
state. Although there might be many 
who in the past had been hostile 
towards the British flag, he (Botha) 
could vouch for it that they would 
ten times rather be under the British 
flag than under the German flag." 

This talk of Botha and his British 
boss, Edward Grey, about "constitu- 
tion" and "great nationality" is very 
much like the bunk which the Czar 
of Russia used a few weeks ago in 
his proclamation to the Poles in or- 
der to gain their loyalty. 

The voice of Botha is not the voice 
of the Boer people, who at meetings 
all over South Africa under the lead- 
ership of ex-President Steyn, General 
de Wet, General Andries Cronje and 
General Hertzog unanimously con- 
demned Botha. 

Boers do not want a British consti- 
tution which compels them to fight 
in an unjust war or throw down 
their positions. Nor do they want 
the German flag or the British flag. 
What they want is the free constitu- 
tion of the late South African Repub- 
lic and a BOER FLAG (the vierkleur 
of Transvaal) which freedom-loving 
Britain ruthlessly destroyed. 

Boers also want full compensation 
for all the destruction wrought by 
British troops, and will never be sat- 
isfied with the British sops which left 
many of them virtual paupers. 

The so-called "free" British South 
African constithtion enables Botha 
and the British Governor General, 
Lord Buxton, to override the wishes 




KIXG ALBERT IN GERMAN LNIFORM 

Receiving the Ofiicers of the Regiment, whose Chief he has become as a matter 

of honor in peace time before the War 

(By Courtesy of the "Open Court") 



of the Boer people and follow a 
megalomaniacal policy of British im- 
perialism and British navalism, a 
navalism which has been a ten times 
greater menace to the nations of the 
earth than the "awful" German mili- 
tarism. (Recently, when free tolls 
for American ships through the Pan- 
ama Canal was the bone of conten- 
tion, it was so menacing that even 
the President of the "mighty Amer- 
ican nation" had to beg Congress to 
ignominiously hand-up to John Bull, 
no matter whether Uncle Sam was 
"right or wrong," rather than face 
and fight that awful big British navy 
and its faithful Japanese ally.) 

Under this free British constitu- 
tion, General Hertzog while Minister 
of Justice and member of Botha's 
cabinet had to resign his position and 
was kicked out of the cabinet because 
he had protested against South Af- 
rican contributions to Britain's big 
navy and against the imperialism of 
Botha, who a few years ago said that 
he would help to expand the British 
Empire, which, according to Sir Wil- 
fred Laurier (ex-premier of Canada, 
and another loyal British imperialist, 
who no doubt has caught the spirit 
of the song, "Rule Britannia, Britan- 
nia rule the waves"), is destined 



"ONE DAY TO RIVAL THE ROMAN 
EMPIRE IN ALL ITS GLORY." 

What is so wonderful to me is that 
British liars, with the help of Botha 
and others, in the face of the fact 
that Britain's big navy bristles with 
more guns and other engines of de- 
struction than are found in the com- 
bined German and Austian navies 
and armies, are trying to intimidate 
Boers with German flags and Ger- 
man militarism, and that even here 
in America they are trying to insult 
the intelligence and frighten the 
manhood of a "mighty nation" by ex- 
hibiting the old bogey, German flag 
and militarism, under big scare-heads 
in the pro-British section of the 
American press. 

There are no Boer papers in Amer- 
ica to coritradict the many falsehoods 
and misrepresentations of British 
statesmen and others called from 
South Africa and England about the 
Boer people, so I trust you will pub- 
lish this letter also, hoping it will 
help in the difiicult task of catching 
and nailing a few of the numerous 
British lies. 

Thanking you in anticipation, I re- 
main. Sir, 

Yours truly, 
lOHAN P. A. DEMPERS. 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM" 

A Sketch of Belgian History 
Belgium Vicissitudes for a Century— Neutrality and International Law 




THE NEW BELGIAN BANK COMMISSION 
(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Ahendpost") 



WAR HYPOCRISY UNVEILED. 



An Essay on the World Conflict. 



By Albert E. Henschel. 

(Another point of view as to Germany's 
cause and justice in the war. Published 
by Mr. P. Hansen, 170 Chambers Street, 
New Yorlt City. Five cents per copy. 
This article furnishes most remarkable 
evidence of the greatest political and diplo- 
matic frame-up against Germany in his- 
tory. — Editor.) 

In these rancorous days when much 
is heard to break down the fair Ger- 
man name and to give a talse idea of 
German national ambitions, when this 
nation is depicted as a horde of Huns 
and A'^andals, delighting in destruction 
from sheer lust and malice ; when their 
military system is held up to oppro- 
brium — and the subtle suggestion is 
sought to be instilled that if they are 
successful, America will be nest In 
turn to feel the lance of the invading 
Uhlan — it is proper that we settle 
down to some sober thinking and ask 
ourselves whether these blood and 
thunder stories are not part of the 
general warfare to destroy the credit 
and good name of the most powerful 
antagonist of the Allies. 

The constant reiteration of the story 
of the violation of Belgian neutrality; 
of German militarism ; of the Prussian- 
izing of the world; of tales of cruelty 
and barbarism, is all intended to have 
a battering effect upon the unbroken 
amity that has characterized the his- 
torical relations between the German 
and American people. 



The cutting of the German-American 
cable at the beginning of the war left 
the Germans helpless during the forma- 
tive period of American public opinion. 
The English had the monopoly of press 
news and drew almost exclusively on 
their imagination. They dreamed of 
the multiple deaths of the German 
Crown Prince ; of the defeat and sui- 
cide of Gen. von Emmich ; of the Fall 
of Allenstein and Konigsberg, and they 
were not slack in the invention of Ger- 
man atrocities and vandalism. It was 
not until a considerable time that 
Americans had the opportunity — which 
is the sine qua non of all justice and 
fair play — of "hearing the other side," 
Then, among others, such distinguished 
Americans as Professor Burgess and 
Professor Sloane, as well as Dr, Dern- 
burg, who is almost an American in 
spirit, took up the cudgels for "fair 
play" to a nation of 70 millions, whose 
highest moral and material interests 
are inextricably interwoven with our 
own, 

A False and Malignant Analogy. 

Every type of virulence is still vying 
to exhaustion to arouse prejudice 
against Germany — prostituting the 
highest faculties "to make the worse 
appear the better reason." One of the 
more conspicuous of the scorpion- 
penned baiters of Germany had the 
nonchalant temerity to suggest to the 
American public, that, on the same 
pi-iuciple that Germany deemed herself 
forced in self-protection to invade Bel- 
gium, she would be justified, after hav- 
ing captured Paris and invaded Eng- 



land, in invading the United States 
as a base of operations for the con- 
quest of Canada, As an example of 
the absurd methods employed to in- 
flame American feeling, and of the lit- 
tle respect that is shown to American 
intelligence, this false and far-fetched 
analogy is quite in line with the general 
concerted attacks upon Germany. 

A True Analogy. 

In place of this most unfair analogy, 
let us suppose that your house was 
afire with the only means of escape 
over your neighbor's roof. Would you 
dally over the question of the "neutral- 
ity" of your neighbor's house — consid- 
ering that his home is his castle? — or 
would you simply go over his roof and 
save yourself and .vour family? 

But what did the Germans do? Did 
they rush helter-skelter into Belgium 
without so much as saying: "By your 
leave"? 

Justice to Belgium. 

No. To the honor and dignity of 
Human Nature be it said, that in that 
time of imminent peril, they did what 
no other nation has ever done ; they 
delayed sufficiently — when every mo- 
ment was precious — to ask permission 
of Belgium and to give assurance that 
her integrity and independence would 
be protected and reparation made for 
all losses. The future historian will 
refer to this act of Germany as a mani- 
festation of a sublime sense of justice. 

When this offer was refused, Ger- 
many did what any other European 
nation would have done in the first 



A SKETCH OF RECENT BELGIAN HISTORY 



place. She went into Belgium to save 
herself from destruction. 

There is no doubt that Belgium had 
the right to refuse permission and to 
resist invasion. But, when she made 
her choice, which involved war with 
Germany, she cannot complain of the 
war thus invited. When she took her 
position with the Allies she understood 
the war risks she was taking. If she 
had followed the example of Luxem- 
burg she would have saved herself from 
calamity. If we assume that Belgium 
was loyal to her neutrality and did not 
conspire with France and England to 
take part in the war, it would bring 
home to us, "That the real tragedy of 
history is not the struggle of right 
against wrong, but the conflict of right 
against right." 

England's Benevolence Towards 
Egypt. 

Since we are on the subject of anal- 
ogies, let us select one, not from fiction 
but from fact. Let us compare "Ger- 
man's Crime Against Belgium" with 
"Great Britain's Benevolence Towards 
Egypt." 

In July, 1882, England invaded Egypt 
because that country thought it had 
the right to improve its fortifications 
at Alexandria. On the 6th of July 
Admiral Seymour demanded instant 
cessation of the work on the forts, 
under penalty of bombardment. On 
the 10th of July he insisted on the 
surrender of the forts at the mouth of 
the harbor as a material guarantee. 
The Egyptian ministers strove to nego- 
tiate, but the Admiral was firm in his 
resolution. Early on the morning of 
the 11th, eight British ironclads and 
five gunboats fired on the forts, and in 
a few hours they were battered down. 
The other powers did not interfere, 
because the British invasion of Egypt 
was to be merely temporary and "to 
secure British interests and restore 
order." 

Mr. Bright, one of England's most 
noble statesmen, resigned his seat in 
the Cabinet because he was shocked 
by such brutal and uncalled-for viola- 
tion of international law, and because 
he would not stand for governmental 
policies of sordid graft upon weaker 
nations. 

On July 17th Mr. Bright entered the 
House of Commons and stated the rea- 
sons that impelled him to resign. His 
speech was punctuated by such ap- 
plause as showed that the acts of the 
British Government were not approved 
by popular judgment. This came out 
clearly thereafter, when the British 
Parliament would not consent to re- 
ward Admiral Seymour with either a 
peerage or a pension, both having been 
proposed by Mr. Gladstone. 

England Violates the Moral and In- 
International Law. 

Mr. Bright, in part, spoke as fol- 
lows: 

"I have endeavored from time to 
time to teach my countrymen an opin- 
ion and doctrine which I hold, which 
is that the moral law^ is not intended 
only for individual life, but is intended 
also for the life and practice of 
States. I think in the present case 
there has been a manifest violation of 
international law and of the moral law, 
and therefore it is impossible for me 



to give any support to it. I cannot 
repudiate what I have preached and 
taught during the period of a rather 
long political life. I cannot turn my 
back upon my belief and deny all that 
I have taught to many thousands of 
others during the forty years I have 
been permitted in public meetings and 
in this house to address my country- 
men. One word only more. I asked 
my calm judgment and my conscience 
what was the path of right to take. 
They pointed it out to me with an un- 
erring finger, and I am humbly endeav- 
oring to follow it." 

A nation that, through her Govern- 
ment, has been guilty of such notori- 
ous violation of neutrality, should not 
be taken too seriously when she ap- 
points herself as Guardian-in-chief of 
public rights and Interpreter-General 
of International Law. Furthermore, 
this "Temporary Possession of Egypt" 
was made Permanent in December, 
1914. 

German Culture. 

The English seem very anxious to 
free the German people from the mili- 
tary despotism that has been grinding 
them into the greatest commercial and 
cultural power in Europe. A great 
mysterious fear has been aroused that 
the Germans are going to impose their 
culture on other people. What is called 
German culture is really the eclectic 
product of all the culture that may be 
found anywhere. It is merely the syn- 
thesis of all that can be, and ought 
to be, known and done, within the lim- 
its of present civilization. No man 
is more modest than the German pro- 
fessor, who seeks the light of the lamp 
of knowledge in the most obscure cor- 
ners of the earth. Instead of trying 
to force knowledge on the rest of the 
world, the authorities have been com- 
pelled to restrict the pressure of for- 
eign students in order that their home 
students may not be crowded out. 

If German culture, as manifested in 
German life, means to give govern- 
mental aid to struggling farmers, 
through long-time loans at low inter- 
est — to give them agricultural instruc- 
tion by which poor land is made enor- 
mously productive — to abolish the 
slums in the cities— to bring whole- 
some conditions to smile upon the 
abodes of the laborer — to banish the 
vagrant and beggar by affording every 
man the opportunity to work — to re- 
ward the toiler with a reasonable share 
of the values he helps to bring forth — 
to provide Insurance against the shocks 
of fate and misfortune — to encourage 
out-door recreation among the people — 
to stimulate the sense of the beautiful 
by architecture and the wise planning 
of cities — to extend facilities for the 
acquirement of every kind of useful 
knowledge — to infuse respect for law 
and order — to discipline the young to 
habits of thrift, industry and useful- 
ness^ — to plant in their hearts the seeds 
of kindness, courage, honor and integ- 
rity — and to inspire a love and devo- 
tion to their country that makes all 
Germans one family ready to sacrifice 
all that is near and dear for the pres- 
ervation of the Fatherland — then we 
have a kind of culture that cannot be 
imposed — which springs from the heart, 
the genius, the virtues of a people, and 
cannot be attained without inward 
grace, labor, sacrifice and struggle. 



German Leaders of Liberty. 

It has been intended to create the 
impression that the German people are 
ruled by a military autocracy to which 
they supinely yield in terror of the 
ruthless fist of their government. Noth- 
ing could be farther from the truth — 
the suggestion of Tacitus that the an- 
cient German peoples considered the 
truth as the noblest of their virtues 
and freedom as the most valuable of 
their possessions, still holds good among 
them. The union of German thought 
and aspiration always made for an 
advance in the cause of liberty. Dur- 
ing our Civil War we had the moral 
and material aid of Germany in fur- 
therance of the Union and of the lib- 
eration of the slaves. Kant, the great 
leader of German thought, traced the 
beginning of the State from the free- 
dom belonging to the individual as his 
birthright. He opposed paternal gov- 
ernment, the imperium paternale and 
demanded the imperium patrioticiMn, 
where everyone sees in the common- 
wealth the Fatherland whose stability 
must be protected by laws enacted by 
their collective will. He demands 
equality for the people as a result of 
the liberty that is born with them, and 
emphasizes the right of free speech 
as the palladium of liberty. 

Wilhelm von Humboldt declares that 
the purpose of man is to attain the 
highest and most proportionate devel- 
opment of his powers as a whole, and 
to accomplish this. Freedom is the first 
and most indispensable requisite. He 
also was a firm supporter of representa- 
tive government. 

Herder demands that all the fac- 
ulties of the individual, and of the 
people as a whole, be brought to har- 
monious development. 

Goethe said : 
"To this thought I cling, with virtue 

rife. 
Wisdom's last fruit profoundly true. 
Freedom alone he earns as -well as 

life. 
Who day by day must conquer them 

anew." 

Schiller : 

"Political and individual freedom re- 
main ever and eternally the holiest of 
all possessions, the worthiest aim of 
all endeavor, and the great center of 
all culture." 

Geripan Forces of Democracy. 

These writers, and others like them, 
are the constant forces that animate 
the independent, liberty and freedom- 
loving Germanic spirit. 

Against the titanic and all pervading 
influence of such heroic moulders of 
German character and thought, the 
writings of Treitschke and Bernhardi 
are but feeble and ephemeral manifes- 
tations — not at all representative of 
that sturdy, peace-loving people. 

The Hanseatic League — a German 
institution — was of great commercial 
and civilizing value — while the three 
free cities, Hamburg, Bremen and Lti- 
beek, were German Republics. In fact, 
the laws and free institutions of Eng- 
land, upon which those of our own 
land are based, are essentially German 
in origin, for it was the German stock 
that came over into England, in a long- 
continued immigration which practi- 
cally drove out the aboriginal Briton, 
and planted the pluck and brawn and 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM" 



hardihood that constitute the strength 
and bigness of the English people. 

In viewing German political institu- 
tions, it must be borne in mind that 
a country that was split up into so 
many kingdoms, duchies and petty 
principalities, could not readily develop 
a general freedom. It is only since 
1S48 that they have a constitutional 
form of government. Since the union 
of their Empire they have made giant 
strides in the progress of political lib- 
erty. The Germans appreciate liberty 
and freedom as much as any other na- 
tion. Schiller's play of William Tell, 
which breathes the spirit of liberty, is 
truly typical of their national yearn- 
ing. 

We are indebted to the "Yellow 
Book" of Tfrance, published in (the 
"Times" of December 13, 1914 (sec- 
tion 9, column 3, page 1), for an eluci- 
dation of the progress of popular rule 
in Germany. The document tells of 
the state of German public opinion in 
April, 1914. It speaks of "the demo- 
cratization of Germany and the grow- 
ing force of the Socialist party." It 
then treats of the nobility as follows : 

"Not only are its material interests 
threatened by a formidable movement 
against agrarian protection, but its po- 
litical representation diminished in 
every legislature. In the Reichstag of 
1878, in a House of 397 members, 162 
were drawn from the ranks of the 
nobility ; in the Reichstag of 1898 there 
were 83 ; in that of 1912, 57, of whom 
only 27 sat on the right, while there 
were but 14 in the center, the 7 on the 
left, and 1 on the Socialist benches." 

This French authority indicates fair- 
ly well the German trend towards 
democracy, and may help to allay any 
possible fears that a victorious Ger- 
many is going to overturn the general 
freedom of the world. 

German Militarism. 

The militarism of Germany has never 
wrought itself into such a pitch of ex- 
altation as the French displayed in cast- 
ing anathema upon any one seeking jus- 
tice in the Dreyfus case. A whole na- 
tion almost gone mad in behalf of a 
military system that protected a traitor 
and degraded an innocent man. After 
years of suffering he could get no fair 
play at the hands of the military 
courts. It remained for the civil courts 
to reinstate him. Do we hear a word 
against French militarism? 

It is a patent fact that the mili- 
tarism of Germany has neither op- 
pressed their people, checked their 
growth, nor in any-wise undermined 
their prosperity. What, then, becomes 
of the altruistic argument of those al- 
leged friends of the Germans who say 
that Germany should be defeated in 
order to save the good German people 
from the crushing weight of their mili- 
tarism ? 

Neither the alleged evils of German 
militarism, nor the cruelties and bar- 
barism now so well advertised to a 
gullible public — nor any of their other 
vices improvised for the occasion — ^have 
made Germany uninviting to the large 
permanent American colonies there, 
nor to the vast stream of American 
travelers who find it their profit and 
delight to visit and revisit Germany 
on every available occasion. 



Germany the Only World Power That 

Has Kept the Peace for a 

Generation. 

Were it not for the German military 
machine, which, by the way, is not 
disproportionate to the wealth, com- 
merce and population it is designed to 
protect, Germany's independence and 
commercial expansion would be at the 
mercy of rival nations. The army and 
navy establishments, under existing 
conditions, are just as necessary to the 
nations as safe-deposit vaults are to 
banks and financiers, for protection. 
And it cannot be honestly said that 
Germany has used her military strength 
for any but strictly defensive purposes. 
If we sift all the muck and mire that 
has been cast upon Germany we can 
find nothing that stands out against 
the all-convincing fact — that Germany 
is the only world-power that in the past 
generation has not engaged in war. 
Our own President Wilson is fond of 
the pertinent expression, "The proof 
of the pudding is in the eating." 

Baron Steuben's Militarism. 

If the militarism of Germany is of 
a sort that keeps that country at peace 
for 44 years, while almost all others, 
without that pernicious militarism, 
have been rampant for war, conquest 
and spoliation of weaker territories, I 
am very much inclined to recommend 
the German brand of militarism to all 
countries who wish peacefully to de- 
velop their resources and reap the hon- 
est fruit of their industry and labor. 

Were it not for the eflacient bit of 
militarism "made in Germany," that 
Baron Steuben, as Adjutant-General, 
infused into Washington's army, and 
the militarism of a French army and 
navy, together with the potential mili- 
tarism afforded by the monetary loans 
given by France and Holland, it is 
doubtful whether the American Colo- 
nies would have attained their Inde- 
pendence. Rev. Dr. Hillis in a recent 
article gives an illuminating account 
of what German militarism has done 
for the general physical and moral ef- 
ficiency of Germany. It is quite evi- 
dent, from the general conditions of 
that country, that its militarism has 
gone hand in hand with universal prog- 
ress and development, and that in the 
matter of actual happiness and con- 
tentment of its people and their pros- 
perity, Germany takes a front rank 
among the nations. 

In considering the future of German 
militarism let us not forget that much 
good may be expected of a people who 
were the first to set up the requirement 
that a soldier must be a gentleman. 
That there are faults in the military 
system of Germany, as in all other 
systems, may be freely admitted. I 
hold no brief for military, or for any 
other kind of perfection. We must 
leave it to the intelligence and spirit 
of the German people to work out their 
problems. 

It strikes me as absurd to ask 
American approval of British militar- 
ism on the sea and condemnation of 
German militarism on land. England 
has used her militarism to challenge 
every weak and unprotected spot on 
earth, while Germany has been con- 
tent to use hers as a guardian of the 
general peace until overwhelming cir- 



cumstances forced her to unsheath the 
sword in self-protection. 

Policy of Justice to All Nations, 

The world-policy which controls the 
German Empire was thus set down by 
its diplomatic founder and greatest 
statesman : 

"We ought to take trouble and 
weaken the bad feeling which had been 
called out through our growth to the 
position of a real great Power, by hon- 
orable and peaceful use of our influ- 
ence, and so convince the world that 
a German hegemony in Europe is more 
useful and less partisan and also less 
harmful for the freedom of others than 
a French, Russian or English. That 
respect for the rights of other States 
in which France especially has always 
been so wanting at the time of its 
supremacy, and which in England lasts 
only so long as English interests are 
not touched, is made easy for the Ger- 
man Empire and its policy, on one side, 
owing to the objectivity of the German 
character, on the other by the fact 
(which has nothing to do with our 
deserts) that we do not require an in- 
crease of our immediate territory and 
also that we could not attain it with- 
out strengthening the centrifugal ele- 
ments in our own territory. It has 
always been my ideal aim, after we 
have established our unity within the 
possible limits, to win the confidence, 
not only of the smaller European 
States, but also of the great Powers, 
and to convince them that German pol- 
icy will be just and peaceful, now that 
it made good in the injuria temporum,, 
the division of the nation." 

The Emperor a liover of Peace. 

This fair and honorable policy to- 
wards other nations has been followed 
by the present German Emperor, who 
frequently went out of his way to pour 
oil on the troubled political waters, 
and to preserve peace when war seemed 
inevitable. 

These peaceful proclivities of the Em- 
peror, if any proof were needed, are 
clearly attested in several of the con- 
fidential reports published in the "Yel- 
low Book" of France. 

The subjoined extracts from the Em- 
peror's addresses embody the national 
aspirations of the German people, and 
are in line with his consistent efforts 
to reach an amicable understanding 
with France and Great Britain, and 
to preserve friendly relations with all 
other countries. , 

From the Emporer's Addresses. 

"Germany is in no need of fresh 
military glory, nor does she require 
any new conquests, for she has already 
obtained once for all, on the field of 
battle, the right to exist as a united 
and independent nation." 

"There is no work in the field of 
modem research which is not pub- 
lished in our tongue, and no discov- 
ery in science which we are not the 
first to turn to account, to be subse- 
quently adopted by other nations. 
Such is the World Power to which the 
German Spirit aspires." 

The "Yellow Book" Versus the Neu- 
trality Issue. 

The pretended reason given by Eng- 
land, with such flourish of trumpets, 
as to why she went to war, namely, 



^ 



A SKETCH OF RECENT BELGIAN HISTORY 



the protection of the inviolability of 
treaties and the neutrality of a small 
state, receives a knockout blov?, vehen 
we read the Yellow Book of France. 

Document 66 shows that before the 
Belgian question came up, Sir Edward 
Grey stated that if Austria invaded 
Servia "A European question would be 
raised and a war would ensue, in 
which all the powers would take part." 

Document 110 : Sir Edward Grey 
said "that if the struggle became gen- 
eral England coul.d not remain neu- 
tral." 

Document 143 : "If the German fleet 
cross the Straits or go North in the 
North Sea in order to double the Brit- 
ish Isles, with a view to attacking 
the French coasts or the French navy, 
or to disturbing the French mercantile 
marine * * * from that moment on 
England and Germany would be In a 
state of war." 

Annex No. 123: Sir Edward Grey: 
"He (the German Ambassador) asked 
me whether, if Germany gave the prom- 
ise not to violate Belgium's neutrality, 
we would engage to remain neutral. 
I replied that I could not say that; 
our hands were still free and we were 
considering what our own attitude 
should be." 

These ofiBcial records dispose of the 
pretense that Britain went to war in 
defense of the cause of Belgium. 

The Father of International Ijaw on 
Neutrality. 

The oft-repeated misrepresentations 
of Germany's rights and duties with 
regard to Belgian neutrality render it 
desirable that the controlling princi- 
ples of international law, as well as 
the facts to which they apply, should 
receive careful consideration. 

Was Germany's invasion of Belgium 
justified? 

This question is answered in the af- 
firmative by Grotius, the recognized 
Father of International Law, in "Eight 
of War and Peace" (Chapter 2, Par. 7), 
who quotes Seneca as follows : 

"Necessity, the great protectress of 
human infirmity, breaks through all 
human laws, and all those made in the 
spirit of human regulations." 

And then proceeds (Par. 10) : 

"Hence It may be inferred, that, in 
the prosecution of a just war, any 
power has a right to take possession of 
a neutral soil ; if there be real grounds, 
and not imaginary fears for supposing 
the enemy intends to make himself 
master of the same, especially if the 
enemy's occupying it would be attended 
with imminent and irreparable mischief 
to that same power." 

Belgium Bellicose. 

It will be expedient to pass in hasty 
review the historical data selected 
from authentic sources, which show 
the march of events that finally led up 
to the Treaty of Neutralization. The 
reader should distinguish between the 
ordinary neutrality, that is, the normal 
condition of every country not at war, 
and the extraordinary state of neutral- 
ization imposed upon a smaller state 
by the great powers and requiring upon 
its part a studious and conscientious 
observance of impartiality and a scru- 
pulous avoidance of war-like operations. 
At this point it may be well to Inquire 
whether Belgium has not forsaken the 
paths of neutrality by sending, in 1865, 



a body of troops to Mexico in aid of 
Emperor Maximilian against President 
Juarez, violating the Monroe Doctrine; 
by participating in the war on China 
in 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion; 
and by acquiring the Congo Colonies, 
where the practice of atrocities upon 
the natives aroused general indignation 
and led to international friction. 

Points in Belgian History. 

In Roman times Belgium was part 
of Gaul. In 870 the portion east of 
the river Scheldt was made part of 
Germany, the western division part of 
France. In 1482 we find it in the hands 
of the Hapsburgs ; in 1555 in possession 
of Philip II of Spain, who, in 1598, 
ceded it to his daughter, Isabella, when 
it became an independent Kingdom. 
On the death of her husband, Albert, 
it fell back to Spain. By the Treaty 
of Utrecht, 1713, it was given to Aus- 
tria. During the War of the Austrian 
Succession, almost the whole of it fell 
into the hands of France, but was, in 
1748, peacefully restored to Austria by 
the Treaty of Aix La Chapelle. In 
1790 it revolted, declaring independence. 
In the course of the same year Austria 
succeeded in regaining possession. By 
the War of the French Revolution 
peace was again interrupted. In 1794 
Belgium was conquered and subse- 
quently added to France. After the 
fall of Napoleon, it was united with 
Holland and its boundaries defined, in 
1815, by the Congress of Vienna. 

Without being consulted, the Bel- 
gians were placed under the sceptre of 
the King of Holland, no regard being 
paid to national history or ideals, but 
merely with a view to setting up a bar- 
rier against the power of France. This 
scheme was mainly due to the efforts 
of British statesmen, working in con- 
junction with the Prince of Orange, 
who was settled in England. Great 
Britain received as her reward the 
Cape of Good Hope, Guiana and other 
colonies, on the pretense that they were 
being held in pawn for a liberated Hol- 
land, while Belgium was treated as a 
conquered country to be disposed of 
by the great Powers as they pleased. 

The Belgians and the Dutch did not 
prove to be good yoke-fellows. Dis- 
agreements between them finally led to 
riots and disturbances in 1830, as the 
Belgians complained of unequal repre- 
sentation and unfair apportionment of 
the national taxes and debt. A Na- 
tional Congress of Belgians convened 
in Brussels, which declared their inde- 
pendence of Holland. But Belgium 
was not allowed to control her own 
affairs. The Powers assumed a guard- 
ianship over the destinies of Belgium. 
On January 20, 1831, the London Con- 
ference decided that the frontier of 
Belgium should not be as their people 
desired, but should be that of 1790; 
that her neutrality should be guaran- 
teed; that the navigation of her rivers 
should be free, and that the public 
debt should be divided with Holland. 
Luxemburg was given to Holland as 
part of the Germanic Confederation. 
These proceedings, however, did not 
meet with the approval of the Brussels 
Congress, which protested against 
them. Holland refused to accept the 
settlement made by the Powers and de- 
clared war against Belgium, whose 
army was beaten. Dumortier in his 
work, "Belgium and the 24 Articles," 



page 3, refers to this Treaty of 1831 
as being arranged by the Powers solely 
with reference to their own interests, 
"determined to dispose of Belgium, not 
absolutely without her consent, but at 
all events, in a manner essentially op- 
posed to the interests and wishes of the 
vast majority of the nation." 

It was not until March 14, 1838, that 
the Dutch finally accepted the condi- 
tions imposed by the great Powers. 
Then followed the Treaty of 19th April, 
1839, based on the 24 Articles of the 
Treaty of 1831. Article VII of the 
1839 treaty, states that "Belgium, 
within the limits specified in Articles 
1, 2 and 4, shall form an Independent 
and perpetually Neutral State. It shall 
be bound to observe such neutrality to- 
wards all other States." 

At this point arises the pertinent in- 
quiry, whether Belgium's conduct and 
attitude towards Germany were con- 
sistent with her duties as a neutral. 

In the course of the negotiations be- 
tween . the great Powers, serious dis- 
agreements arose, during which an Eng- 
lish fleet blockaded the Dutch ports 
and a French army besieged and took 
Antwerp. 

Queen Victoria on Belgian Neutrality. 

Queen Victoria's Letters, Vol. Ill, 
pages 218, 219, give an interesting 
statement on Belgian Neutrality : 

"Belgium was declared a neutral 
State in order to make it impossible 
for France to annex the country, or 
obtain any power in it. The Belgians 
did not, themselves, desire to have 
their country made neutral, or put 
under the protection, which in some 
ways meant ' the tutelage of the Pow- 
ers." 

Treaty Conceived in Tyranny and 
Bom in Bloodshed. 

Thus was Belgium unwillingly sub- 
jected to a state of neutralization by 
coercion of the Powers that consulted 
only their own interests. From what 
one hears about this treaty, one would 
be led to believe that the high con- 
tracting parties had been inspired by 
some noble, altruistic resolve, that war 
shall be no more, and that Belgium 
shall be perpetually consecrated to the 
holy cause of peace. But that was not 
the motive at all. Each was afraid 
that th^ other might seize Belgium, 
so it was agreed that none shall have 
it. This was the genesis of the Treaty 
of 1839. Now all the guaranteeing 
powers are banded in groups straining 
to destroy each other. And this is the 
treaty, conceived In tyranny and bom 
in bloodshed, the sanctity of which is 
to be vindicated — after the lapse of 
generations — by making the whole 
world run red with the blood of inno- 
cent peoples ! 

The Germany of today did not exist 
in 1839, but Prussia, now a part of 
Germany, signed that treaty. Assum- 
ing that the German Empire took over 
the treaty obligations of the several 
states forming the union, it was a 
blanket adoption of such foreign obli- 
gations in whatever condition of valid- 
ity they happened to be at the time. 
Such omnibus adoption cannot be con- 
strued as strengthening or confirming 
the treaty obligations, which, for any 
cause, had become modified or obso- 
lete. 



82 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM" 



That this treaty of 1839 had in fact 
become obsolete is apparent from the 
conduct of the parties on every occa- 
sion when the subject became of para- 
mount interest, as, at the beginning of 
the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and 
again, at the opening of the present 
world-conflict. It is to be noted that, 
from the first, England was the power 
that took chief interest in Belgian neu- 
trality. 

British Interest in Belgium. 

The reason for this is well explained 
by Col. C. F. R. Henderson in his 
"Science of War." He refers to the 
constant influence of Antwerp on the 
destinies of the British Isles and 
quotes from Alison's history, as fol- 
lows: 

"Nature has formed the Scheldt to 
be the rival of the Thames. Flowing 
through a country excelling even the 
midland counties of England in wealth 
and resources, adjoining cities equal 
to any in Europe in arts and com- 
merce; the artery at once of Flanders 
and Holland, of Brabant and Luxem- 
burg, it is fitted to be the great organ 
of communication between the fertile 
■fields and rich manufacturing towns of 
the Low Countries and other maritime 
states of the world. Antwerp, more- 
over, the Key of the great estuary, is 
eminently adapted for the establish- 
ment of a vast naval arsenal, such as 
it became under Philip II of Spain 
and again under the First Napoleon. 
It is the point from which in every age 
the independence of these Kingdoms 
has been seriously menaced. Sensible 
of her danger, it has been the fixed 
policy of Great Britain for centuries 
to prevent this formidable outwork 
from falling into the hands of her ene- 
mies, and the best days of her history 
are chiefly occupied with the struggle 
to ward off such a disaster." 

Col. Henderson then shows that it 
was to protect Antwerp from the 
French that Charles II sided with the 
Dutch in 1670 ; that Anne declared war 
on Louis XIV in 1704; that Chatham 
supported Prussia in 1742, and that 
Pitt fifty years later, took up arms 
against the French Revolution. 

It is thus easy to understand why 
Great Britain does not want Belgium 
or Holland to fall Into the possession 
of any of the great Powers and why 
British statesmanship is just now, so 
deeply solicitous about the sanctity of 
treaties and the protection of small 
countries. 



UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE 
POWERS SINCE 1839. 



Practical Intei-pretation of 1839 
Treaty. 

The way the old neutrality treaty 
was regarded in 1870 by the guarantee- 
ing powers is a fair criterion of its 
status and value at that time. When 
at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian 
War it was generally understood that 
neither Prance nor Prussia would re- 
gard the old treaty as having any bind- 
ing force, what did the guaranteeing 
powers do? Did they protest? No. 
No one took up the matter except Eng- 
land. Even England was not of one 
mind; there were several members of 
the Cabinet who did not favor the tak- 
ing of any action. 



On August 4, 1870, Gladstone wrote 
the following to John Bright in rela- 
tion to a new treaty intended to secure 
Belgian neutrality during the Franco- 
Prussian War: 

"The recommendation set up in oppo- 
sition to it generally is, that we should 
simply declare we will defend the neu- 
trality of Belgium by arms in case it 
should be attacked. Now the sole or 
single-handed defense of Belgium 
would be an enterprise which we in- 
cline to think Quixotic." 

This again shows what England 
thought of the chance of getting her 
co-guarantors to help her defend Bel- 
gian neutrality under the old worn-out 
treaty. 

England then proposed a new treaty 
to Prussia and France, providing that 
If the armies of either violated the 
neutrality of Belgium, Great Britain 
would co-operate with the other for its 
defense, but without engaging to take 
part In the general operations of the 
war. The treaty was to hold good 
for twelve months after the conclusion 
of the war. A saving clause was added, 
that thereafter the rights of each shall 
continue to rest upon the old treaty. 
If there were no such rights, their 
reservation was, of course, only of 
paper value. It meant merely a reser- 
vation of any rights that might have 
existed at the time. That clause was 
an obvious formality, as is frequently 
put into legal documents, not to Indi- 
cate the existence of rights, but to save 
rights that may possibly exist. 

If Old Treaty Valid, No New Treaty 
Necessary. 

If, in the future, Belgian neutral- 
ity is "to continue to rest" upon the 
disclosed virtues of the old treaty, does 
it not mean that a special treaty will 
have to be made every time such neu- 
tralisation is to be assured? 

When the new treaty in 1870 was 
submitted to Bismarck he assented at 
once, but France hesitated. After the 
battle of Woerth she made no more dif- 
ficulty and the treaty was signed on 
August 9th. 

If the old treaty had been in full 
force and effect, why did England in- 
sist on a new treaty? Is it not clear 
that if the guarantors under the old 
treaty stood ready to enforce the guar- 
antee that it would have been super- 
erogation to propose a new one to 
cover the identical purpose of the treaty 
of 1839, the neutralization of Belgium? 
Would a tenant who had a five year^ 
lease visit his landlord after the first 
or second year to demand a new lease 
covering identical premises, terms and 
conditions? We have seen that when 
the practical test of the old treaty came 
in 1870, the guarantors failed to make 
good their guarantee. A treaty of guar- 
antee without ready and willing guar- 
antors, is like the play of Hamlet with 
Hamlet left out. It is a euphemism to 
call such a treaty obsolete; "dead" is 
the proper word. 

New Treaty of 1870 Does Not Revive 
Old Treaty of 1839. 

But it has been claimed in this con- 
troversy that the new treaty of 1870, 
covering the war and only twelve 
months thereafter confirmed or revived 
the old treaty of 1839. This claim is 
untenable because a recognition of the 
old treaty to have any such effect would 



require the united act of all the orig- 
inal parties. Three powers cannot 
bind five. 

The same objection was made In the 
British Protest of 23 Nov., 1846, against 
the annexation of the Free State of 
Cracow (declared neutral and inde- 
pendent by treaty May 3, 1815), by 
Austria, one of the guarantors. The 
Protest declared : "It is not competent 
for three of those Powers, by their own 
separate authority to undo that which 
was established by the common engage- 
ment of the whole." 

The fact that all of the original par- 
ties did not see fit to join in the spe- 
cial treaty of 1870, or to insist on the 
enforcement of the old treaty, thus 
making a new one necessary, shows 
that there was no vitality left in that 
old treaty. Certainly it was not of a 
character to justify England In enter- 
ing upon a world warfare. 

A few days before the outbreak of 
the present war we find England again 
asking Germany what she is about to 
do with reference to Belgian neutral- 
ity. Some time before this Belgium 
made a similar inquiry and Germany 
then replied that the neutrality would 
be respected. 

The chancelleries of Europe must 
have been aware for some time that the 
political situation was approaching a 
crisis, and that an explosion might 
occur at any time. * * • Germany 
knew full well the militant preparations 
that had been going on against her and 
realized the keen meaning and object of 
Belgium's inquiry at that particular 
time ; It was not only proper but neces- 
sary for Germany to reserve to herself 
the true military information involved 
in the inquiry as to her future inten- 
tions. Germany was not bound to give 
points to her enemies. 

France Tries to Annex Belgiom in 
1866. 

A brilliant sidelight upon the status 
of this neutrality treaty is shed by the 
French negotiations in 1866, when Em- 
peror Napoleon III treated with two 
of the guarantors themselves for the 
disposal of Belgium. 

Morley, in Gladstone's Life, Vol. II, 
page 340, comments on this as follows : 

"If France and Prussia agreed, how 
could we help Belgium, unless indeed 
Europe joined. But then what chance 
was there of Russia and Austria join- 
ing against France and Prussia for the 
sake of Belgium, in which neither of 
them had any direct interest?" 

The Powers Plotting Against 
Belgiiuu. 

Mr. J. de C. MacDonnell, a distin- 
guished author and publicist, in his 
work, "King Leopold II," page 80, 
speaks of the neutrality treaty as fol- 
lows: 

"It must be remembered that, except 
in so far as it rests on self-interest, 
the neutrality of Belgium is without a 
real guarantee, and must remain so as 
long as Belgium remains an independ- 
ent State. It cannot be forgotten that, 
from the moment the Great Powers 
guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium, 
they all of them — with the exception 
of England — began to plot with one 
another in secret for her occupation, 
her overthrow, or her partition among 
themselves." 



A SKETCH OF RECENT BELGIAN HISTORY 



83 



Enough has been shown that this old 
treaty, for all practical purposes, was 
dead. 

Neutralization in Practice. 

The subject of neutralization by 
treaty is a comparatively new thing in 
international law. It has been tried 
in only a few cases, and in these has 
met with little success. By the treaty 
of Amiens, March, 1802, Malta was 
neutralized but England took it and 
now holds it. The neutrality of Switzer- 
land was only then respected when she 
was able to defend it by force of arms. 
When France, in 1S60, took Savoy, 
which had been neutralized when it 
was part of Sardinia, the guarantee 
vouchsafed by the Vienna and Paris 
treaties was violated without much 
ceremony, and not one of the guaran- 
tors did aught to maintain the guar- 
antee. The neutralization by the 
Vienna Congress, 1815, of the Free 
State of Cracow was violated by the 
elimination of its neutrality and inde- 
pendence when it was arbitrarily an- 
nexed by Austria. 

An instructive Illustration of the 
practical working of neutralization is 
further afforded by the following: 

Russian Note, 31st Oct., 1870, de- 
nouncing the stipulations of the Gen- 
eral Treaty of 30th March, 1856: 

"His Imperial Majesty cannot admit, 
de facto, that the security of Russia 
should depend on a fiction which has 
not stood the test of time, and should 
be imperiled by her respect for engage- 
ments which have not been observed in 
their integrity." 

In a further Russian Note, 1st Nov., 
1870, denouncing the same Treaty of 
1856, Russia speaks of "the facility 
with which, scarcely 10 years after its 
conclusion, a solemn arrangement, 
clothed with an European Guarantee, 
has been infringed both in letter and 
spirit, under the very eyes of the Pow- 
ers who should have - been its guar- 
dians." 

, Coming down to the present we have 
good reason to doubt whether Eng- 
land will observe the neutralization of 
the Suez Canal, for she has threat- 
ened to seize her enemies' vessels that 
were stalled, at the beginning of the 
war, in this guaranteed neutral water- 
way. 

Earl Grey Says Belgium Mistrusted 
England in 1913. 

An interesting contribution to the 
literature of Neutralization was made 
by the British Foreign Office on last 
December 6th with reference to the 
statements implying that Great Britain 
had ever contemplated the violation of 
Belgian neutrality. A record is given 
of a conversation which Sir Edward 
Grey, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 
had with the Belgian Minister on April 
7, 1913. 

In reporting the conversation to the 
British Minister at Brussels, Sir Ed- 
ward Grey said it had been brought 
to his knowledge that there was appre- 
hension in Belgium that England would 
be the first to violate Belgian neutral- 
ity. Sir Edward Grey denied that Eng- 
land would be the first to do such a 
thing. 

There must have been considerable 
apprehension in Belgium to cause it to 
be made the subject of diplomatic dis- 
cussion. This is another sidelight upon 



the faith Belgium had in the efficacy 
of its guaranteed neutralization. 

England Ready to Invade Belgium 
During Franco-Prussian War. 

Perhaps these apprehensions were 
aroused by a knowledge of what was 
going on behind the scenes. The late 
King of Belgium was never over- 
trustful of England's intentions. That 
these fears of Belgium as to what Eng- 
lish diplomacy would do, were not en- 
tirely groundless may lie conjectured 
from the reading of a passage in Vol. II, 
page 339 of Jonn Morley's extensive 
life of Gladstone. On July 16, 1870, 
Gladstone wrote to Cardwell at the 
War Office: 

"What I should like is to study the 
means of sending 20,000 men to Ant- 
werp with as much promptitude as at 
the Trent affair we sent 10,000 to Can- 
ada." 

England's willingness to violate Bel- 
gian neutrality was in no wise nega- 
tived by Gladstone's later letter say- 
ing: "It is only a far outlook which 
brings into view as a possibility the 
sending of a force to Antwerp.", Con- 
ditions may have changed, but the 
cause for apprehension was not re- 
moved. 

While all lovers of peace would wel- 
come the success of the neutralization 
idea, it seems that in practice it will 
hold good only so long as it does not 
interfere with military exigency or the 
good-will and convenience of the guar- 
anteeing powers. The neutrality of 
Switzerland was violated by French, 
Austrian and Russian armies during 
the period of the French Revolution. 
Neutralized Luxemburg was violated 
by France in the War of 1870 when 
her fleeing soldiers sought refuge in 
Luxemburg and recrossed into France 
and again fought with the French 
army. 

Treaties Affected by Changed 
Conditions. 

Hannis Taylor, a great American 
authority on international law, says 
that treaties of guarantee, like all other 
obligations of suretyship, are strictly 
construed. He shows that a treaty may 
become voidable through subseciuent 
events, and says (Sec. 394, Int. Public 
Law) that "so unstable are the condi- 
tions of international existence, and so 
diflicult is it to enforce a contract be- 
tween States after the state of facts 
upon which it was founded has sub- 
stantially changed, that all such agree- 
ments are necessarily made subject to 
the general understanding that they 
shall cease to be obligatory so soon as 
the conditions upon which they were 
executed are essentially altered." 

Mr. Taylor (Sec. 395) cites Russia's 
contention as to the Treaty of Paris. 
He says that in 1870, when Russia 
determined to repudiate some of the 
vital provisions of the Treaty of Paris 
relating to the neutrality of the Black 
Sea — by which she had been fettered 
at the close of the Crimean War and 
which her subsequent development had 
rendered unbearable — she rested her 
case, in part upon the ground of al- 
tered conditions, asserting that "the 
treaty of 1856 had not escaped the 
modifications to which most European 
transactions had been exposed and in 
the face of which it would be difficult 
to maintain that the written law * * * 



retains the moral validity which It may 
have possessed at other times." 

Nothing Perpetual Except Change In 
Conditions. 

Professor Pomeroy, another high 
American authority, after fullest con- 
sideration, supports Mr. Taylor in a 
way that must carry conviction. No 
one really believes there can be such 
a thing as a perpetual treaty. There 
is nothing perpetual in mundane af- 
fairs except change. Change and modi- 
fication make the music that beats to 
the march of time. The dead will not 
be allowed indefinitely to control the 
destinies of the living, nor to fetter the 
wings of progress or development. The 
English Statutes of Mortmain were 
passed to do away with the dead hand 
that gripped the land of the living. 
This principle, as applied to treaties, is 
thus explained in Pomeroy's Interna- 
tional Law, at page 352: 

"It should be remembered that the 
nature of treaties between nations dis- 
closes to us features which ought to 
distinguish these treaties from com- 
pacts between individuals. In fact, na- 
tions iiave an indefinite existence. All 
the generations to come, without having 
consented in person, find themselves 
bound, by the act of the generation 
which concluded the convention ; the 
stipulations of the treaty, by the lapse 
of years or by subsequent changes, may 
become so opposed to the manners, to 
the situation of the respective powers, 
to the state of their industry, of their 
commerce, of their forces of every kind, 
that, justly, these stipulations should 
no longer be maintained." 

In summing up the occasions when a 
treaty ceases to have binding force Mr. 
Pomeroy cites M. Pinheiro-Ferreira, 
one of the leading modern French 
writers on Public and International 
law, as follows : 

"I speak of those treaties which gov- 
ernments sometimes make with the 
clause that they are and shall remain 
binding forever, or at least until both 
contracting parties agree to rescind or 
to modify them. Such conventions never 
have been, nor should they be, taken 
literally, for it would be absurd to 
suppose that the present generation 
could have the right to bind future 
generations by conventions, good or bad 
at the time of their inception, that the 
posterity of one contracting party 
ought to be sacrificed to the posterity 
of the other. Treaties bind nations 
only so long as the principle upon 
which their validity rests continues to 
exist." 

The Bight of Self-Preservation. 

But, even, if it be granted for argu- 
ment's sake, that the validity of the 
old treaty was not affected by changed 
conditions, Germany still has an abso- 
lute and incontrovertible defense in the 
supreme law of self-preservation. The 
German ultimatum to the Belgian gov- 
ernment, Aug. 2, 1914, referring to the 
intended French invasion of Germany 
through Belgium, declares, "It is Ger- 
many's imperative duty of self-preser- 
vation to forestall this attack of the 
enemy." 

Germany invokes this rule, which is 
not only sanctioned by the principles 
of International Law, but which is di- 
vinely fixed in the instinct of every 



84 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM' 



thing th,at lives — the impulse of self- 
protection and of self-defense. 

It will be seen from the following 
expressions of the most eminent author-, 
ities on International Law, that the 
right of self-preservation precedes and 
underlies every other obligation. All 
treaties are subordinated and subject 
to this basic and inherent right. It is 
implied, and read into, every treaty and 
contract, anything to the contrary said, 
notwithstanding. This primary right 
of existence cannot be lost or bargained 
away. It is unalienable. 

Cyrus French Wicker, in his work 
"Neutralization," says, at page 49: 
"French enemies, would no doubt be 
justified in invading Savoyard territory, 
even though neutralized, if it became 
evident that France were utilizing the 
resources of the province for military 
purposes and there were any advan- 
tages to be gained from the attack." 

British Authorities on Law of Self- 
Preservation. 

1. Phillimore, Int. Law, Chap. 10 
(CCXI) : 

"The Right of Self-Preservation is 
the first law of nations, as it is of in- 
dividuals. * * * It may happen that 
the same Eight may warrant her in 
extending precautionary measures with- 
out these limits, and even in trans- 
gressing the borders of her neighbor's 
territory. For International Law con- 
siders the Right of Self-Preservation 
as prior and paramount to that of Ter- 
ritorial Inviolability, and, where they 
conflict, justifies the maintenance of 
the former at the expense of the latter 
right." 

Twiss, Int. Law, page 3 : 

"The State or Nation is thus under 
a primary obligation to preserve itself ; 
in other words, Self-Preservation is a 
primary duty of National Life." 

Page 4: 

"The right of Self-Preservation ac- 
cordingly gives to a Nation a moral 
power of acting in regard to other Na- 
tions in such a manner as may be requi- 
site to prevent them from obstructing 
its preservation or its perfection. (Vat- 
tel L II C4 Sec. 49.) This Right is 
a perfect Right, since it is given to sat- 
isfy a natural and indispensable duty." 

Hall, Int. Law, 4th Edn., p. 2S1 : 

"In the last resort almost the whole 
of the duties of states are subordinated 
to the right of self-preservation." 

L. G. C. Laughton (United Service 
Mag., Vol. 29 (N. S.), 1904, page 226, 
in a very interesting article on "'Bel- 
ligerents and Neutrals," says : 

"It is an axiom of international law 
that a State has the right to take meas- 
ures to secure its existence." 

The Right of Self-Protection NuUtaes 
Treaties. 

Pomeroy, Int. Law, 351, cites Mar- 
tens, Droit des Gens, Vol. II, Ch. II, 
Sec. 52: 

"* * * Nevertheless, the right of 
self-preservation authorizes a nation to 
recede from a treaty which it cannot 
fulfill without causing its own destruc- 
tion ; and this faculty is even a tacit 
condition in all treaties, and especially 
in alliances." 

Ortolan is then cited: 

"Nevertheless, some publicists have 
observed that when a treaty leads di- 



rectly to the destruction of the state, 
that state has the right to treat it as 
null. This is an evident and incon- 
testable fact, based upon the right of 
self-preservation. For moral beings, as 
well as for individuals, there can be 
no obligatory promise when this prom- 
ise is of suicide." 

Reasons Justifying Belgian Invasion. 

We shall now consider the facts 
upon which the German claim of self- 
preservation is based. 

At this point it may be well to recall 
that Germany's plea of self-defense was 
frank, direct, immediate, and not an 
afterthought. The German Chancellor, 
in his speech of August 4th, said: 

"We knew that France was ready to 
invade. France could wait, we could 
not. A French attack on our flank 
on the lower Rhine could have proven 
portentous for us. * * * Whoever is 
threatened as we are and battles for 
all that is sacred dare only consider 
how he will hack his way through. 
* * * We have assured the English 
Government that as long as England 
remains neutral, our fleet would not 
attack the northern coast of France and 
that we would not interfere with the 
territorial integrity and the independ- 
ence of Belgium. * * * We battle for 
the fruits of our peaceful labor, for 
the inheritance of a great past, for our 
future." 

Let us now consider the situation 
that confronted Germany at the begin- 
ning of this war. Were the conditions 
such as to justify her belief that it 
was necessary for her to use Belgium 
for the transit of her troops against 
France? If the German Chancellor is 
correct, then there can be no question 
that it was necessary to pass through 
Belgium in order to anticipate an at- 
tack from France through this same 
territory. Since that time, however, 
authentic plans and documents have 
been found in Brussels proving the cor- 
rectness of the German Chancellor's in- 
formation. Pursuant to a secret agree- 
ment of April 10, 1906, entitled "In- 
tervention Anglaise en Belgique,"* Eng- 
land and Belgium agreed to a "united 
operation of a British army of 100,000 
men with the Belgian army against Ger- 
many." The plan was approved by the 
Chief of the British General Staff, 
Major-General Geierson. But, even if 
we assume that Germany's information 
as to the French intent was not posi- 
tive at the time, it was by all means 
her duty to take all precautions to 
defend herself from this peril. It was 
necessary to take this step, as a meas- 
ure of self-defense, because of the great 
delay that would be involved in the 
attempt to invade France across the 
strongly fortified French-German fron- 
tier. When a nation finds herself on 
the brink of a contest with a congeries 
of nations such as Germany would ex- 
pect to confront, immediate and quick 
action is the essence of possible suc- 
cess. Any delay, any hesitation to do 
everything to circumvent her enemies, 
would have been tantamount to suicide 
or insanity. The preponderance in 
financial resources, material wealth and 
population of Germany's enemies must 
have been present to the German mind 
when it came to decide upon the case 
of Belgium. Germany could not af- 



•Bnglish Intervention in Belgium. 



ford to make any mistake. Such er- 
rors as may be committed must be on 
the side of safety. The allies could 
expect, by the freedom of the seas, 
constantly to fill the gaps that their 
losses or errors might produce; while 
Germany, to have a reasonable chance 
to win at all, must be on the right and 
safe side practically from the outset 
to the end. It would, therefore, have 
been criminal folly to omit even the 
slightest precaution or advantage that 
the necessity of the situation imposed. 
I believe that, under the circumstances 
of a country hemmed in and sur- 
rounded by enemies as Germany was, 
it would have been in the nature of 
treason for the German staff to have 
respected a contract with the very ene- 
mies that were trying to get at her 
throat. The justice of Germany's con- 
duct can only be judged by her motive. 
If Germany was truly persuaded that 
her national existence was in danger, 
she is absolutely absolved and vindi- 
cated. 

Historical Instances of the Plea of 
Self-Defense. 

When the British invaded the United 
States during the Canadian Rebellion 
in 1838 and boarded the steamer Caro- 
lina and sent her adrift down the 
Falls of Niagara, the excuse was self- 
defense. Lord Ashburton, British 
Plenipotentiary, wrote on this matter 
to Secretary of State Webster, July 
28, 1842 : 

"There are possible cases in the re- 
lations of nations, as of individuals, 
lohere necessity, which controls all 
other laws, may he pleaded." 

The same plea of self-defense was 
made by Great Britain, when In 1807 
she demanded that Denmark, a neutral 
country, shall turn over to her the 
Danish fleet for use against France. 
When Denmark refused, an English 
army landed at Copenhagen and laid 
siege to the city and in that way com- 
pelled the Danish government to sur- 
render its entire naval force as the 
price of safety. 

The government 6t the United States 
likewise has had occasion more than 
once to appeal to the right of self- 
preservation. 

Kant for Perpetual Peace and Euro- 
pean Federation. 

As to the imminence of the danger 
to Germany there can be no question 
from the expressions of the leaders of 
public opinion among the great powers 
now at war with Germany, to the ef- 
fect that Germany must be destroyed. 
For years English, French and Rus- 
sian newspapers and periodicals were 
studiously employed in breeding hatred 
and jealousy against Germany. Of 
course, the German press retaliated, 
and thus, there was prepared that feel- 
ing of hostility which culminated in 
the war. The declarations of various 
statesmen, particularly the English, 
that this is a war in which the nations 
are fighting for the survival of the fit- 
test, corroborate the German conviction 
that they were in a struggle for exist- 
ence. 

It is becoming more and more rec- 
ognized that the way to have peace is 
to encourage sentiments of kindness, 
justice and helpfulness among the peo- 
ples of the world. A survey of history 
teaches us ■ that we can find no hopes 



A SKETCH OF RECENT BELGIAN HISTORY 



85 



for peace in the parchment and seals 
of treaties. Even the plan proposed 
by the great German philosopher, Kant, 
who sought his ideal of permanent 
peace in a European federation, seems 
hardly practicable, though its desira- 
bility admits of little question. 

Germany in Self-Defense. 

The immediate cause of the war was 
the refusal of Russia to demobilize the 
troops she was massing against the 
Austrian and German borders. Ger- 
many was engaged in the effort to me- 
diate between Russia and Austria and 
had made some progress, when Ger- 
many became aware that the time she 
was being induced to consume in trying 
to preserve the peace of Europe, was 
taken advantage of by her enemies in 
warlike preparations against her. It 
has been claimed that mobilization is 
not a cause for war, but an absolute 
right of a sovereign state. Neverthe- 
less, the massing of troops against a 
neighbor's boundary has ever been re- 
garded as a menace calling for expla- 
nation. It is equivalent to what would 
be the raising of a club by one indi- 
vidual against another. That would be 
an assault. The attack with the club 
would be the battery. Usually assault 
and battery follow in quick succession 
and the person threatened by the rais- 
ing of the club is not required to wait 
until he is struck before defending him- 
self. Thus, while it is true, that Ger- 
many stands before the world ostensi- 
bly the aggressor by . declaring war 
against Russia, the fact is that in the 
forum of law and conscience, the blame 
for the starting of this war justly falls 
upon Russia and her allies. 

Lieber, Vol. II, page 447, in his work 
on "Political Ethics," says : 

"A war may be essentially defensive, 
and yet we may begin it ; for instance, 
if w6 must prevent an invasion which 
is under preparation." 

Also Bentham in Vol. X, page 531, 
proclaims the same principle. 
_ A point of minor importance, but 
still worthy of consideration, is, that 
the occupation of Belgium was neces- 
sary to furnish an extended area for 
the deployment of the unprecedented 
number of troops that would be en- 
gaged. Germany also required the Bel- 
gian railroad connections as a means 



of transit into France and as a general 
base of operations. Moltke, in his 
work on the Franco-Prussian War, de- 
scribes the difficulty of the mobilization 
of the French troops by the clogging 
up of their roads. In 1870 it was pos- 
sible for Germany to carry the war 
directly into France; since then a for- 
tified barrier has been created by 
France on her eastern frontier, which 
made the use of Belgium by Germany 
an absolute necessity in an offensive 
campaign against France. General Pic- 
quart of the French Staff years ago 
prepared plans anticipating this situa- 
tion. England's preparation ■ for the 
landing of troops in Belgium is a corol- 
lary to this proposition. 

Neutralized State Must Be Impartial 
and Beyond Suspicion. 

It has been contended that the re- 
cently published documents on the Brit- 
ish-Belgian compact, do not violate 
Belgium's neutralized character, be- 
cause they are to be effective only in 
case Germany invades Belgium. This 
argument shows a total lack of under- 
standing of the idea of neutralization. 

The first and indispensable prerequi- 
site for a neutralized state is, that its 
character for impartiality must not 6e 
open to douM— it must be beyond all 
reproach and suspicion. It may have 
no favorites. As soon as it confides, as 
it were, the combination of the safe 
containing its military secrets, to one 
or more of the guaranteeing powers, but 
not to all, it has violated the faith 
that it owes to all, and becomes recre- 
ant to its neutral obligations. 

Morand (R. G. I. S. 522) lays down 
the rule of strict and perfect impar- 
tiality required of a neutralized state, 
as follows : 

"La politique de I'Etat neutre doit s' 
inspirer d'un spirit ds parfaite irnipar- 
tialite." ("The character of a neutral 
state must assure even the spirit of 
impoA-tiality." — Editor, "War Echoes") 

The British Government Wanted 
War — Not the British People. 

As the English, the Germans and the 
people of the United States are strongly 
inter-related in blood and in the com- 
mon aims of their culture and civiliza- 
tion it is our special duty to bring out 
good will and harmony among them. 



Let us hope that the German people 
— who were among the first to recognize 
the merits of great Englishmen like 
Shakespeare, Darwin and a galaxy of 
others — shall likewise recognize the 
full worth and value of the great Eng- 
lish people, and realize that their rank 
and file are not to be held responsible 
for the British precipitation into the 
war — that those members of the British 
Cabinet, in closest touch with the Eng- 
lish people^not only did not want the 
war, but resigned their seats as a pro- 
test against it. 

Germany Had No Desire for War, 

The German people are entitled to 
universal admiration for the way in 
which they have borne themselves in 
this, the supreme trial of their na- 
tional life. They stand together with 
a singleness of spirit that has rarely 
been equalled. 

Their unanimous conviction that 
they are engaged in a purely defensive 
war thrust upon them by the machi- 
nations of their enemies cannot be pred- 
icated upon the theory that they are 
spell-bound by some hypnotic illusion. 
They are too practical a people to chase 
after military glory and risk the assets 
at hand. No prospect could have been 
more promising or satisfactory than 
the continued peaceful operations that 
yielded such valuable dividends in 
everything that can make a people 
prosperous and happy. She was an 
acknowledged cultural center of the 
world. Her universities, art schools 
and art treasures attracted students 
from everywhere. Her manufactures 
reached every part of the globe, and 
her commerce, in rate of progression, 
was unsurpassed. In judging whether 
Germany was desirous of putting a 
quietus upon such a splendid status quo 
and risking the loss involved in war 
with the great world powers, we should 
reason upon normal probabilities and 
give such a people credit for more than 
a modicum of common sense. 

Such rushing into war against a 
world of enemies, except for self-de- 
fense, is unthinkable."" 



• A final topic of this article was re- 
moved to Chapter V of War Echoes, under 
Emerson on the Philosophy of Victory. 
Turn to the Reference now, In order to 
get the complete article. — Editor, War 
Echoes. 



Belgium's New Life since that Nation's Liberation from Holland in 1839 
Neutrality Guaranteed, Treaties Made and Broken 



A BREACH OF NEUTRALITY 
AND THE WAR. 

This is the second article of a series 
on THE EUROPEAN WAR, tohich ap- 
peared in the Octolier Numter of THE 
OPEN COURT, under the title "A 
Breach of Neutrality," written, liy the 
Editor, Dr. Paul Carus. 

Consult the INDEX for the complete 
series, and, in order to see lohere, in 
the various Chapters of the toolc, the 
different articles of this treatise may 
be found, loolc for EUROPEAN WAR 
(THE). In this way the reader may 
read the entire series of articles in 
their original order, if he chooses to 
do so, lohile the present arrangement 
still gives him the advantage of bring- 



ing the various articles under their 
proper, respective Chapter-headings of 
the book. 

This is a series of exceptionally 
fine articles on, the subject in ques- 
tion, and they bear a unique and im- 
portant relation to each other. Be 
sure to read them, also -in their original 
order. — Editor, "War Echoes." 

Germany's breach of neutrality in 
Belgium was England's official and 
ostensible reason for war, but even in 
England the feeling prevails that this 
is a mere pretext, not the real and 
ultimate motive, for England herself 
has too often broken neutrality in her 
past history, to take a breach of neu- 
trality seriously. 



Think of the unjustifiable bom- 
bardment of Copenhagen by Nelson, 
of the annexation of Dutch colonies, 
especially the seizure of Capetown 
and other unexpected attacks upon 
peaceful nations. Who believes that 
the English would have declared war 
on France, if soon after the begin- 
ning of the war the French had 
broken through Belgium to outflank 
the German army? Did Great Brit- 
ain find fault with Japan for dis- 
regarding the neutrality of China? 
The United States too belongs to the 
signatory friends of the Chinese em- 
pire, and we have reason to dislike 
the Japanese policy, but we have pre- 
served our attitude of "watchful 
waiting." 



86 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM' 




"BUSY BERTHA" 

One of the German 42 Cm. Type of Mortar Siege Guns, hnmoronsly nicknamed, "Busy Bertha," the name of the heir to 

the colossal Krupp Estate, Bertha Krupp. — Note the Mischief "Bertha" has done at one of the Belgian Forts 



At the beginning of the Boer War, 
the English broke the neutrality of 
the Portuguese colony, the state of 
East Africa, by landing their troops 
in Delagoa Bay solely because the 
British army wanted to save going 
the roundabout way through British 
territory. There was no other ex- 
cuse, no urgent need, no threat that 
the Boers had conspired with the 
Portuguese, or could break neutral- 
ity later on. In the Encyclopedia 
Britannica (11th ed., s. v. "Neutral- 
ity," Vol. XXXI, p. 131) the incident 
is called "an important precedent."* 

What an atrocity of Germany not 
only to begin hostilities against 
France at once as soon as the war 
was plainly in sight, but even to tres- 
pass on Belgian territory and become 
guilty of a terrible breach of neutral- 
ity! What an atrocity! But there 
is one advantage for the English. As 
a result they were furnished with an 
excuse to justify their declaration of 
war, and the Germans, at the same 
time, had also to face the army of 
Belgium. 

There is no need of discussing the 
atrocity of a breach of neutrality, be- 
cause it is an acknowledged principle 
that In case of war the natural law 
of self-preservation demands of every 
power the completion of the war that 
has arisen or is about to arise, with 
the utmost dispatch and by the easi- 
est method. In the present case the 
Germans have carried the war 
through Luxemburg and Belgium be- 
cause that was to them the straight- 
est and safest way of attack. They 
would have been satisfied to have the 
Belgians assent to their march 
though the country and would have 
gladly paid every penny for food 
and forage or occasional destruction 
of property; but the Belgians re- 
fused and joined the French. 

We do not know all the secret oc- 
currences of European politics, but 
the probability is that the Belgians 



had agreed to allow the French to 
march through Belgium without any 
objection at whatever moment it 
would suit them; and that the Bel- 
gians intended to favor the French is 
fully proved through facts, mainly 
through the presence of French offi- 
cers, prior to the declaration of war, 
in Liege, where they helped their Bel- 
gian neighbors to modernize the Bel- 
gian fortifications and acted as gen- 
eral advisers for the approaching hos- 
tilities. 

Under the consideration that Bel- 
gium would be drawn into the war 
at a moment when it would suit the 
French best, it was preferable to the 
Germans to anticipate the French 
move and take Belgium first, and It 
is probable that the Germans were 
prepared to find the Belgians abso- 
lutely on the side of the French. 

The neutrality treaty of Belgium 
had been signed by England, France 
and Prussia, not Germany, for the 
present German empire did not exist 
at the time. But since Germany has 
inherited Prussia's policy, we are told 
that it was very objectionable for 
Germany to become guilty of this 
breach of neutrality. 

Indeed! But why should Germany 
keep this treaty concerning the Bel- 
gian neutrality under conditions so 
obviously changed? When Germany 
recognized this treaty, the German 
authorities believed that Belgium 
would try to be truly neutral and the 
hostility of Belgium seemed to be ex- 
cluded. On the other hand, the mere 
suspicion of a Franco-Belgian entente 
is sufficient to attack France through 
the territory of the Belgian frontier. 
There is no diplomat who denies the 
established right of any power to 
break all peace treaties in case of 
war — especially if conditions have 
changed to such an extent that to 
keep them would be dangerous.^ 



* The author of the article is Dr. 
Thomas Barclay, vice-president ot the In- 
ternational Law Association. 



^ Note here Mr. Roosevelt's criticism of 
peace treaties which under serious condi- 
tions will have to be broken or might be- 
come disastrous. 



The duty of neutrality toward a 
buffer state like Belgium presupposes 
in its turn also the duty of a strict 
neutrality on the part of Belgium. 
Belgium has not maintained a rig- 
orous neutrality but concluded a 
friendship with the Triple Entente, 
especially with France, and this can- 
celed Germany's obligations. Never- 
theless, Germany was ready even 
then to respect Belgian independ- 
ence, provided Belgium would allow 
the German army a free passage 
through the country into France. If 
England had been fair and if she 
had first of all considered the welfare 
of Belgium, she would have advised 
Belgium to abstain from war under 
these circumstances and to be satis- 
fied with a formal protest. The atti- 
tude of Belgium during the war has 
justified German sufepicions. 

The German side of the question is 
set forth in a German telegram ad- 
dressed to Prince Lichnowsky, the 
German Ambassador at London.* 

"Please impress upon Sir E. Grey 
that the German army could not be 
exposed to French attack across Bel- 
gium, which was ijlanned according 
to absolutely vnimpeachahle informa- 
tion.- Germany had consequently to 
disregard Belgian neutrality, it being 
for her a question of life or death to 
prevent French advance." 

Why, when Germany, as stated in 
this message, claimed to know that 
the French were about to break Bel- 
gian neutrality, did not England then 
guarantee Belgian neutrality? Ger- 
many might not have believed Eng- 
land, but it would have been worth 
proving whether England was serious 
on this point of preserving the inde- 
pendence of Belgium. However, Eng- 
land gave no such assurance in 
time, for the declaration of Sir Ed- 
ward Grey came too late. 

Afterwards Sir Edward Grey de- 
clared in his answer to the German 
Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg that 



A SKETCH OF RECENT BELGIAN HISTORY 



87 



England would have fought France 
to save Belgium but even Englishmen 
will find it hard to believe this state- 
ment of their leading statesman. 

Would the king of Belgium be 
ready to deny on his royal word of 
honor the fact that French officers 
had visited Belgium and had been in 
collusion with Belgian officers? Facts 
are becoming known which indicate 
that even the English themselves 
have broken neutrality. Dr. David 
S. Schaff of Allegheny, Pa., one of 
the leaders of Protestantism in the 
United States, who like myself, had 
been a friend of England, writes to 
"The Independent" (Sept. 21, 1914) 
as follows: 

"On August 1 the British ambas- 
sador was asked a second time 
whether England would remain neu- 
tral in case Germany respected the 
neutrality of Belgium and guaran- 
teed the integrity of France and also 
her colonies. Here England again 
said she must be free to act. 

"And, if the letter of the staff cor- 
respondent of the New York 'Even- 
ing Post' in London is to be accepted 
for the statement that Lord Kitchener 
was in Belgium two weeks before the 
war began 'to make disposition for 
English troops' — was not Belgian 
neutrality broken in principle? 

"An American student just re- 
turned tells me that he saw two trains 
of prisoners and wounded passing 
through Marburg the first days of 
the siege of Liege and Frenchmen 
were mingled with the Belgians, hav- 
ing been there before the declaration 
of war. 

"I was intensely adverse to Ger- 
many at first, threw up my hat when 
England declared war, but I have 
changed my mind. Mr. Carnegie's 
second dispatch to the 'London 
Times' is in the right direction." 

Both Prance and England had 
broken Belgian neutrulity before the 
Germans. What right have they to 
complain about it? 

In the present instance the Ger- 
mans did not do the English govern- 
ment the favor of being beaten as 
easily as was expected of them, and 
as a result official explanations have 
been proclaimed, how England had 
"the choice only between war or dis- 
honor," and "was bound to fight for 
Belgian independence." Sir David 
Lloyd-George in a reference to the 
case of Servia, quoting Czar Nich- 
olas as having boasted to the em- 
peror of Austria, "I will tear your 
ramshackle empire limb from limb," 
and, added Sir David, "he is doing 
it." These are the ipsissima veria 
of Great Britain's chancellor of the 
exchequer! 

It is commonly believed that Eng- 
land stirs others to war but is care- 
ful to keep out of it herself. 

In 18 64 the English encouraged 
Denmark to resist Prussia and Aus- 
tria on account of Schleswig-Holstein, 
and the Danes, relying on English 
assurances refused any compromise, 
the result being that they lost the 
duchies. A Danish friend of mine 
expressed himself very vigorously in 
condemning British statescraft, say- 
ing that the warfare of Prussia was 
square and honest, but the a,ttitude 
of England was unpardonable. The 
English did not want Prussia to lay 



the foundation of a naval power, so 
they proposed to protect the Danes, 
but they did not do it. If the Eng- 
lish, said my Danish friend, were 
not willing to fulfill their promises 
they ought not to have made them. 

The British "White Book" gives us 
a psychological insight into the man- 
ner in which the Russian minister in- 
duced Sir Edward Grey to join the 
French-Russian alliance. We read 
there that according to Russian opin- 
ion, the Germans would never be- 
lieve that the English would fight. 
The English had supported Servia in 
diplomacy, and the Russians hinted 
that after all the English would not 
be credited with making good by 
joining the fight, and it seems that 
the Russian suggestion helped to 
bring the English into line. The 
Russians remembered that the Eng- 
lish had encouraged the Japanese to 
fight Russia but the English kept 
out of the fray. 

A stray notice in the North Ger- 
man Gazette states on the authority 
of the Belgian ambassador at St. 
Petersburg that Russia did not ven- 
ture into the war against Germany 
until England had given a definite 
promise to take an active part in it. 

This time the English meant war 
and were ready to join France and 
Russia. England's intentions can not 
have been very pacific, for accord- 
ing to a statement published in the 
French paper "Gil Bias" of February 
25, 1913, England had stored in the 
fortress of Maubeuge large deposits 
of ammunition for the English ar- 
tillery in case of a Continental war. 
Maubeuge is situated between Paris 
and the Belgian frontier, and what 
was the purpose of this unusual act? 

There is another objection hurled 
at the Germans; it is this: that they 
should not have started the war and 
should not have mobilized their army 
before the first enemy had dared to 
trespass on German territory. But 
such criticism can be made only by 
people who do not know that priority 
of attack may decide the whole war 
and the advantage of a position may 
save the lives of hundreds of thou- 
sands. If the Germans had waited 
until the French had joined the Bel- 
gians and surprised the Germans by 
a sudden and unexpected attack on 
Treves and Cologne, the first situa- 
tion of the war would have presented 
greater difficulties to the general 
staff of the Kaiser, and being con- 
fronted by other foes in the east 
might easily have led to ultimate de- 
feat. 

We ought to add here that later 
reports announce that Russians tres- 
passed upon Prussian territory on 
the day before the declaration of 
war; and how did they behave? One 
Russian general, now a prisoner in 
German hands, had the whole male 
population of a Prussian village 
slain, and some Russian officers had 
adopted the custom of carrying on 
their persons the fingers of their slain 
enemies, both male and female. 

It has become apparent that the 
Germans anticipated the French plan 
of campaign. A newspaper clipping 
on the subject reads thus: 

"We may assume that the French, 
just as did the Germans, during times 
of peace prepared a complete plan of 



campaign, and when hostilities be- 
gan they naturally attempted to carry 
out this plan, in order to be able to 
fight their battles on territory se- 
lected by themselves, which always 
means a considerable advantage over 
the adversary. 

"That such a plan was in existence 
is certain, and, as has been declared 
repeatedly from Berlin since the be- 
ginning of the war, the German gen- 
eral staff has proofs that this plan 
not only included a march through 
the alleged neutral territory of Bel- 
gium, but also that a real military 
convention with the Belgian gov- 
ernment was in existence under 
which Belgium granted free passage 
through her country to the French, 
but was going to resist by force a 
passage of the German troops, the 
French promising help in such a case. 
If this original plan of the French 
general staff had been realized, Ger- 
many actually would have been in a 
very bad position. Progress of the 
French to the Rhine could not have 
been prevented and the German 
troops certainly would have been 
compelled to evacuate Alsace-Lor- 
raine. 

"Contemporaneous with the pas- 
sage of the French forces through 
Belgium an attack upon Alsace and 
later upon Lorraine had also been 
planned. 

"The grand success of the German 
army is based upon the fact that its 
leaders succeeded in throwing over 
the whole plan of campaign so splen- 
didly elaborated by the French, by 
appearing first on the place where 
the Frenchmen intended to be in Bel. 
gium. The French mobilization 
probably did not proceed quite as 
smoothly as the German. 

"For, instead of bringing help to 
their hard pressed allies in Belgium, 
their southern neighbors kept back 
for weeks and gave sufficient time to 
the Germans to make that country 
the base of their operations. The ad- 
vance of the Germans showed itself 
as so strong that the approaching 
French armies and reinforcements 
were not able to withstand the at- 
tacks, but were pushed back step by 
step. 

"The knowledge of the French 
plan of campaign possessed by the 
German" general staff, the prepared- 
ness of the German army and the 
irresistible momentum of the Ger- 
man masses put into the field sud- 
denly ended the hopes of the French 
general staff, right at the beginning 
of the war, for the realization of their 
own plans and indirectly enforced 
very soon the evacuation of Upper 
Alsace by the French, without any 
larger battles at that point. 

"Notwithstanding all the apologies 
for the facts, as they have been of- 
fered by the French commander-in- 
chief. Gen. Joffre, the French have 
been restricted to a defensive war 
policy at nearly all points right from 
the beginning of the war. The Ger- 
mans have fought their battles ex- 
actly where they intended to, have 
driven their opponents where they 
wished to and will succeed in further 
driving them to a place where they 
can defeat them in the easiest man- 
ner. Upon the execution of this plan 
the splendid success of the Germatt 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM' 




FORT LOUOIN OF LIEiGE 

It is nothing short of bewildering to try to think of how any movable instrument 

can throw a missle weighing almost a ton and find its target in a most effective 

manner, as this picture clearly shows. This is only one of many similar wrecks 

made of the Forts of Germany's Enemies. 

(By Courtesy of the "Koelnische Zeitung") 



army is founded; upon the inability 
of the adversary to see beforehand 
the moves of the enemy or to cross 
them, the reverses of the French find 
their explanation." 



A Breach of Neutrality. 

And here is Mr. Jourdain's reply to 
the Editor's discussion of this subject. — 
Editor, War Echoes. 

The Editor claims that on the part 
of England, Germany's breach of neu- 
trality on Belgium was only an official 
pretest for the war, "not the real and 
ultimate motive." This certainly does 
not represent the attitude of England 
towards the neutrality of Belgium or 
Holland. Their independence had been 
for centuries considered as one of the 
strongest means for securing peace in 
Europe, as their position and conforma- 
tion rendered them the natural battle- 
field of Northern Europe; of this their 
troublous history is sufficient proof. 

"If it was made impossible for great 
powers to invade them, war would be- 
come increasingly difficult and danger- 
ous. With the growth of the idea of a 
fixed system of international law 
founded on treaties, the neutrality of 
Belgium had been devised as a perma- 
nent safeguard to this end. As such 
it had been consecrated by two inter- 



national treaties signed by all the pow- 
ers, and recognized by two generations 
of statesmen.'" As Sir Walter Raleigh 
says, it was a matter of common 
knowledge in England that one event 
would make it impossible for England 
to remain a spectator in a European 
war, — that event being the violation of 
the neutrality of Holland or Belgium.' 
There was never any secret about this 
and it was well known to many peo- 
ple who took no special interest in for- 
eign politics. The stress laid upon the 
importance of Belgian neutrality in 
speeches by Lord Granville in the 
House of Lords (August 8, 1870) and 
Mr. Gladstone in the House of Com- 
mons (August 10, 1870) is emphasized 
again in Sir Edward Grey's speech in 
the House of Commons on August 3 
last.= 

The wrong done by Germany has no 
parallel in the instances of earlier 
breaches of neutrality quoted by the 
Editor.'" The only recent instance 
quoted is the landing of British troops 
in Delagoa Bay at the beginning of the 



' "G. B. and the E. 

•"Might Is Right." 
1914, p. 6. 

• "G. B. and the E. C. 

""O. C," p. 601. 

•See Jourdain in Index for complete ref- 
erence. — Editor. 



p. 93. 



Boer war. Portugal is an old ally of 
England, and conceded permission to 
the British consul at Lorenzo Marques 
to search for contraband of war 
among goods imported there, and ac- 
corded free passage to an armed force 
under General Carington from Beira 
through Portuguese territory to Rho- 
desia. 

"The Portuguese government ex- 
posed itself to no international diffi- 
culty through allowing a belligerent, 
whose final victory was certain and of 
necessity entailed total suppression of 
the conquered belligerent, to cross its 
colonial territory,'" and this incident 
cannot be compared with Germany, one 
of the guarantors of Belgian neutrality, 
invading Belgium when that country, 
conscious of its duty, was "firmly re- 
solved to repel aggression by all pos- 
sible means." 

The earlier instances of breaches of 
neutrality instanced are the seizure of 
Capetown and the annexation of Dutch 
colonies. The Dutch colony of New Ne- 
therland was seized by England in time 
of peace, in 1664 — a discreditable action 
— but this and other political measures 
of the seventeenth century are no prec- 
edents for us to-day. Late in the eight- 
eenth century, when the organization 
of the united Netherlands was abol- 
ished, and they were transformed into 
the Batavian republic, in close alliance 
.with France, the Dutch participation 
in the wars of the Revolution nat- 
urally brought with it the enmity of 
England, and the seizure of all the 
Dutch colonies by the English. 

Further, the Editor writes that there 
is no use discussing the atrocity of a 
breach of neutrality "because it is an 
acknowledged principle that in case of 
war the natural law of self-preserva- 
tion demands of every power the com- 
pletion of the war that has arisen or 
is about to arise, with the utmost dis- 
patch and by the easiest method. In 
the present case the Germans have car- 
ried the war through Luxembourg and 
Belgium because that was to them the 
straightest and safest way of attack.'" 
It is significant to recall here that von 
Bethmann-Hollweg, the German im- 
perial chancellor, in his speech to the 
Reichstag on August 4, while laying 
stress on Germany's "state of neces- 
sity," confesses openly that the inva- 
sion of Luxembourg and Belgium is 
"contrary to the dictates of interna- 
tional law," a wrong committed. 

"It is true that the French govern- 
ment," he said, "has declared at Brus- 
sels that France is willing to respect 
the neutrality of Belgium as long as 
her opponent respects it. We knew, 
however, that France stood ready for 
the invasion. France could wait, but 
we could not wait. A French move- 
ment upon our flank upon the Lower 
Rhine might have been disastrous. So 
we were compelled to override the just 
protests of the Luxembourg and Bel- 
gian governments. The wrong — I speak 
openly — that we are committing we 
will endeavor to make good as soon 
as our military goal has been reached. 
Anybody who is threatened as we are 
threatened, and is fighting for his high- 
est possessions, can have only one 
thought — how he is to hack his way 
through." 



' "Encyclopaedia Brltannica," 11th ed., 
Vol. XIX, s. V. "Neutrality," p. 477. 
»"0. C," pp. 601-2. 



A SKETCH OF RECENT BELGIAN HISTORY 



The Imijerlal Chancellor was, we 
see, unaware of this "acknowledged 
prlnciiDle" of the Editor's. As Mr. 
Lloyd George has said, "treaties are 
the currency of international states- 
manship," and it is obviously to the 
interest of each country to see that 
such international treaties are valid 
not only in peace (when nobody pro- 
poses to break them) but also in war. 
An apology advanced by the Editor is 
that Prussia and Germany had signed 
the neutrality treaty of Belgium, the 
present German empire not then exist- 
ing, and Germany need not respect the 
treaty "under conditions so obviously 
changed." Prince Bismarck in 1870, 
when there was war between France 
and Germany, "confirming his verbal 
assurance, gave in writing a declara- 
tion which he said was superfluous in 
reference to the treaty in existence — 
that the German confederation and its 
allies would respect the neutrality of 
Belgium." Bismarck here speaks not 
of Prussia but of the German confed- 
eration, representing the German em- 
pire of to-day. The present conditions 
appear closely parallel to those of 1870, 
and it was for such an event as a 
Franco-German war that the neutral- 
ity of Belgium had been devised as a 
safeguard. The Editor considers an 
important change in the conditions was 
created by "the suspicion,"' the "prob- 
ability" of a Franco-Belgian entente. 
"Suspicion in the German mind is not 
sufficient to justify such a breach of 
international law. No serious evidence 
is advanced of a Franco-Belgian eiv- 
tente, while, on the other hand, we 
have the French government's assur- 
ance that it would respect the neu- 
trality of Belgium in answer to Sir 
Edward Grey's inquiry : 

"The French government is resolved 
to respect the neutrality of Belgium, 
and it would only be in the event of 
some other power violating that neu- 
trality that France might find herself 
under the necessity, in order to assure 
the defense of her security, to act 
otherwise. The president of the repub- 
lic spoke of it to the king of the Bel- 
gians, and the French minister at 
Brussels has spontaneously renewed the 
assurance to the Belgian minister of 
foreign affairs to-day."' France could 
have no object in alienating the sym- 
pathies of England by violating Bel- 
gian neutrality, and Belgium on her 
side (August 1) intended to maintain 
her neutrality to the utmost of her 
power." On August 3° she even re- 
fused the five French army corps of- 
fered her through the French military 
attach^ for protecting her neutrality 
against the Germans, and did not "pro- 
pose to appeal to the guarantee of the 
powers." 

In the face of these facts we must dis- 
count unsupported stories such as that 
French officers were present prior to 
the declaration of war, in Li6ge, that 

' "We do not know all the secret occur- 
rences of European politics, but the prob- 
ability is that the Belgians had agreed to 
allow the French to march through Bel- 
gium. . . .Mere suspicion of a Franco-Bel- 
gian entente is sufBcient to attack France 
through the Belgian frontier." "O. C," p. 
602. The italics here used for emphasis 
were not in the original.* 

*"G. B. and the E. C," pp. 93-94. 

'"Ibid.," p. 67. 

""Ibid.," p. 75. 

*See Jourdain in Index for the complete 
reference. — Editor. 



"Lord Kitchfner was in Belgium two 
weeks before the war began,'" if the 
letter of the staff correspondent of the 
"New York Evening Post" in London is 
to be accepted. The presence of Eng- 
lish and French oflicers in Belgium be- 
fore the Germans invaded that coun- 
try has been officially denied by the 
Belgian government. Assuming that 
England and France planned how they 
would act if Germany did precisely 
what she has done, "to say that it was 
a violation of neutrality for England 
and France to plan in advance how, 
if necessary, they would perform the 
duties put upon them by the treaty es- 
tablishing Belgian neutrality is to in- 
sult their intelligence." ' A German plan 
of campaign against the United States 
of America has recently been published, 
which has not yet caused that country 
to attack Germany on suspicion of hos- 
tile intentions. 

The argument that it was "preferable 
to the Germans to anticipate the French 
move and take Belgium first" errs like 
the German manifesto "To the Civil- 
ized World" in assuming an unproved 
and improbable French violation of Bel- 
gian neutrality. But even granted that 
this contention were true, what does it 
amount to? That Germany hurried to 
violate a law before some one else 
could do so ; and "if anybody was go- 
ing to murder Belgian neutrality she 
was going to be first at the job."* 

"A stray notice in the 'North Ger- 
man Gazette,' " "later reports," "a 
newspaper clipping" from a German 
paper, cannot be considered serious 
evidence. Information supplied from 
these doubtful sources is on its face 
doubtful. The statement ° that large 
deposits of ammunition were stored by 
England in the fortress of Maubeuge 
before the continental war, is officially 
denied. The giving of wide publicity 
to absurd stories such as the "later re- 
ports" that "some Russian officers had 
adopted the custom of carrying on their 
persons the fingers of their slain en- 
emies, both male and female" is to be 
deprecated. Stories of atrocities are 
circulated by all the combatant nations 
without exception ; and it is impossible 
to accept any without a careful pre- 
liminary investigation. 

The Editor quotes from the "Inde- 
pendent" (September 21, 1914) : "On 
August 1 the British Ambassador was 
asked a second time whether England 
would remain neutral in case Germany 
respected the integrity of France and 
also her colonies. Here England again 
said she must be free to act." This 
correctly summarizes Sir Edward 
Grey's earlier communication (July 30) 
in which a similar proposal '" is de- 
clared unacceptable. "For France, 
without further territory in Europe be- 
ing taken from her, could be so crushed 
as to lose her position as a great power 
and become subordinate to German 
policy." ' 



' "O. C," pp. 602 and 603. 

'"The Nation" (New York), October 
29, 1914. 

♦Mr, Jourdain seems to overlook the 
fact that Germany was first concerned in 
saving her own ; and this point alone is 
sufficiently recognized to warrant refrain- 
ing from an attempt at giving further rea- 
son for the time being. — Editor, War 
Echoes. 

"Published in "Gil Bias," February 25, 
1913. 

"> Except that in this case the French 
colonies were not safeguarded. 

1 "G. B. and the E. C," p. 55. 



It is difficult to see where the Editor 
has gained "psychological insight into 
the manner in which the Russian min- 
ister induced Sir Edward Grey to join 
the French-Russian alliance. The Eng- 
lish had supported Servia in diplomacy, 
and the Russians hinted that after all 
the English would not be credited with 
making good by joining the fight,' and 
it seems that the Russian suggestion 
helped to bring the English into line." ' 
The suggestion that England acted 
from mere pique is naive and unsup- 
ported. The facts are that on July 24 
and 25 M. Sazonoff, the Russian min- 
ister for foreign affairs, pressed Great 
Britain to make a declaration of soli- 
darity with Russia and France, adding 
that "unfortunately Germany was con- 
vinced that she could count on your 
neutrality." On July 29, Sir Edward 
Grey outlined to Sir F. Bertie, British 
ambassador at Paris, a conversation 
with the French ambassador' in Lon- 
don, in which he says clearly in what 
circumstances England would not inter- 
vene,* i. e., not in a dispute between 
Austria and Servia, nor in a dispute 
between Russia, Servia and Austria. 
Even if "Germany became involved 
and France became involved, we had 
not made up our minds what we should 
do ; it was a case that we should have 
to consider."" We see Sir Edward 
Grey moved by English interests and 
obligations. 



'For the discussion of England's atti- 
tude during the Schleswig-Holstein com- 
plication ("O. C," p. 604) see below sec- 
tion on the "Foes of Germany." 

2 "O. C," p. 604. 

■" "G. B. and the E. C," pp. 9, 16. 

" "Ibid.," p. 46. 



By James O'Doimell Bennett. 

[War Correspondent of The Tribune.] 

AIX LA CHAPELLE, Germany, 
Oct. 6. — After spending ten days in 
covering the great triangle of farm- 
ing country, forests, cities, and Vil- 
lages bounded by lines reaching from 
Aix la Chapelle in Germany to Laon 
in Prance, from Laon to Brussels, 
and from Brussels back to Aix la 
Chapelle, I am in a position to exjwse 
a few more of the lies which have 
given an unprecedented touch of 
horror to the hostilities now convul- 
sing Europe.* 

The extent of my right to speak 
with conviction may be indicated by 
the fact that I have for the second 
time moved day and night within the 
German lines and often have talked 
with French prisoners and French 
villagers while no German officer was 
standing by. 

In northern France many of the 
peasants expressed satisfaction at the 
coming of the Germans because they 
were thus relieved of the presence of 
the French colonial Turcos, whom 
they dread more than they dread the 
enemy.* 

French Civilians Peaceable. 

The German columns which are 
moving like iron fingers through 
northern France have encountered 
practically no resistance from the 
population. The result is that the 
punitive measures which laid waste 



*Emphasized in bold type by the 
Publisher of "War Echoes." 



90 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM" 



many Belgian villages, where franc- 
tireurs fired upon German troops 
from cellars, garrets, hedges, and 
church towers, have not been neces- 
sary, and you may see more destroyed 
houses along the country roads east 
of liouvain in Belgium than I saw 
in the French cities lying between 
the Belgian frontier on the north 
and Reims on the south. In fact, the 
burned dwelling of a French civilian 
was the rarest of sights on the 
French countryside.* 

I spent hours in at least six Ger- 
man military hospitals in Belgium 
and Prance and observed that Ger- 
man and French wounded were 
treated precisely alike, receiving the 
same food and the same attention. 
Of the signal tenderness of a Ger- 
man doctor to a severely wounded 
Frenchman I shall give details in an- 
other dispatch. 

Germans Capture Dumdum Bullets. 

The use of dumdum bullets has 
added a fresh and dreadful element 
of suffering and hatred to the hos- 
tilities. In Maubeuge I saw boxes 
containing 60,000 dumdum cart- 
ridges. One of these boxes, selected 
at random, I helped to open and 
photogi-aph. The thirty-two boxes 
bore French labels and they fell into 
Gennan hands when the forts at 
Maubeuge were captured.* 

In one night at Maubeuge a Ger- 
man nurse attended sixty Germans 
who had been wounded on French 
soil. Of these cases she believed 
twenty were the result of dumdum 
bullets. The sister was careful to 
add that the next night she received 
only two dumdum cases. Her diag- 
nosis of the wounds as having been 
inflicted by dumdums was supported 
by a German surgeon. 

In Chimay, Belgium, I assisted at 
the photographing of two wounds ap- 
parently inflicted by dumdums. The 
nature of them was hideous beyond 
description. John T. McCutcheon, 
who has observed the effect of dum- 
dum bullets on African game, said 
that it was his conviction that the 
two wounds, which he also assisted 
to photograph, were inflicted by dum- 
dums. 

Reims Cathedral Not Wrecked. 

Reports of the destruction of the 
noble cathedral at Reims are prema- 
ture by what seems likely to be an- 
other 500 years. I have studied the 
cathedi-al through field glasses while 
I was standing on heights three miles 
from the city. 

The towers, which, it has been 
said, the Gennans blew down, are 
standing and seemed intact, but I 
thought I could observe that the 
parapet of one tower was a little 
damaged. The rest of the church 
stood four square to the wifte plain 
as it has for so many centuries. 

A German officer told me that the 
roof of the nave had been burned as 
a result of brands fiying from houses 
near by. These brands had caught 
in the wooden scaffolding erected for 
the purpose of carrying on repairs 
and had ignited the roof. The houses 
had caught fire from the explosion of 
shells from Gennan batteries. 



German oflicers of high rank said 
that the French had been requested 
to cease using signals on the towers. 
Two German officers sent as parle- 
mentaires were taken prisoners. As 
a final warning the Germans blew 
doAvn a smoke stack near the cathe- 
dral. Then extra thin shrapnel was 
fired against the towers so as to in- 
jure them as little as possible, but 
drive away the men who were sig- 
naling.* 



•Emphasized by the Editor. 



GERMANY'S APPEAIi TO 
AMERICA. 



•Emphasized by the Editor. 



Chancellor Von Bethmann-HoUweg 
Asks Impartial Judgment. 

The war is a life and death strug- 
gle between Germany and the Musco- 
vite races of Russia, and was due to 
the recent royal murders at Serajevo. 

We warned Russia against kind- 
ling this world war. She demanded 
the humiliation of Austria, and while 
the German Emperor continued his 
work in the cause of peace and the 
Czar was telegraphing words of 
friendship to him, Russia was pre'- 
paring for war against Germany. 

Highly civilized France, bound by 
her unnatural alliance with Russia, 
was compelled to prepare by strength 
of arms for an attack on its flank on 
the Franco-Belgian frontier in case 
we proceeded against the French 
frontier works. England, bound to 
Prance by obligations disowned long 
ago, stood in the way of a German 
attack on the northern coast of 
Prance. 

Necessity forced us to violate the 
neutrality of Belgium, but we had 
promised emphatically to compensate 
that country for all damage Inflicted. 

Now England avails herself of the 
long awaited opportunity to com- 
mence war for the destruction of 
commercially prosperous Germany. 
We enter into that war with our 
trust in God. Our eternal race has 
risen in the fight for liberty, as it 
did in 1813. 

It is with a heavy heart that we 
see England ranged among our op- 
ponents. 

Notwithstanding the blood rela- 
tionship and close relationship in 
spiritual and cultural work between 
the two countries, England has 
placed herself on the side of Russia, 
whose instability and whose bar- 
baric insolence have helped this war, 
the origin of which was murder, and 
the purpose of which was the humili- 
ation and suppression of the German 
race by Russian pan-Slavism. 

We expect that the sense of jus- 
tice of the American people will en- 
able them to comprehend our situa- 
tion. We invite their opinion as to 
the one-sided English representa- 
tions, and ask them to examine our 
point of view in an unprejudiced 
way. 

The sympathy of the American 
nation will then lie with German cul- 
ture and civilization, fighting against 
a half Asiatic and slightly cultured 
barbarism. — From "The Indepen- 
dent," New York, August 24, 1914. 



ASQUITH SAYS TALES AGAINST 
GERMANS LACK CON- 
FIRMATION. 

Tales of alleged German atrocities 
are announced in big headlines on 
the front page, news items favorable 
to the Germans are relegated to the 
fourth page and presented in small 
type. — Editor. 

Here is a sample: 

From the "Chicago Evening Amer- 
ican," September 15, 1914. 

London, Sept. 15. — Premier As- 
quith has told the House of Com- 
mons that no official information 
had reached the Ministry of War con- 
cerning the repeated stories that 
German soldiers had abused the Red 
Cross flag, killed and maimed the 
wounded and killed women and chil- 
dren. 

He added that this subject was 
under consideration and that an in- 
quiry was being made. He assented 
to the suggestion made that, with 
the view of obtaining greater cred- 
ence of any reports on the subject 
which the British government might 
issue, the American Embassy and 
Consulate would be communicated 
with, with the object of getting 
them to publish the full facts. 



THE "OUTLOOK" JUSTIFIED GER- 
MANY'S RETRIBUTIVE ACTION 
IN BELGIUM. 



From "The Fatherland," New York, 
November 4, 1914. 

The majority of newspapers in this 
country have so far denied that Ger- 
many's retributive action was pro- 
voked by the Belgians themselves. 
We are pleased to find in the "Out- 
look" of October 21st, an article by 
Sasha Kropotkin which fully justifies 
the punishment meted out to Lou- 
vain. Mr. Kropotkin speaks with evi- 
dent admiration of the "heroic" act 
of the Belgian women "who defended 
their homes against the German in- 
vaders, resorting to boiling water 
when their ammunition gave out." 
This, coupled with the authenticated 
cases of the young German soldiers 
whose eyes had been gouged out 
after they lay wounded and helpless 
on the battlefield, makes one wonder 
at Germany's moderation in the 
treatment of Belgian "heroes." 



RESOLUTIONS OF CITY GER- 
MANS. 



(Reprinted from "The Chicago Trib- 
une," August 6, 1914.) 

RESOLVED, That we, German- 
American citizens of Chicago, assem- 
bled in mass meeting and represent- 
ing all elements of the great German 
population of this city, deplore and 
abhor from the depth of our hearts 
the fearful war which has broken 
out in Europe and which threatens 
to destroy hundreds of thousands of 
innocent lives and the riches gained 
in decades of peaceful work and de- 
velopment, threatens to set back civ- 
ilization a hundred years. 



BELGIAN NEUTRALITY 
HER GUARANTORS AND NEIGHBORS 

Firmness in the Position of the Teutonic as against the Non-Teutonic Nations 
- Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Roumania — England on the Wrong Side 
The United States and the War 



The Teutonic Nations and Belgium 
The Deeper Meaning of the Alignment of Nations in the War 



"THE CASE OF BELGIUM" AND 
THE UNITED STATES. 



An Analysis of the "Proofs" Sub- 
mitted to President Wilson by 
the Belgian Commission. 



By M. W. B. in the "New Yorker 
Staats-Zeitung.' ' 

Reprinted from "The Fatherland," 
New York, November 11, 1914. 

Of the 120 octavo pages of "The 
Case of Belgium in the Present War 
— An Account of the Violation of 
the Neutrality of Belgium and of 
the Laws of War in Belgium Ter- 
ritory,"t not more than sixty-three 
and a half pages are devoted to the 
testimony of the witnesses examined 
by the official Commission at eight 
sessions. 

Eighteen witnesses — or twenty- 
three per cent of the" whole number 
— give only hearsay testimony. Two 
of the statements, the most import- 
ant of all, are anonymous; two 
others are not signed; seven are 
contained in letters sent the Com- 
mission during the examination, and 
two in manuscripts containing state- 
ments made prior to the examin- 
ation and signed by the Commission. 
Only forty-eight witnesses, or sixty 
per cent, have affixed their bonafide 
signatures to their statements after 
the same had been carefully ar- 
ranged and edited by the secretary 
of the Commission, and the majority 
of these claim to have received their 
information concerning the alleged 
atrocities from neighbors and rel- 
atives. 

Only five persons were examined 
In regard to Louvain, and among 
these is a witness whose name is not 
given and who visited the city after 
its partial destruction for only a few 
hours. Of the witnesses vouching 
for the reported cruelties, whose 
exact address is frequently given, 
not one testifies in person. Re- 
peatedly the statements of one wit- 
ness were read to the next witness 
and by him signed as correct, a pro- 
ceeding not likely to create confi- 
dence in the accuracy of the testi- 
mony, as in the instance of a Belgian 
colonel who vouches for the testi- 
mony of his own orderly. 



Let us analyze in detail this re- 
markable, translated protocol, which 
is not a stenographic record, but a 
carefully edited document. To dis- 
pose of one of its findings, it con- 
tains many probably unintentional 
admissions that the German troops 
acted not without provocation: Thus 
two members of the Commission ad- 
mit, as the result of a visit to a hos- 
pital, that the treatment of prisoners 
by the Germans evidenced "no char- 
acteristic breach of civilized war- 
fare." Further it is stated (p. 57): 
"Some neighbors opened their doors, 
the Germans went through the 
houses without doing any harm." 
Page 58: "As nothing was found (in 
the form of arms) they did nothing 
to the house and did not commit 
any violence." Page 64: "A Ger- 
man soldier told me that they were 
not allowed to touch the women." 
(Testimony of a girl 23 years old 
from Aerschot.) Page 69: "A Ger- 
man non-commissioned officer said 
that it grieved him to act in this 
way (destroy houses), but that the 
Belgians were to blame as they 
started it." Page 80: "The Germans, 
at first, behaved properly in the 
town"; page 97: "I do not know of 
any deeds of violence perpetrated on 
women; the Germans behaved quite 
well at first." (Until fired upon by 
the civilians.) 

The first hearing covered "the 
massacre of Aerschot." The first 
witness (female) testified that her 
house was searched for arms, but 
does not mention whether any were 
found. Her husband, who as she 
herself testifies, acted as a guard at 
the railway station (surely not with- 
out a gun), was shot, and the same 
fate meted out to four others, ac- 
cording to her statement based upon 
assertions of a police constable 
(page 51.) The police constable 
names six (page 5 7.) A Command- 
ant Gilson declares that during the 
fight between Belgian and German 
soldiers, four women and their chil- 
dren passed along the stf'eet which 
divided the opposing forces (the 
famous case covering the charge that 
the Germans shielded themselves be- 
hind women and children.) "Every- 
thing seems to indicate that they 
were pushed ahead of the German 



troops to prevent the Belgian troops 
from firing upon them" (page 53.) 
Why charge this against the Ger- 
mans? Why not the Belgians? 

A priest from Aerschot at first 
testified that his housekeeper was 
outraged in Heresselt and afterwards 
drowned; but two days later he was 
compelled to admit that he "can- 
not affirm for sure that this has 
taken place, but she was found 
drowned the next day," the mayor 
of the town having meanwhile testi- 
fied that the girl had committed sui- 
cide in a panic of fear by leaping 
into a well (page 72.) Witnesses 
who fled to their cellars and hid 
themselves at the approach of the 
Germans testify circumstantially to 
things going on at a hundred differ- 
ent places in other parts of the town. 
One testifies that the mayor had 
ordered all weapons to be turned in 
before the arrival of the Germans. 
Another declares (page 59); "The 
mayor then told us (after the as- 
sault on the German troops and the 
consequent arrest of many citizens) 
that we might return home, subject 
to depositing our arms. * » » 
Nothing was found on me and they 
being unable to testify to any outrages 
by the Germans, left me alone." 

The station master was "unable 
to testify against Germans." His assis- 
tant "knows nothing of what happened 
at Aerschot," but "was told" that his sis- 
ter had been burned alive in her house 
while hiding in the cellar with her ~ 
husband and child; but that her 
husband and child had escaped. 
(Strangely, this hero who left his 
wife to perish in the flames, was 
not examined to verify the truth of 
this report.) 

The number of dead varies with 
each witness. The statements as to 
the time of certain occurrences also 
conflict, which is not to be wondered 
at, seeing that in many cases two 
and three weeks elapsed between 
what happened and the date of the 
examination. On every page state- 
ments are repeated, such as : "I 
was told," "Neighbors informed 
me," "Citizens said," but nowhere 
were the original witnesses cited be- 
fore the Commission or judicially ex- 
amined, presumably because it was 
feared that otherwise the inconsist- 



THE PEACE OF EUROPE— "THE CASE OF BELGIUM' 



ency of the rumors would be too ap- 
parent. 

One Vicar afBrms that they de- 
stroyed all the furniture of one of 
the members of his cloth (who is 
not examined), that it was soaked 
in paraffine and that they tried in 
this way, to set fire to the church, 
failing five times in the attempt. At 
the same time another witness 
speaks of hose filled with chemicals 
which the German troops were car- 
rying with them, the flames of 
which no amount of water was able 
to extinguish. 

Every witness declared that it was 
untrue that the German troops had 
been fired upon by civilians, either 
having no knowledge of it, or be- 
cause the mayor had previously 
given orders not to do so. But a 
wine merchant from Aerschot ad- 
mits (page 77): "A Belgian soldier, 
living Rue de Malines, dressed him- 
self in citizens clothes in a house 
and went on shooting." Rev. Van 
Roye denies that the German troops 
entering the town were shot at from 
the church; but on page 80, Rev. M. 
Meens, dean of Aerschot, affirms that 
"some Belgian soldiers fired from 
the tower of my. church." 

German reports positively affirm 
that a higher officer was shot down 
in the house of the mayor of Aer- 
schot by the latter's son. The im- 
mediate execution of the guilty ones 
is described by a witness on page 
92: "An officer of high rank ap- 
proached the burgomaster and ac- 
cused him of being responsible for 
all that was happening. Mr. Tiele- 
man protested, taking his fellow citi- 
zens as witnesses of his perfect in- 
nocence. Some of them confirmed 
his words." So even where their 
word might eventually have saved 
two lives the majority of the citizens 
hesitated to substantiate the execu- 
tive head of their community. 

These are the "proofs" of the 
atrocities of the German troops in 
Aerschot, fired upon in violation of 
the laws of war from the church 
tower and by a Belgian soldier dis- 
guised as a civilian. 

But let us examine the "proofs" 
in the case of Louvaln, where — quite 
apart from the unanimous testimony 
of wounded German soldiers and 
officers invalided, at home — the investi- 
gation of an English correspondent 
in the London "Daily Mail" of Sep- 
tember 13, surely not infiuenced by 
friendship for Germany, resulted in 
establishing the fact that citizens 
under the burgomaster and Belgian 
officers on the evening of August 25 
opened a cannonade from machine 
guns on the German soldiers in the 
streets and used the Church of St. 
Pierre as a veritable fortress. 

As mentioned above, the total 
number of witnesses from Louvaln 
were just five. Aside from this, the 
name of the principal witness Is 
withheld for reasons of policy. His 
testimony, however, is regarded of 
such importance that it is printed 
twice in different parts of the 
pamphlet, and in the form of con- 
tradictory translations, indicating 
crass negligence, to say the least, if 
not actual forgery on the part of the 
Commission. In support of the lat- 
ter theory it may be mentioned that 




GERMANS DISTRIBUTING FOOD TO THE BELGIANS 

(By Courtesy of the "Open Court") 



special emphasis is laid in the gen- 
eral summing up of the report on 
the testimony of this witness (page 
45), but an eye-witness is mentioned 
who is said to have left Louvain 
only on August 30. But according 
to his own statement (page 113), 
he did not go to Louvain until 
August 30 at the solicitation of the 
Countess Bethune and left it the 
same day, so that he could not have 
spent more than six or eight hours 
in the city, which according to his 
testimony was still burning, con- 
trary to the statements of the 
others. 

The second witness from Louvain 
reports an outrage committed upon 
a young girl in a vacant house 
(hence without substantiating wit- 
nesses), and a subsequent public as- 
sault upon his own niece by five or 
six German soldiers. In both cases 
the parents of the victims, as well as 
a priest are named as witnesses of 
the outrage; but the Official Com- 
mission did not consider it necessary 
to summon any one of them to es- 
tablish the truth of this terrible 
assertion. The third and fourth 
witness contradict one another. Ac- 
cording to the first (page 90), the 
German train came in wild flight into 
Louvain from the direction of 
Malines, whereupon a fierce fusilade 
begun in the streets (in which the 
Germans are alleged to have fired 
upon their own light gray troops 
wlithout being able to distinguish 
them from the dark blue uniformed 
soldiers of the Belgians!) According 
to the other, the train had been in 
the city for some time and bolted as 
a consequence of the fright of the 
horses when the attack began. 

For the truth of the German 
bestialities, witness No. 4 cites two 
priests, including an American, but 
prudently, perhaps, without mention- 
ing names. Witness No. 5, finally, 
pays a high tribute of praise to the 
German aviator squadron, the first 
to arrive in the city. He places the 
date of the fight with the civilian 



population, which the others fix as 
Tuesday, August 25, at Thursday the 
27th. He is the only one to testify 
to seeing the dead bodies of German 
soldiers in the streets, and his con- 
clusions are very interesting. Held 
as a hostage and warned that he 
would be shot at the next attack of 
the population, he declared when told 
by his guard that the firing was con- 
tinuing incessantly from the burning 
houses: "The reports we heard were 
only those of the cartridges exploid- 
ing in the fire" (page 107), omitting 
to explain why and wherefore these 
cartridges were in the houses of 
peaceable citizens. 

In Sempst was found the half- 
charred body of a man who, accord- 
ing to the affirmation of one witness 
(page 77) had botlj legs cut off, and 
according to another (page 98) had 
both legs still intact. Regarding the 
fighting around Linsmeau one wit- 
ness (page 79) testified that the 
dead German officer, on whose ac- 
count the Germans instituted retal- 
iatory measures, had been killed by 
soldiers of the Liege Civil Guard 
passing in a motor car, which the 
Germans did not see. On the next 
page the commander of a mounted 
corps of Civil Guards declares that 
his men shot down the officer in full 
sight of the Germans. 

At Vise and Lixhe, the same wit- 
ness reports hearing firing on the 
right bank of the Meuse, "which was 
not due to war weapons," an unin- 
tentional and interesting confirm- 
ation of the German assertion that 
the civilians had taken part in the 
fighting (page 80). A similar 
lapsus lingua happens to a witness 
from Herent, who declares that he 
was forced "to bring up all the arms 
which had been deposited in the cel- 
lars of the Town Hall behind cases," 
and this after all weapons were al- 
leged to have been delivered up 
(page 94) ; and again when a Bel- 
gian captain admits that he fired at 
a German field hospital flying the 
Red Cross flag and destroyed it, be- 



THE TEUTON— HIS ALLIES AND HIS NEIGHBORS 



93 



cause a patrol had seen German 
soldiers with a machine gun near the 
house (page 99). At Boischot the 
Germans did not resort to reprisals 
until, according to the testimony of 
the burgomaster of the place, the 
fourth Uhlan had been shot dead. 
And the servant of the mayor, con- 
fesses: "I heard people say that this 
one had been killed by a civilian hid- 
den in the mill" (page 107)! 

This is the sort of evidence filling 
the sixty-three pages of testimony. 
Page after page of stories based on 
hearsay evidence carried from one 
to another, and colored to suit the 
fancy, contradictions and unguarded 
admissions. This is the Belgian evi- 
dence trumped up to support the 
charges of German atrocities! It is 
not intended to charge all the wit- 
nesses with perjury. Many perhaps 
told their tales of horror in good 
faith; but any one at all familiar 
with judicial proceedings knows to 
what extent surmises become firm 
convictions, rumors become facts, 
and hills mountains; how diverse 
impressions become blended; how 
the fancy exaggerates momentary 
impressions, and how even a simple 
fact recited by twenty witnesses 
takes on twenty different forms, 
especially when considerable time 
elapses between an event and the 
trial. 

This does not apply to the Com- 
mission, which in its introduction 
and various "findings" deliberately 
twists the terms of the Hague Con- 
vention, makes it appear that an 
undefended and a fortified city are 
one and the same thing,, and re- 
peats the proven falsehood' that all 
the art objects in Louvain Cathedral 
were destroyed, whereas the truth is 
that German officers personally re- 
moved them during the fire from the 
endangered church to the security of 
the City Hall. It defends the guer- 
illa warfare of the civilians, provided 
arms are carried openly. It regal- 
vanizes the exploded lie that the 
bombs thrown by a Zeppelin balloon 
at Antwerp were aimed at the royal 
family; it publishes four pages of 
"official findings" concerning the al- 
leged atrocities of Linsmeau and 
Orsmael, but nowhere in the minutes 
does the examination itself appear 
with the signatures of the witnesses, 
as it has done in other cases, even in 
the edited form. 

In short, the Commission employs 
every expedient of deceit and cun- 
ning. These are the proofs which 
they had the audacity to submit to 
our President, "proofs" whose fal- 
sity and perversion of facts in all 
their ramifications are a positive 
insult to the intelligence of neutral 
America. True, pictures of de- 
stroyed Belgian cities have been 
shown, but even these pictures, as 
recently demonstrated, regarding 
the discovery of fraud in Termonde,* 
are deceptive. 

The only thing that is not fraud- 
illent, and that which the whole Bel- 



gian Commission is unable to lie out 
of existence, is the fact that Belgian 
men and women committed inde- 
scribable atrocities upon helpless 
German wounded, cases authorita- 
tively investigated by the German 
government and I hope to be pub- 
lished with photographic represen- 
tations of the deplorable victims. 
Then the world will be staggered, as 
in the Congo revelations, by the 
evidence of bestial cruelty unex- 
ample since the days of Attila and 
his Huns. 



*Read : "Journalistic 'Dum-Dums,' " 
reprinted in this book, with pictures 
which prove a deliberate "fake" of 
"The New York Times," the German 
hater with the proud motto "All the 
news that's fit to print," — Editor. 



THE SUPREME COURT OP THE 

UNITED STATES UPHOLDS 

GERMANY'S ACTION IN 

BELGIUM. 

If "Collier's Weekly" vents its spite 
on Germany, we are not surprised, for 
"Collier's Weekly" is essentially pro- 
vincial in its mental complexion. The 
editor of "Collier's Weekly" may know 
a good deal about Congressional poli- 
tics, but in the field of international 
politics, he loses his bearings. We had, 
however, expected a degree of fairness 
in the "Outlook." Its editors are much 
traveled men, and their long associa- 
tion with Colonel Roosevelt should not 
have terminated without profit to thfem. 

Yet we find in the "Outlook" an arti- 
cle on Prussia as opposed to Germany 
that is so childish that, at any other 
time, the ignorance of the author would 
merely arouse a smile of derision. In 
a time like the present articles of this 
type are, however, distinctly mis- 
chievous. What makes matters worse 
is that article merely accentuates the 
anti-German policy of the "Outlook," 
which a few spasmodic attempts every 
now and then to present the German 
view can only feebly disguise. 

Recently both Dr. Bernhard Dern- 
burg and the German Ambassador offi- 
cially disclaimed any intention on the 
part of Germany to violate the Monroe 
Doctrine. "In view of the way in 
which Germany regards its treaty ob- 
ligations when they appear to be incon- 
sistent with its own interests," the 
"Outlook" comments on this frank dis- 
avowal, "such statements as these by 
Dr. Dernburg and Count von Bern- 
storff are naturally not regarded as 
restraining Germany from taking any 
action which she has the power to take. 
The sipniflcanoe of these utterances is 
to he found in the fact that Germans 
of high station regard as a possitility 
worthii of serious discussion the ac- 
quirement 1)1/ Germany of power to take 
territory in the Western Hemisphere if 
she foishes it." 

The "Outlook" sees a sinister signifi- 
cance in Count von BernstorfE's denial 
of Germany's intentions. If Count von 
Bernstorff had said nothing on the sub- 
ject at all, in spite of the fact that it 
has been widely discussed, especially in 
the West, the "Outlook" would have 
found an equally sinister significance in 
his silence. 

While the majority of American 
newspapers have come to the point 
where they are willing to grant fair 
play to Germany, the "Outlook," in 
spite of its air of moral superiority, re- 
fuses to grant her a hearing. The 
"Outlook" cannot see the German point 
of view, because it does not wish to see 
it, because it is mentally and morally 
oblique where Germany is concerned. 



Germany is the blind spot in the "Out- 
look's" field of vision. 

Germany has never heen accused of 
breaking any treaty, except in the case 
of Belgium. We deny that a treaty 
existed ; if it existed it was of the most 
shadowy substance. But even if it had 
been iron-bound, the conspiracy between 
Belgium, England and France utterly 
destroyed its validity. We will go even 
further than that. Granted that it 
did exist, and that it was not broken 
by Belgium, it was, nevertheless, Ger- 
many's solemn duty to tear it like a 
scrap of paper. If the editor of the 
"Outlook" saw three burglars attack 
his venerable father at some distance 
from his house, he certainly would come 
to his rescue by the shortest route, even 
if the road should lead over a neigh- 
bor's field where trespassing was for- 
bidden. Germany made the dash 
through Belgium in order to save, not 
one venerable man, but a thousand. 
Her action protected the lives of a hun- 
dred million people dwelling in the ter- 
ritory of the Dual Alliance. 

The present generation of Germans 
refused to sacrifice the blood of their 
wives and their children to shadowy 
agreements made by dead men. They 
struck at the dead hand of the past 
to save the living present. In doing 
so, Germany has the approval of our 
own legal tradition. We call the atten- 
tion of the editors of the "Outlook" 
to the decision of the Supreme Court, 
found on pages .581-611, volume 130, 
of United States Reports, recently 
quoted by von Briesen.'* 

In this famous decision the Supreme 
Court held that it was lawful and just 
of Congress to pass a law that nullified 
a solemn treaty entered into between 
the United States and China. The re- 
sult of the Supreme Court's ruling was 
to deprive Chinese subjects of the right 
to visit and to reside in this country. 
Of course, the great question involved 
was whether we could violate a treaty 
which we had made in good faith with 
another nation. The exact wording of 
the decision makes interesting reading 
today when we hear so much about the 
sacredness of treaties. On page 600 
appear these very pertinent facts : 

"The effect of legislation upon con- 
flicting treaty stipulations was elab- 
orately considered in the Head Money 
Cases, and it was there 'ad.tudffed' 
that so far as a treaty made by the 
United States with any foreign na- 
tion can become the subject of judi- 
cial cognizance in the courts of this 
country, it is subject to such acts as 
Congress may pass for its enforce- 
ment, modification, or repeal." 112 
U. S. 580, 599. "This doctrine was 
affirmed and followed in Whitney t. 
Robertson, 124 U. S. 190, 195. It will 
not be presumed that the legislative 
department of the government will 
lightly pass laws which are in conflict 
with the treaties of the country; but 
that circumstances may arise which 
would not only justify the Govern- 
ment in disregarding their stipula- 
tions, but demand in the interests of 
the country that it should do so, 
there can be no question. Unexpected 
events may call for a change in the 
policy of the country."* 



"Compare with a similar statement 
by Gladstone in regard to treaties in 
general, and in particular the Prussian 
treaty with Belgium. — Editor. 



THIRD CHAPTER 

THE BIG HUMAN FAMILY 

GROUPED INTO MANY LARGE, VITAL NATIONAL FAMILIES 
VITAL SELF-INTERESTS— VITAL INTER-RELATIONS 



THE BELLIGERENT NATIONS 
INTER-RELATION OF BELLIGERENT NATIONS 

Their Ambitions, Ideas, Ideals, M-utual Interests and Welfare 
Life: Competition — Grow or Die 

GREAT BRITAIN, THE "TRIPLE" ENTENTE, AND OTHER ALLIES 

England, France, Russia — Belgium, Japan, Portugal 
The Irish Cause, Egypt, The Boers 



GERMANY, THE "TRIPLE" ALLIANCE, AND OTHER ALLIES 

GERMANY, AUSTRIA, ITALY 

Turkey in the War on her own Account — A Bone of Contention: The Dardanelles 

The Central Empires and the Neutrals 



THE NEUTRAL NATIONS— THEIR INTERESTS AND RIGHTS 
THE EUROPEAN TEUTONIC NATIONS LOYALLY NEUTRAL— ENGLAND 

EXCEPTED 

The European Non-Teutonic Nations generally not firm in their Neutrahty 
Some Laudable Exceptions — Spain, Greece, Bulgaria 
The Official and Popular Neutrality of the United States— Uncle Sam and his Children 



ON THE FENCE 

NATIONS WITH VERY VITAL INTERESTS 

In relation to the German-Austrian-Italian Alliance— Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy 

In regard to the English-French-Russian Alliances— Japan, Portugal, Roumania 



THE HORIZON DARKENS 

HOSTILE ACTS BEFORE A DECLARATION OF WAR 

The European Situation has come to a Crisis 

Germany in the Crisis — The Kaiser's Speeches 



THE BELLIGERENT NATIONS 
THEIR INTER-RELATION 

Their Ambitions, Ideas, Ideals, Common Interests, and Welfare 



GREAT BRITAIN, THE "TRIPLE" ENTENTE, AND OTHER ALLIES 

England, France, Russia— Belgium, Japan, Portugal 
The Irish Cause, Egypt, the Boers 



WHY WE ARE AT WAR 

The Underlying Vital Causes of England's Participation in the Conflict 
England's Domestic Troubles and Outlook 

INTRODUCTION 

J. RAMSAY Mcdonald 



WHY WE ABE AT WAR. 



(By Courtesy of The Open Court.) 
By J. Ramsay Macdonald. 

[The labor parties of the world have 
been growing almost from year to year 
not only in numbers but also in political 
influence, and they give fair promise of 
becoming an international power which 
will make for peace in the world. 

The labor party in Germany is demo- 
cratic and socialistic. It is. a strong peace 
party, and its leaders were in favor of 
supporting the peace movement with all 
their strength. But at the outbreak of 
the war, after an investigation of the case, 
the German labor leaders saw clearly that 
the present war was forced upon Ger- 
many with the obvious intention of crush- 
ing her for the benefit of her rivals, and 
they stood by the government and voted 
in favor of the subsidies for war. They 
stated their reasons in speeches and pub- 
lished articles, and there can be no better 
argument for the justice of Germany's 
cause. 

The labor party in England was brand- 
ed as unpatriotic, and Mr. John Burns re- 
signed his position in the cabinet, while 
the leader of the advocates of peace in the 
French labor party was even more quickly 
and directly disposed of by being shot, the 
murder being acquiesced in by the public 
to the extent of letting the assassin es- 
cape punishment. There was not even a 
serious attempt made at investigating the 
crime or prosecuting the criminal. 

The laborers of different countries have 
formed an alliance which is called "the In- 
ternational," and if it had been only a 
little stronger it might have been able to 
prevent the present war ; but Germany 
was the only country in which the labor 
party was well organized, and there they 
did not veto the war because they saw 
that for Germany it was but a war of 
self-defense. 

We here republish from "The Continen- 
tal Times," of December 4, 1914, a short 
article by J. Ramsay Macdonald, M. P., 
leader of the English labor party and a 
man well conversant with the inside of 
English politics. The article is little 
known, almost unknown, even in England. 
So far as I know it has never been printed 
in the United States, and yet it ought to 
be read. Mr. Macdonald knows whereof 
he speaks. He states facts, and in the 
light of these facts he places the respon- 
sibility for the war. — Editor of "The Open 
Court."] 



On that fatal Sunday, the second 
of August, I met in Whitehall a 
member of the Cabinet and he told 
me of the messages and conversations 
between foreign secretaries and am- 
bassadors which were to be published 
for the purpose of showing how we 
strove for peace and how Germany 
immovably went to war. "It will 
have a great effect on public opinion," 
he said, and he was right. It is 
called "Correspondence respecting 
the European Crisis," but is generally 
referred to as "The White Paper." 
I wish to comment upon it for the 
purpose of explaining its significance. 

It begins with a conversation be- 
tween Sir Edw^ard Grey and the Ger- 
man ambassador on July 20 regard- 
ing the Austrian threat to punish 
Servia, and finishes with the delivery 
of our ultimatum to Germany on 
August 4. From it certain conclu- 
sions appear to be justified, the fol- 
lowing in particular: 

1. Sir Edward Grey strove to the 
last to prevent a European war. 

2. Germany did next to nothing 
for peace, but it is not clear whether 
she actually encouraged Austria to 
pursue her Servian policy. 

3. The mobilization of Russia 
drove Germany to war. 

4. Russia and France strove, 
from the very beginning, both by 
open pressure and by wiles, to get us 
to commit ourselves to support them 
in the event of war. 

5. Though Sir Edward Grey 
would not give them a pledge he 
made the German ambassador under- 
stand that we might not keep out of 
the conflict. 

6. During the negotiations Ger- 
many tried to meet our wishes on 

97 



certain points so as to secure our 
neutrality. Sometimes her proposals 
were brusque, but no attempt was 
made by us to negotiate diplomat- 
ically to improve them. They were 
all summarily rejected by Sir Ed- 
ward Grey. Finally, so anxious was 
Germany to confine the limits of the 
war, the German ambassador asked 
Sir Edward Grey to propose his own 
conditions of neutrality, and Sir Ed- 
ward Grey declined to discuss the 
matter. This fact was suppressed by 
Sir Edward Grey and Mr. Asquith in 
their speeches In Parliament. 

7. When Sir Edward Grey failed 
to secure peace between Germany and 
Russia, he worked deliberately to in- 
volve us in the war, using Belgium 
as his chief excuse. 

That is the gist of the White Paper. 
It proves quite conclusively that those 
who were in favor of neutrality be- 
fore the second of August ought to 
have remained in favor of it after 
the White Paper was published. 

That Sir Edward Grey should have 
striven for European peace and then, 
when he failed, that he should have 
striven with equal determination to 
embroil Great Britain, seems contra- 
dictory. But it is not, and the expla- 
nation of why it is not is the justi- 
fication of those of us who for the 
last eight years have regarded Sir 
Edward Grey as a menace to the 
peace of Europe and his policy as a 
misfortune to our country. What is 
the explanation? 

Great Britain in Europe can pursue 
one of two policies. It can keep on 
terms of general friendship with the 
European nations, treating with each 
separately when necessary and co- 
operating with all on matters of com- 



98 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



mon interest. To do this effectively 
it has to keep its hands clean. It 
has to make its position clear, and its 
sympathy has to be boldly given to 
every movement for liberty. This is 
a policy which requires great faith, 
great patience, and great courage. 
Its foundations are being built by 
our own International policies, and if 
our Liberal Government had only fol- 
lowed it since 1905 it would by this 
time have smashed the military au- 
tocracies which have brought us into 
war. 

But there is a more alluring pol- 
icy — apparently easier, apparently 
safer, apparently more direct, but in 
reality more difficult, more danger- 
ous, and less calculable. That is the 
policy of the balance of power 
through alliance. Weak and short- 
sighted ministers have always re- 
sorted to this because it is the policy 
of the instincts rather than of the 
reason. It formed groups of powers 
on the continent. It divided Europe 
into two great hostile camps — Ger- 
many, Austria and Italy on the one 
hand; Russia, France and ourselves 
on the other. The progeny of this 
policy is suspicion and armaments; 
its end is war and the smashing up 
of the very balance which it is de- 
signed to maintain. When war comes 
it is then bound to be universal. 
Every nation is on one rope or an- 
other and when one slips it drags 
its allies with it. 

As a matter of practical experience 
the very worst form of alliance is 
the entente. An alliance is deiinite. 
Every one knows his responsibilities 
under it. The entente deceives the 
people. When Mr. Asquith and Sir 
Edward Grey kept assuring the House 
of Commons that we had contracted 
no obligations by our entente with 
France they said what was literally 
true but substantially untrue. That 
is why stupid or dishonest statesmen 
prefer the entente to the alliance ; 
it permits them to see hard facts 
through a veil of sentimental vague- 
ness. Had we had a definite alliance 
with France and Russia the only dif- 
ference would have been that we and 
everybody else should have known 
what we had let ourselves in for, and 
that might have averted the war. 
Italy could keep out of the turmoil 
because its membership in the al- 
liance imposed only definite obliga- 
tions upon it; we were dragged Id 
because our entente involved us in 
an indefinite maze of honorable com- 
mitments. 

It is interesting to gather from Sir 
Edward Grey's speech of August 3 
and the White Paper how com- 
pletely the entente entangled him. 
There were first of all the "conver- 
sations" between French and British 
naval and army experts from 1906 
onwards. These produced plans of 
naval and military operations which 
France and we were to take jointly 
together. It was in accordance with 
these schemes that the northern 
coasts of France were left unprotected 
by the French navy. When Sir Ed- 
ward Grey evoked our sympathy on 
the ground that the French northern 
coasts were unprotected, he did not 
tell us that he had agreed that they 
should be unprotected and that the 



French fleet should be concentrated 
in the Mediterranean. 

These "conversations" were car- 
ried on for about six years without 
the knowledge or consent of the Cab- 
inet. The military plans were sent 
to St. Petersburg and a Grand Duke 
(so well-informed authorities say) 
connected with the German party in 
Russia sent them to Beplin. Germany 
has known for years that there were 
military arrangements between 
France and ourselves, and that Rus- 
sia would fit her operations into these 
plans. 

We had so mixed ourselves up in 
the Franco-Russian alliance that Sir 
Edward Grey had to tell us on Aug- 
ust 3 that though our hands were 
free our honor was pledged! The 
additional mix-up for Grey, through 
secret "Conversations with Belgium" 
would make us appreciate better his 
dilemma, since he has yet to appear 
as Belgium's Guardian! 

The country had been so helplessly 
coihmitted to fight for France and 
Russia that Sir Edward Grey had to 
refuse point blank every overture 
made by Germany to keep us out of 
the conflict. That is why, when re- 
porting the negotiations to the House 
of Commons, he found it impossible 
to tell the whole truth and to put 
impartially what he chose to tell us. 
He scoffed at the German guarantee 
to Belgium on the ground that it only 
secured the "integrity" of the coun- 
try but not its Independence; when 
the actual documents appeared it was 
found that its independence was se- 
cured as well. And that is not the 
worst. The White Paper contains 
several offers which were made to us 
by Germany aimed at securing our 
neutrality. None were quite satisfac- 
tory in their form and Sir Edward 
Grey left the impression that these 
unsatisfactory proposals were all that 
Germany made. Later on the Prime 
Minister did the same. Both with- 
held the full truth from us. The 
German ambassador saw Sir Edward 
Grey, according to the White Paper, 
on August 1 — and this is our foreign 
minister's note of the conversation: 
"The Ambassador pressed me as 
to whether I could not formulate 
conditions upon which we could re- 
main neutral. He even suggested 
that the integrity of France and her 
colonies might be guaranteed." 

Sir Edward Grey declined to con- 
sider neutrality on any conditions 
and refrained from reporting this 
conversation to the House. Why? It 
was the most important proposal that 
Germany made. Had this been told 
us by Sir Edward Grey his speech 
could not have worked up a war sen- 
timent. The hard, immovable fact is 
that Sir Edward Grey had so pledged 
the country's honor without the coun- 
try's knowledge to fight for France 
or Russia, that he was not in a posi- 
tion even to discuss neutrality. That 
was the state of affairs on July 20 
and did not arise from anything Ger- 
many did or did not do after that 
date. 

Now, the apparent contradiction 
that the man who had worked for 
European peace was at the same time 
the leader of the war party in the 
Cabinet can be explained. Sir Ed- 
ward Grey strove to undo the result 



of his policy and keep Europe at 
peace but, when he failed, he found 
himself committed to dragging his 
country into war. 

The justifications offered are noth- 
ing but the excuses which ministers 
can always produce for mistakes. Let 
me take the case of Belgium. It 
has been known for years that, in the 
event of a war between Russia and 
France on the one hand and Ger- 
many on the other, the only possible 
military tactics for Germany to pur- 
sue were to attack France hot foot 
through Belgium, and then return to 
meet the Russians. The plans were 
in our war office. They were dis- 
cussed quite openly during the Agadir 
trouble, and were the subject of some 
magazine articles, particularly one by 
Mr. Belloc. 

Mr. Gladstone made it clear in 
1870 that in a general conflict formal 
neutrality might be violated. He 
said in the House of Commons in 
August, 1870: "I am not able to 
subscribe to the doctrine of those who 
have held in this House what plainly 
amounts to an assertion that the sim- 
pie facts of the existence of a guar- 
antee is binding- on every party to it, 
irrespective altogether of the partic- 
ular position in which it may find 
itself at the time when the occasion 
for acting on the guarantee arises." * 
Germany's guarantees to Belgium 
would have been accepted by Mr. 
Gladstone. If France had decided to 
attack Germany through Belgium Sir 
Edward Grey would not have ob- 
jected, but would have justified him- 
self by Mr. Gladstone's opinions. 

We knew Germany's military 
plans. We obtained them through 
the usual channels of spies and se- 
cret service. We knew that the road 
through Belgium was an essential 
part of them. That was our oppor- 
tunity to find a "disinterested" mo- 
tive apart from the obligations of 
the entente. It is well known that 
a nation will not fight except for a 
cause in which idealism is mingled. 
The "Daily Mail" supplied the ideal- 
ism for the South African war by tell- 
ing lies about the flogging of British 
women and children; our govern- 
ment supplied the idealism, for this 
war by telling us that the independ- 
ence of Belgium had to be vindicated 
by us.*" Before it addressed its in- 
quiries to France and Germany upon 
this point, knowing the military exi- 
gencies of both countries, it knew 
that France could reply suitably 
whilst Germany could not do so. It 
was a pretty little game in hypocrisy 
which the magnificent valor of the 
Belgians will enable the government 
to hide up for the time being. 

Such are the facts of the case. It 
is a diplomatist's war, made by about 
half a dozen men. Up to the mo- 
ment that ambassadors were with- 
drawn the peoples were at peace. 
They had no quarrel with each other; 
they bore each other no ill-will. 
Half a dozen men brought Europe 
to the brink of a precipice and 
Europe fell over it because it could 
not help itself. Today our happy 
industrial prospects of a fortnight 
ago are darkened. Suffering has 



•Emphasized by the Editor. 



REASONS FOR GREAT BRITAIN IN THE WAR 



99 



come to be with us. Ruin stares 
many of us in the face. Little com- 
fortahle businesses are wrecked, tiny 
incomes have vanished. Want is in 
our midst, and Death walks with 
Want. And when we sit down and 
ask ourselves with fullness of knowl- 
edge: "Why has this evil hap- 
pened?" the only answer we can give 



is, because Sir Edward Grey has 
guided our foreign policy during the 
past eight years. His short-sighted- 
ness and his blunders have brought 
all this upon us. 

I have been reminded of one of 
those sombre judgments which the 
prophet who lived in evil times ut- 
tered against Israel: "A wonderful 



and horrible thing is committed in 
the land: The prophets prophesy 
falsely, and the priests bear rule by 
their means, and my people love to 
have it so; and what will ye do in 
the end thereof?" 

Aye, what will ye do in the end 
thereof? 



England's Domestic Troubles and Outlook 



CHICAGO IRISH LEADERS DE- 
NOUNCE RECRUITING IN 
IRELAND. 



Miss Anna Nolan, a Representative of 
the Irish-American of New York, 
Interviews Several of the Irishmen 
of Prominence in Chicago in Order 
to Gauge the Depth of Feeling and 
to Get Their Views on the Political 
Situation in Ireland — As the Re- 
sult of Several Interviews, She 
Gave Expression to the Following 
For Her Paper and the Irish Voice. 

The Irish Voice, March 4, 1915. 

As she has always done in other 
matters, Chicago is taking a decided 
and clear-seeing view of the Irish situ- 
ation. Naturally the men who have 
consistently been carrying on the cam- 
paign for complete national freedom 
of Ireland have lined themselves up 
as pro-German In their sympathies. 
Not that they are looking for better 
government from Germany, should 
Germany by the fortunes of war take 
a goodly grasp of the British Isles, 
for these men have no Intention of 
letting any foreign power govern 
them, but because their hatred of Eng- 
land has lost none of its freshness 
after years and even generations of 
residence in this country. They find it 
difficult to comprehend the situation 
wherein a leader of any Irish party, 
forgetting the past centuries of coer- 
cion, and treachery on the part of 
England towards Ireland, could enthu- 
siastically head a campaign to enlist 
the young blood of Ireland for the 
spilling of it on foreign battlefields to- 
wards the advancement of their ancient 
enemy who now is fighting the supreme 
fight of her life. 

But the group of Irishmen who have 
hitherto pointed with pride to their 
leader John Redmond are the most 
pathetic figures in this great disor- 
ganization of Irish matters. Loyally, 
in spite of the mutilated thing called 
the Irish Home Rule Bill, have they 
not stood for John Redmond against 
the critics who censured him? For 
years they have been giving up their 
money for the cause of Home Rule. 
They believed in Home Rule and they 
had full faith in the men who were 
engineering the bill through the House 
of Commons. With what heartfelt joy 
they had shouted for John Redmond 
and his "full steam ahead" for Home 
Rule but a year ago when the bill 
seemed to be nearing the port. Pos- 
sibly these men began to realize the 
astuteness of their enemies and the 
actual facts of the case when the offi- 
cers of the British army refused to 
coerce Ulster. But whether they were 



prepared or not, it was a hard pill for 
them to swallow, when our morning 
papers told the story of John Red- 
mond's sudden blossoming into a re- 
cruiting officer for the army that would 
not take orders from Parliament and 
fight the breed of covenanters up in 
Ulster. 

To their credit be it said that these 
men needed no command, no counsel, 
no "doped-out policy" of their organi- 
zation but took their stand according 
to the dictates of their Irish hearts. 
Peculiarly Irish was this sudden tran- 
sition from the compromising parlia- 
mentarian into the original Irish 
"rebel," the radical who will not be 
hoodwinked by opponent or leader, the 
individualistic man of the Gael. 

For the Irish in America this up- 
heaval in the afl:airs of Ireland means 
something that is gradually showing 
itself — the binding together of all 
Irishmen without respect to political 
organization. Here in Chicago we may 
witness the friendly meetings of the 
Clansmen with men of the United 
Irish Societies. Old animosities are 
buried in the earnest desire for Ire- 
land's welfare. They have at last 
found a common ground, and one and 
all they stand united against the sac- 
rifice of Ireland's youth for the sake of 
saving England from a well-merited 
drubbing. 

For some of these Irishmen it is 
hard to refuse aid to France and the 
brave little Belgians, but after all is 
said and done, the crushing of Bel- 
gium and the sacrifice of France would 
really be satisfactory to England were 
it not for the fact that these nations 
have been her saving buffer against 
German invasion. And if we believe 
what the records of the battles tell us 
France might have gotten along as 
well without England's barbarians and 
England's incompetent army officers. 
The fight is between Germany and Eng- 
land for commercial supremacy. This 
fact must be kept apart from the senti- 
mental features of the war that has 
cost a brave little country so dearly 
and that is changing the very soul of 
France. The gigantic struggle has not 
really begun. England is still behind 
the skirts of the French and the Bel- 
gians. Meanwhile she Is preparing for 
what her statesmen believe to be the 
inevitable invasion. She wants to use 
what is left of Ireland's men for gun- 
fodder. 

By stupid economic management, 
she who has constantly cried out that 
Ireland is not fit to govern herself, 
finds now that her own citizens are 
neither willing nor physically fit for 
army purposes. On December 21st 
there were three football games held 
in London. These games attracted an 



attendance of 35,000 young men of 
military age. Recruiting agents and 
members of parliament harangued these 
35,000 British hopefuls, pleading with 
them to enlist and crying out that the 
"life of the empire was at stake." Ac- 
cording to the London correspondent of 
the Chicago Evening Post, just one 
English patriot enlisted — one recruit 
out of a mob of 35,000! Surely the 
Boer War has taught the British public 
the value of a good job on an under 
clerk's high stool or behind the counter 
In comparison with a glorious death 
for the Empire! 

Whether Redmond has sold his coun- 
try, or whether he has done the best 
he could, or whether he is suffering 
from that affliction which often comes 
suddenly upon leaders, "cold feet," is 
a matter to be decided at closer range. 
But Mr. Redmond is, according to his 
former friends here in Chicago, 
stretching the point a bit t o far when 
he shouts enthusiastically for the en- 
listment of O'Briens and O'Donnells 
and O'Neills and all the other O's and 
Mac's whose ancestors and clansmen 
were wont to get enraged at the sight 
of a redcoat. It is just this feature 
of the Irish situation which has flab- 
bergasted the Irish of Chicago. How 
a regiment composed of Irish boys 
whose grandfathers and greatgrand- 
fathers once found joy in the killing 
of a hated redcoat now go forth to 
fight under the Union Jack in the same 
redcoat and shouting God Save the King 
is hard for the men with the tradi- 
tional Irish spirit to understand. One 
might call it Ireland's nightmare. 



ENGLAND'S TREASON TO THE 
" WHITE RACE. 



Hindus, Sikhs, Turcos, Mongols, 
Khirgise, Fiji Islanders and Rep- 
resentatives of Other Colored 
Races Fighting in the English 
Ranks — The Danger of Arming 
and Drilling Savages to Fight 
Europeans — A Menace to the Fu- 
ture of Christian Civilization — A 
Country That Hires Savage Mer- 
cenaries to do Her Fighting Should 
Not be Called a Civilized Power — 
Imperilling the Supremacy of 
White Race. 



(From the Continental Times, a Jour- 
nal for Americans in Europe.) 

There has appeared of late a ten- 
dency In a limited section of the pa- 
pers, published In America and Eng- 
land, to excuse and apologize for the 
introduction of the hordes of bar- 
barians which Great Britain has 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 




LORD ROBERTS INSPECTING RECRUITS IN LANGLEY TAKK, ENGLAND 
(By Courtesy .of the "Open Court") 



pressed into service in her effort to 
destroy the Christian civilization of 
Germany. 

Public opinion, in the neutral 
states, is also beginning to criticize 
and condemn the conduct of the Brit- 
ish officers in pushing these unfor- 
tunate Asiatics and Africans in the 
front of the battle line. The truth 
of this has been vouched for by 
American correspondents, who have 
also corroborated the official German 
statements to the same effect. More- 
over, the appalling losses among the 
black troops in northern Prance and 
Flanders, as compared with those of 
the supporting English, give substan- 
tial evidence that John Bull is true 
to his old traditions in utilizing other 
races to do his hard fighting. 

In the beginning of the war the 
Irish and Scotch regiments were al- 
ways in the posts of danger and led 
the attack. But they have been prac- 
tically annihilated so that now the 
exotic nations of Africa and Asia are 
pushed to the front to bear the brunt 
of the German attack. 

Some English papers contend that 
England is justified in importing 
these barbarians because Turkey has 
joined in the war on behalf of Ger- 
many and Austria. This argument 
is neither reasonable nor logical. In 
the first place Turkey did not com- 
mence hostilities until several months 
after outbreak of the war and then 
only after an attack upon her fleet by 
Russia and after England had seized 
two of her warships, for which she 
had paid in full. 

Some of the Deviltries of England's 
Black Soldiers. 

In the second place Turkey has 
been in Europe for over 500 years, 
her Ambassadors have been received 
on an equality in all Christian courts 
and she has been a valuable and re- 
spected ally of England, also against 
Russia. If Germany should import 
Mohammedan tribes from the jungles 



and deserts of Asia and Africa and 
introduce them on the Continent to 
defend her cause, there would be 
some merit in England's argument. 
But Germany is too noble a power 
to invoke the aid of savages and 
heathens in her wars and does not 
believe in imperiling the supremacy 
of the white race. 

American correspondents have in- 
formed the public as to the fiendish 
practices and barbaric cruelties of 
these heathen mercenaries of Eng- 
land. They have told us that they 
delight in hacking the wounded with 
their knives and gouging out their 
eyes, and that they cut off the ears 
and noses of their victims, which 
they treasure as keepsakes. The 
correspondents have also warned 
Americans as to the danger involved 
in the introduction by these savages 
of Asiatic and African diseases into 
Europe through their filthy habits 
and their entire ignorance of the 
elementary ideas of hygiene. 

Cannibals Don the English Uniform. 

Some 200,000 of these heathens 
have already been imported into Eu- 
rope. The illustrated London news- 
papers have recently displayed, actu- 
ally with pride and jubilation, pic- 
tures of Fiji Island cannibals, under 
the training of British officers, who, 
they stated, have volunteered for the 
front and have been accepted by Mr. 
Harcourt, the Assistant Secretary of 
War. As a concession to public opin- 
ion they announced that they had 
abandoned their cannibalistic prac- 
tices and become methodists. 

A country which will call to its 
aid such mercenaries to bolster up 
her fighting forces is unfit to be 
classed as a civilized power and mer- 
its the unmeasured derision of hu- 
manity. These refined English gen- 
tlemen absolutely refuse to travel in 
the same railway car with a colored 
person and treat that entire race 
with unutterable contempt. Never- 



theless they are glad to make use of 
them to protect their own precious 
bodies from their white enemy. How- 
ever, we must not forget that it is 
only 100 years since the same English 
hired the red Indians to scalp the 
American colonists. 

How low has the mighty British 
Empire fallen! Is not King George 
the ally and friend of the regicide 
and assassin Peter of Servia? 

Civilization at Stake. 

Ah, Civilization, how thy name has 
been polluted! In the name of civil- 
ization, the Allies have, so far, 
brought into the field to fight against 
Christian white races, such types of 
uncivilized mercenaries, as savage 
Senegalese, negroes of various wild 
types, callous, heartless Hindus, 
Sikhs, Turcos, Mongols, Khirgise and 
other colored and untutored people, 
not even omitting the Fiji Islanders, 
notorious for their partiality for hu- 
man flesh, as food. This introduc- 
tion of barbarians into European 
wars would seem worthy of the at- 
tention of the civilized nations at the 
next Hague Conference. It must be 
borne in mind, that the yellow races 
alone, have a population three times 
the number of that of Europe, that 
they multiply at the rate of one hun- 
dred per cent every twenty years, 
whereas the white races only double 
in number every eighty years. Arm 
those colored people, teach them the 
art of modern warfare, how to kill 
the white men, and, it is easy to 
realize how quickly they will begin 
to act upon their own initiative, rise 
en masse and exterminate the hated 
Giaour. 



Note. — It is important, here, also, 
to understand that Turkey is in the 
war, not as an ally of Germany and 
Austria, but on her own account, to 
defend her rights. — Editor. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE CRIME 
AGAINST IREIiAND. 



The Crucible. 



By Sir Roger Casement. 

(Written in September, 1912.) 

Who can doubt that the greater 
patriotism and stronger purpose must 
inspire the man who fights for light, 
air and freedom, the right to walk 
abroad, to learn, to teach, aye, and to 
inspire others, rather than him whose 
chief concern it is to see that no 
one but himself enjoys those oppor- 
tunities? The means, moreover, that 
each combatant will bring to the con- 
flict, are in the end, on the side of 
Germany. Much the same dispropor- 
tion of resources exists as lay be- 
tween Rome and Carthage. 

England relies on money, Germany 
on men. And just as Roman men 
beat Carthagian mercenaries, so must 
German manhood, in the end, tri- 
umph over British finance. Just as 
Carthage in the hours of final shock, 
placing her gold where the Romans 
put their gods, and never with a soul 
above her ships, fell before the peo- 
ple of united Italy, so shall the 
mightier Carthage of the North Seas, 



REASONS FOR GREAT BRITAIN IN THE WAR 



101 



in spite of trade, shipping, colonies, 
the power of purse and the hired 
valor of the foreigner (Irish, Indian, 
African), go down before the men of 
united Germany." 

I read hut yesterday, "Pew people 
realize that the trade of Ireland with 
Great Britain is equal to that of our 
trade with India, is £13,000,000 
greater than the whole of our trade 
with the United States." How com- 
pletely England has laid hands on all 
Irish resources is made clear from a 
recent publication that Mr. Chamber- 
lain's "Tariff Commission" issued to- 
wards the end of 1912. 

This document, entitled "The Eco- 
nomic Position of Ireland and Its Re- 
lation to Tariff Reform," constitutes, 
in fact, a manifesto calling for the 
release of Ireland from the exclusive 
grip of Great Britain. Thus, for in- 
stance, in the section "External Trade 
of Ireland," we learn that Ireland ex- 
ported in 1910, t:63,400,000 worth of 
Irish produce. Of this Great Britain 
took £52,600,000 worth, while some 
£10,800,000 went either to foreign 
countries, or to British colonies, over 
£4,000,000 going to the United 
States. Of these £11,000,000 worth 
of Irish produce sent to distant coun- 
tries, only £700,000 was shipped di- 
rect from Irish ports. 

The remainder, more than £10,- 
000,000, although the markets it was 
seeking lay chiefly to the West, had 
to be shipped East into Great Brit- 
ain and to pay a heavy transit toll 
to that country for discharge, han- 
dling, agency, commission, and re- 
loading on British vessels in British 
ports to steam back past the shores 
of Ireland it had just left. While 
Ireland, indeed, lies in the "line of 
trade," between all Northern Europe 
and the great world markets, she has 
been robbed of her trade and arti- 
ficially deprived of the- very position 
assigned to her by nature in the great 
tides of commercial intercourse. 

A victorious Germany, in addition 
to such terms as she may find it well 
to impose in her own immediate fin- 
ancial or territorial interests, must 
so draft her peace conditions as to 
preclude her great antagonist from 
ever again seriously imperiling the 
freedom of the seas. I know of no 
way save one to nialce sure of the open 
seas. Ireland, in the name of Eu- 
rope, and in the exercise of European 
right to free the seas from the over- 
lordship of one European island must 
be resolutely withdrawn from British 
custody. A second Berlin conference, 
an international congress must de- 
bate, and clearly must debate, with 
growing unanimity the German pro- 
posal to restore Ireland to Europe. 

The arguments in favor of that 
proposal would soon become so clear 
from the general European stand- 
point that, save England and her de- 
feated allies, no power would oppose 
it. 

Considerations of expediency no 
less than naval, mercantile, and mor- 
al claims would range themselves 
on the side of Germany and a free 
Ireland. For a free Ireland, not 
owned or exploited by England, but 
appertaining to Europe at large, its 
ports available in a sense they never 
can be while under British control. 



for purposes of general navigation 
and overseas intercourse, would soon 
become of such first rank importance 
in continental affairs as to leave men 
stupefied by the thought that for five 
hundred years they had allowed one 
sole member of their community the 
exclusive use and selfish misappro- 
priation of this, the most favored of 
European islands. 

Ireland would be freed, not because 
she deserved or asked for freedom, 
not because English rule has been a 
tyranny, a moral failure, a stupidity 
and a sin against the light, not be- 
cause Germany cared for Ireland, but 
because the withdrawal of Ireland 
from English control appeared to be 
a very necessary step in international 
welfare and one very needful to the 
progress of German and European 
expansion. 

An Ireland released from the jail 
in which England had confined her 
would soon become a populous state 
of possibly 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 
people, a commercial asset to Europe 
in the Atlantic of the utmost general 
value, one holding a unique position 
between the old and new worlds, and 
possibly an intellectual and moral as- 
set of no mean importance. This, 
and more a sovereign Ireland means 
to Europe. Above all it means secu- 
rity of transit, equalizing of oppor- 
tunity, freedom of the seas — an as- 
surance that the great waterways 
of the ocean should no longer be at 
the absolute mercy of one member of 
the European family, and that one 
the least interested in general Euro- 
pean welfare. 

The stronger a free Ireland grew 
the surer would be the guarantee that 
the role of England "consciously as- 
sumed for many years past, to be an 
absolute and wholly arbitrary judge 
of war and peace", had gone forever, 
and that at last the "balance of the 
power" was kept, by fair weight and 
fair measure and not with loaded 
scales. 



IRISH CRIMINAL CLASSES ALL IN 
THE BRITISH ARMY. 

The Right Hon. the Recorder, ad- 
dressing the Grand Jury at the ad- 
journed Dublin City Sessions, paid 
the following tribute to the almost 
crimeless state of the city: 

"In the record of Grand Juries in 
Dublin I think the smallest number 
of cases ever presented to a Grand 
Jury will be presented to you, namely, 
5. Certainly in the memory of any 
living man it is the smallest. It is a 
great credit to the city that crime 
has almost reached a vanishing point 
in our midst." 

Reviewing the cases to go to the 
Grand Jury, his lordship said they 
were: Larceny, 2; false pretenses, 
2; assault, 1; malicious damage, 1. 

Some time ago, the Presiding Judge 
at the Belfast Assizes said that the 
records showed that all the Irish 
criminals must have transferred the 
scene of their operations to the Con- 
tinent and were house-breaking in 
France or Belgium instead of in Ire- 
land. 



If it Is the Intention of the allies 
to lure Germany on, they are certainly 
succeeding. 



COST OF RIDDING IRELAND OF 
LANDLORDISM. 

A question having been put in the 
House of Commons in regard to the 
financing of the Irish Land Purchase 
Acts, Mr. Birrell, Secretary for Ire- 
land, gave the following interesting 
statistics: 

The total amount advanced under 
the Irish Land Purchase Acts, 1870- 
1909 up to the 1st of January, 1915, 
was £91,768,450 ($458,842,250), and 
a sum of £1,584,516 ($7,922,580) 
was lodged in cash by the purchasing 
tenants, making the total purchase 
money £93,352,966 ($466,764,830), 
the sum advanced during the year 
ended January 1st last, being £5,764,- 
412 ($28,822,060). The estimated 
purchase money of lands for the sale 
of which proceedings had been insti- 
tuted and were pending on that date, 
including lands for the purchase of 
which the Congested Districts Board 
were in negotiation but had not yet 
acquired, was £30,137,120 ($150,- 
685,600). The total amount advanced 
under the Act of 1909, up to the 1st 
of January last, was £5,132,033 
($25,660,165), and the estimated 
purchase money of lands pending for 
sale under the Act on that date, in- 
cluding pending Congested Districts 
Board sales, was £8,037,929 ($40,- 
18 9,645). The figures as to purchase 
annuities and interest in lieu of rent 
collectible by the Land Commis- 
sion under these Acts and the 
arrears are not classified and ab- 
stracted up to the date mentioned in 
the question; but it will be seen 
from the annual report of the Land 
Commission for the year ended 31st 
March, 1914, that during that year 
a sum of £2,658,550 ($13,292,750) 
was collectible in purchase annuities, 
and £1,212,591 ($6,062,95.^1 as in- 
terest in lieu of rent in pending sales, 
and that the arrears on 1st July last 
in respect pf these sums was only 
£12,499 ($62,495) and £11,638 
($58,190) respectively. These ar- 
rears have since been considerably 
reduced as the result of legal pro- 
ceedings instituted. 

Tlie Average Number of Years Pur- 
chase. 

The average number of years pur- 
chase of all classes of rents (includ- 
ing Judicial, Non-Judicial, Leasehold, 
etc.), of holdings vested by the Es- 
tates Commissioners in direct sales 
under the Acts of 1903 and 1909, Is 
22.4 and 20.3, respectively. Detailed 
particulars as regards the number of 
years purchase under the Acts prior 
to 19 03 are given in Parliamentary 
Paper 90 of 1903. The rental of the 
lands sold is not available in all cases, 
but such particulars as are available 
are given in the tables relating to 
the various classes of sales appended 
to the annual reports of the Irish 
Land Commissioners. On the basis 
of the estimate submitted in Parlia- 
mentary Paper 6930 of 1913 the pur- 
chase money of lands which have not 
yet but which may become the sub- 
ject of proceedings for sale under the 
Land Purchase Acts, may be esti- 
mated at a sum not exceeding 60 mil- 
lions ($300,000,000). 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



ENGLAND AND HER DEAR 
IRELAND. 

England's action in urging little 
Belgium to the formation of secret 
treaties and then leaving her in the 
lurch, is not the first proof we have 
had that Albion's highest duty consists 
of fighting for the welfare and inde- 
pendence of smaller countries. 

England had performed this hon- 
orable duty for centuries past in Ire- 
land, although the latter has shown 
the determination rather to die Irish 
than to live in corruption as English. 
But that Ireland is going to ruin, and 
most hopelessly, if some power does 
not come to her assistance, may be 
shown by citing a few of the most 
disgraceful events in British colonial 
history. 

Since the fourteenth century, the 
Thirty Tears' War has continued unin- 
termittedly in Ireland. Sir Carson and 
the men of Ulster, descendants of 
Cromwell's soldiers, who never were 
Irishmen but English colonists, have 
nothing to offer in opposition to Home 
Rule, but the continuation of this 
frightful struggle has fortunately 
ceased for the rest of Europe. 

England's attempts at "rendering 
Ireland happy" began with the famous 
"Statute of Kilkenny," which con- 
tained the pleasant legal principle that 
any Englishman might slay any Irish- 
man to be found in Dublin, the capital 
of Ireland. This proved, however, not 
to be so simple in the execution, so 
the English had to be satisfied until 
1S73 with a law prohibiting Catholics 
(in other words, Irish) from taking 
any academic examinations. 

This talented race was held down 
and kept in ignorance, at a time when 
the rank and file of other lands were 
enjoying their rights. Two hundred 
years previous to this time, the cot- 
ton laws were enforced, a less choice 
method of destruction. In order to do 
away with the Irish aristocracy, at 
that time the natural leaders of the 
people, John Bull conceived the prac- 
tical idea of confiscating all genea- 
logical history and family trees, so 
that soon no one knew who his 
grandfather was. An equally simple 
method was found for destroying the 
more important gentlemen merchants 
amongst whom the textile industry had 
become flourishing and who became 
dangerous competitors. A law was 
made forbidding the manufacture of 
Irish wool or the export of raw wool 
to any other country than England, 
where only the very lowest prices were 
paid. When the Irish, as a last al- 
ternative took up the manufacture of 
linen, this was also forbidden and the 
life of agriculture was crushed by an 
enormous export tax. Thus from the 
days of Cromwell's brutal butchery 
down to the modern subjugation, by 
means of a sanguinary industrial pol- 
icy, Ireland has been brought to ruin 
and her resources exhausted, often 
under the hypocritical mask of benevo- 
lence, but oftener with direct brutality 
and no attempt at palliation. The re- 
sult is that today two-thirds of Ire- 
land consists of the domains of English 
Lords and one-third of territory inhab- 
ited by poverty-stricken Irish. 

The families of 40,000. Irish farmers 
were from 1849 to l.SOT driven from 
house and home by the English aristoc- 



ENGLAND'S FALL. 



By Rt. R«v. Dr. England. 

Oh! who that has not wandered far 
Prom where he first drew vital air, 
Can tell how bright the visions are 
Which still surround his fancy 
there? 
For, oh! 'tis sweet 'round memory's 
throne. 
When time and distance gild the 
way. 
To cite the scenes that long have 
flown 
And view them o'er on Patrick's 
Day. 

Though distant from our native 
shore. 

And hound by Fortune's stern de- 
cree 
To tread our native land no more, 

Still, Erin, we must think on thee. 
Is there a heart of Irish mould 

That does not own the magic sway 
That tempts the generous patriot soul 

To celebrate our Patrick's Day? 

No nation e'er at Freedom's shrine 

Has sacrificed more rights than we; 
Our blood has flown in every clime 

That raised the shout of liberty. 
But, oh! will Freedom never smile 

Nor shed one bright, one cheering 
ray 
To cheer our own lov'd native isle. 

And raise our hopes on Patrick's 
Day? 

Thy gallant sons have nobly bought 

Columbia's gratitude for thee; 
In Freedom's cause they nobly 
fought. 
And shed their blood for Liberty. 
Then sing, my Harp! and speak, my 
soul! 
Let tyrants grumble as they may; 
The wish we'll speak is — "England's 
Pall," 
And Erin's joy on Patrick's Day. 



racy, because the "Irish laws" allowed 
the eviction of the tenant should he 
once fail to pay the abnormally high 
rent. Within sixty years, four and 
one-half millions of Irish left their 
Fatherland, but the culminating point 
of hypocrisy was reached in 1909 when 
England appropriated 125 million 
pounds sterling, in order to give to 
the Irish tenants the ownership of the 
land which was cultivated by them. 
It was, of course, impossible for the 
Irish, after centuries of subjugation, 
to be in a position to take up agricul- 
ture in a day. Beside this, the most 
arable land had been reserved by the 
English aristocracy for their parks, 
therefore the appropriated money will 
gradually sift back into the city's 
pockets. The Irishman resumes his 
position as tenant without rights and 
England will have perpetrated her 
master stroke. She has played the 
part of benevolence and at the same 
time has reaped the profit. One thing 
England has evidently not considered 
is, that this system of oppression would 
only serve to unite a multitude of Irish 
in North America, who, hating Eng- 
land with a passionate hatred, will 
surely revenge the Emerald Isle some 
day, if England's bloody account Is 
not settled during the present world 
war. 



AFTER THE WAR — ^WHAT? 

The German hatred of England, born 
by the latter's perfidious policy and 
her cruel treatment of civilian prison- 
ers, is the most dreadful fruit which 
any war has ever brought forth, and 
it is also the one great obstacle to a 
sensible adjustment of the questions 
of the future, questions greater than 
any involved in the present war. 

As Professor Burgess said in 1907 : 

"The present and future civilization 
of the world politically lies in the 
hands of the three great Teutonic 
States of the world, Germany, England 
and the United States, and the wel- 
fare of the world requires that these 
three shall move and work in harmony. 
The welfare and progress of the world 
can be substantially and permanently 
promoted in no other way. All the in- 
ternational congresses and conferences 
which can be assembled will remain 
practically barren and worthless un- 
less these three great Teutonic States 
stand together." 

We believe that the German hatred 
is not directed against individual Eng- 
lishmen, but against the government 
and its foolish and wicked policy, do- 
mestic as well as foreign. Common 
sense tells us that a policy which is 
based on unfairness and deceit must 
sooner or later lead the country, where 
it prevails, to moral and political bank- 
ruptcy. Unfortunately such has been 
the policy of England — with honorable 
interruptions — ever since Elizabeth the 
Pickle bestowed honors on her bucca- 
neering and pirate captains because 
they filled her treasure chambers ; 
Elizabeth who gave with one hand only 
to take away with the other and who 
was constitutionally unable to keep her 
word or know her own mind. 

The English domestic policy has been 
a lamentable failure and its results 
have kept back true civilization all 
over the world because in only too 
many countries— even in America — it 
has served as a pattern. As our great 
novelist, David Qraham Phillips, re- 
cently said: "We have inherited a lit- 
tle from France; unfortunately, more 
from England." 

England considers herself and is con- 
sidered by most observers a democracy. 
To the students of history and social 
economy, however, she is no more a 
democracy than a mirrored image is 
a reality, or a man's reputation is 
his character. 

A democracy is a government by the 
people (all the people) for the people 
(all the people) and if this definition 
is correct, England's claim of being a 
democracy cannot be allowed. 

As Frank Harris, former editor of 
the London "Saturday Review," re- 
cently said, there are 49 per cent, of 
the workmen of England disfranchised, 
and the whole spirit of the English 
Government is to still further increase 
inequality. Can that be called govern- 
ment by the people, all the people? 

"You have one-eighth of the popu- 
lation enormously rich," Mr. Harris 
continues, "one-third in the gutter, too 
poor to lead human lives and a small 
middle class in between. England has 
no right to stand for any ideal free- 
dom today. The person who says so 
is either a fool or a liar." Can that 
be called a government for the people, 
all the people? 



REASONS FOR GREAT BRITAIN IN THE WAR 



In Germany it has been recognized, 
ami acknoivledffed that everi/ citizen 
iu a democracy is part of tlie govern- 
ment, tliat the whole has its duties to 
every part, just as eve)-}/ part has its 
duties to the whole, and that for the 
whole to be strong and healthy every 
part must be strong and healthy. This 
has been accepted as a principle and 
in recognition of it Germany has en- 
acted laws for compulsory insurance 
against sickness, accident, invalidism, 
old age, for pensioning widows and 
orphans and for the safeguarding of 
her workmen. "In the last twenty 
years," as Mr. Harris says, "Germany 
has done more for humanity than any 
other nation on earth."* 

As long as legislation favors the 
wealthy, and deprives numberless units 
of her population of the right of deter- 
mining their fate, as it does in Eng- 
land, it is absurd to speak of a de- 
mocracy, and just so long will it be 
a tyranny to a part of the population. 
The slums of London, Liverpool and 
other large cities in England are not 
only a denial of her claims to democ- 
racy, but also a constant reproach to 
her ruling classes, a blot o^ England's 
escutcheon, and a disgrace to the body 
politic which in the end must bring 
about its complete decay — if not 
treated and cured in time. 

Sitting thus uneasily on a volcano 
which may become active at any time, 
England has shown no more fair deal- 
ing and real understanding of the prob- 
lems which are confronting her in her 
foreign than in her domestic policy. 
Living, like a wastrel, from hand to 
mouth, she has, it is true, had a pol- 
icy which has run through the cen- 
turies and connected ever a shameful 
past to a present vifhich was vainly 
struggling to break the bonds with 
which this policy enchained it. This 
policy was determined by her insatiable 
desire for an increase of material ad- 
vantages, and has unceasingly over- 
shadowed her longing for moral ad- 
vancement. Her greed for riches made 
her land-hungry and as she was too 
penurious to be willing to pay for large 
armies she — and that has for cen- 
turies been her policy — has ever allied 
herself with some other power whom 
she knew how to inflame and do the 
work for her, she herself getting all 
the net profits. 

England's century old desire — riches, 
and ever more riches ; England's cen- 
tury old policy — to stir up strife, to 
be able to umpire the game and to ac- 
cord itself the spoils of the war. 

So she has done now! Germany 
growing too strong as a competitor In 
the world's markets, she has incited 
France and Russia to fear and hatred 
of her and hung prizes before their 
passion-dimmed eyes which their souls 
could not resist. Indifferent to moral 
considerations as well as to the ties of 
blood, blinded by her greed to the ulti- 
mate consequences of her act, she al- 
lied herself with three nations, for- 
eign to her and two of them her heredi- 
tary foes, France, the Latin, Russia, 
the Cossack, and Japan, the Mongol. 

Was there ever such a combination : 
Mongols, Muscovites, Latins and Teu- 
tons of the British sideline? With in- 
terests only temporarily alike in one 
direction, but as a rule diametrically 
opposite, how long will the glue of 



hatred and envy hold such a combina- 
tion together? Already one of the part- 
ners has turned the necessities of the 
rest to his advantage — Japan, seizing 
the opportunity when neither England 
nor Russia was in a position effec- 
tually to oppose her, has tightened her 
grasp on China with a jiu-jitsu stran- 
gle hold. Already a storm is brewing 
where the Dardanelles forts are de- 
fending Constantinople from the half- 
hearted attacks of the English and 
French fleets, for the disposition of the 
Turkish capital, in the improbable 
event of its capture, forms the most 
puzzling problem of the many puzzling 
problems of this most stupid of all 
wars. Russia, more than anything else, 
wants Constantinople, England wants 
it nearly as badly, Greece wants it quite 
as badly, Bulgaria wants it badly, and 
not one of them nor France wants any 
other to have it. The seeds of future 
wars lie in the capture of the city of 
the Golden Horn and recognizing this 
the efforts of the English and French 
fleets are but half-hearted, just suffi- 
cient to satisfy the Russian demands 
for a determined sea^ campaign against 
Turkey, and just not sufficient to make 
the Greek demands for the possession 
of Constantinople acute. The Turkish 
Empire as mistress of the Dardanelles 
is no great danger to Roumania, Bul- 
garia or Greece; with Russia in pos- 
session of this key to the Black Sea 
the independence of these three king- 



APTER THE WAR: A FORECAST. 



Ertracts from an Editorial in "The 

Independent," New York, 

August 24, 1914. 

* * * So Austria and Germany 
are likely to have no partners; the rest 
of Europe is against them — Russia, 
France, Great Britain, and all the 
minor powers, Belgium, Holland, Den- 
mark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland 
in sentiment solid against two nations 
that have dared to open the most tre- 
mendous and momentous war the world 
has ever known. It is practically all 
Europe against Germany and Austria; 
and not all Europe alone, but all the 
British dependencies of Asia, Africa, 
Australia, and America as well, not to 
speak of those of France, which more 
than balance those of Germany. 

"On the face of it, considering pop- 
ulation and wealth and armies and 
navies, the heavier battalions ought to 
win. But in favor of the nations is 
the fame of the German army. It Is 
said to be the most admirable, the best 
trained and equipped fighting machine 
in the world. It is not forgotten how 
like a tornado it swept to Paris in 1870, 
and carried back with it two French 
provinces. But the German generals 
and soldiers are not gods; they are 
men. They have the advantage of con- 
fidence, but perhaps they are too 
mechanical; and perhaps there will 
be more passion, more dash, more 
vengeance with the French soldiers. 
For forty years the children in 
French schools have been taught 
never to forget Alsace and Lor- 
raine.f * * « 



doms would be of short duration, for 
the Bear's paw is reeking with the 
blood of smaller adversaries and his 
maw is insatiable. 

And that is exactly why Sir Edward 
Grey's policy has been not only small 
and contemptible, but — a much worse 
crime — short-sighted, that he did not 
recognize that the true salvation of 
England lay in a close alliance -with 
Germany and the United States, in- 
stead of with Russia and Japan. Po- 
litically England had from Germany 
and the United States nothing, from 
Russia and Japan everything to fear, 
and the strengthening of the latter two 
countries politically would also 
strengthen them immeasurably com- 
mercially. The only points of conten- 
tion between England on one, and the 
United States and Germany on the 
other side are the struggle for commer- 
cial and industrial supremacy, and Eng- 
land should have been wise and great 
enough to bring them to an issue with- 
out the crude means of a world-war. 

After the war — what? Peace, yes, 
but what kind of a peace? A peace 
based on violence, written in blood and 
tears, and voicing the hatred of un- 
told millions of human beings? A peace 
which can but be the starting point 
of another and more bitter struggle 
which will throw us back still further 
towards the dark ages? God forbid! 
such peace would be worse thau ab- 
solute annihilation and therefore we 
hope for the victory of Germany be- 
cause she, with her ally, is the only 
nation great-hearted and large-minded 
enough to strive for a peace which will 
not further estrange the warring coun- 
tries, but bring them together for a 
better understanding, for a wider view- 
point, for honorable endeavors, for a 
policy of friendship and mutual respect, 
for aims of the welfare of all human 
kind. — From "The Crucible," April 10, 
1915. 



*See the Index for a complete article 
from Mr. Harris, especially sent by 
him for this book. — Editor, 



ENGLAND THREATENED BY 
STRIKES. 



tEmphasized in bold type by the 
Publisher of "War Echoes." 



Special Cable Despatch to the "Sun." 

London — The London "Times" 
gives prominence to the threatened 
labor troubles in the British coal 
fields. 

The Miners' Federation meets on 
March 17th to consider the reports 
compiled by local agents in the field 
on the question of immediate action 
to obtain an increase in wages in 
view of the high price of coal. 

If a satisfactory agreement is not 
reached with the coal mine owners 
the most dangerous situation pos- 
sible will develop. The Times else- 
where in its columns refers to labor 
difficulties as now hampering the effi- 
cient prosecution of the war more 
seriously than most people are aware. 

It prints a despatch from Berne 
to the effect that Germany is flooding 
neutral countries with reports of seri- 
ous strikes in Great Britain, pointing 
to British degeneracy in contrast to 
the unity of Germany. 



104 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



British Policy and Its Character in the Making 



WHO PROVOKED THE WAR? 



Incidents Showing Historical Prog 
ress of Events Toward In- 
evitable Clash. 



The Fatherland, New York. 
Frederick E. Schrader. 

On December 1, 1913, Vienna 
was made acquainted with the rev- 
elations touching Russia's treaty 
with the Balkan states, prior to the 
war with Turkey, and the publica- 
tions created the most profound 
excitement. For it furnished the 
evidence that almost all the arrange- 
ments, without exception, among the 
contracting parties were directed 
against Austria-Hungary. These ar- 
rangements covered the precise num- 
ber of troops which each state was 
to furnish as well as the precise 
time when the warlike operations 
were to begin. According to these 
revelations, supported by authentic 
documentary evidence, Russia obli- 
gated herself to supply the war ma- 
terial and all obtainable information 
regarding the plans of Austria-Hun- 
gary. Besides this, she undertook 
to support the Balkan states by guar- 
anteeing to protect their war against 
Turkey and Roumania. 

Antedating this, when in 1911 
England unaccountably projected 
herself into the Morocco muddle, the 
war fever in London reached fever 
heat. In Germany this interference 
was regarded as a provocation for 
war, and the London dispatches 
quoted "one of the wealthiest men 
in Berlin, closely associated with the 
foreign office and high in the em- 
peror's confidence": 

"No matter where we seek to ad- 
vance, we find England blocking our 
progress. It is a case of an irresis- 
tible force coming in contact with 
an immovable object, and the only 
possible result of such a collision is 
chaos — that is, war." 

In London, at the Naval and Mili- 
tary club and the United Service club, 
"officers, old and young, look upon 
war as a practical certainty in the 
near future." In the September be- 
fore — this was in December — "every 
naval officer on leave was recalled 
by telegram and even the able sea- 
men at Portsmouth and Plymouth 
were prepared for the worst." (Lon- 
don dispatch, Dec. 1.) 

France was tranquil. Foreign 
Minister de Selves delivered France's 
contribution to the German-British 
debate and made some additions to 
the revelations commencing the 
Moroccan crisis, before a crowded 
house in the chamber of deputies. 
He said among other things (Paris 
dispatch, Dec. 14) that "there had 
been a moment of tension due to the 
excessive demands of Germany. Rea- 
sonable negotiations ensued upon 
this, and he denied that Germany 
had become irritable and had tried 
to start a conflict. On the contrary, 
he said, her attitude had been con- 
ciliatory." 



July 13, 1912, there appeared in 
the New York World a London cable 
dispatch, as follows: 

"The first lord of the admiralty, 
(Winston /Churchill) according to 
his political confidants, will not take 
the offensive, but the radicals fear 
he may seize any German provoca-: 
tion to plunge England into war. He 
is said to be obsessed with a feeling 
of Britain's naval might and is de- 
lighted at a bare prospect of dem- 
onstrating that might at Germany's 
expense." 

Germany did not give the provo- 
cation, and matters drifted on. Eng- 
land and Russia had divided Persia 
between them. The czar was already 
directing the policy which England 
was to follow in her blind hatred of 
Germany. When you are in Rome 
you must do as the Romans do. Eng- 
land stood by in silence while Russia 
was inaugurating a reign of terror in 
her sphere of Persia. 

The dissident Liberals opened a 
campaign against Sir Edward Grey's 
foreign policy. But Grey was of one 
mind with Churchill as to war with 
Germany, and showed no signs of 
checking Russia. He was attacked 
by the influential "Nation," which 
showed "our allies in Persia assist- 
ing in deeds which roused all Eng- 
land when the Bashi-Bazouks, .in- 
stead of Cossacks were their auth- 
ors." Photographs of the inhuman 
outrages were printed. Some were 
unprintable. "It remains to be seen," 
said the correspondent of the New 
York Times under date of Sept. 14, 
1912, "whether a McGahan or a 
Gladstone will arise to arouse the 
country to flame, such as that which 
followed the Bulgarian atrocities and 
altered the map of southeastern Eu- 
rope." 

The McGahan developed in the per- 
son of G. T. Turner, "who sent to 
the Manchester Guardian an article, 
charging the Russian troops with 
the indiscriminate shooting of men, 
women and children in Tabriz, as well 
as with unspeakable atrocities by 
their Persian governor, including 
beating men to death, sewing up the 
mouths of Constitutionalists, nail- 
ing horseshoes to men's feet, and 
driving them through the bazaars, 
and with a general hanging vendetta 
against all who were even supposed 
to favor the new Persian constitu- 
tion. 

"Prof. Browne also wrote to the 
Manchester Guardian, stating that 
he had obtained photographs which 
left no doubt of the horrible charac- 
ter of the atrocities perpetrated in 
Tabriz. Two of these photographs 
are so dreadful that publication is 
impossible. 

"A correspondent of the "Nation" 
wrote, demanding their publication, 
so that Englishmen might under- 
stand the price, paid in blood and 
national honor, for the Anglo-Rus- 
sian alliance." — (Cable New York 
Times, Sept. 14, 1912.) 

Even the Daily News of London, 
usually a whole hogger as far as the 



present administration of Mr. As- 
quith is concerned, could not swal- 
low the vile imperialistic dose and 
spoke out as follows: 

"No man who believes that the 
honor of his country as an asset 
worth preserving or who is con- 
cerned for the security of our Indian 
empire can be indifferent to the pol- 
icy by which Russia, without con- 
sent, is obliterating a free people 
whose independence we have agreed 
to protect, and is preparing to ad- 
vance her frontiers to those of our 
Indian empire. There is no one in 
any party in this country today who 
does not deplore the attack on Per- 
sian freedom, who does not admit 
that it is a deliberate breach of the 
covenant of 1907, and who does not 
know that it is profoundly prejudicial 
to our business and imperial inter- 
ests. To the plain man the fact that 
these things should be happening 
with our sanction is unintelligible. 
They are . unintelligible until we 
realize that the sacrifice of Persia is 
only an incident in a scheme of pol- 
icy which includes, among its other 
manifestations, the Moroccan crisis, 
Mongolia, Tripoli, and the general 
breakdown of the moral law of Eu- 
rope. 

"We have turned treaties into 
waste paper, we have deserted the lit- 
tle peoples who looked to us at least 
to keep our word, we have endan- 
gered the future of our most vital 
interests, and we have involved our- 
selves in an expenditure on arma- 
ments without parallel in the his- 
tory of the world. And the result is 
that Europe is seething with unrest 
and that the air is thick with ru- 
mors of impending disaster, the rea- 
son for which no man can specify. 
This is the situation to which Sir 
Edward Grey's policy was brought 
this country and Europe." 

Sir Edward Grey, however, was 
content to see England accused of 
every violation of solemn treaty ob- 
ligations, and turn a deaf ear to the 
evidence of inhuman cruelty for the 
sake of holding Russia for the even- 
tual blow against the German em- 
pire. 

Distinguished Englishmen spoke 
their minds freely on the subject of 
friction with Germany, and severely 
rebuked Sir Edward for his persis- 
tent policy of nagging and thwarting 
the German striving for expansion. 
R. B. Cunningham-Graham, repre- 
senting, as the New York Times ad- 
mitted, "a rapidly growing opinion in 
England," a former member of par- 
liament, said, February 10, 1912; 

"I am in favor of an entente cor- 
diale with Germany. I advocated it 
in parliament and publicly after the 
Pashoda incident, when it was un- 
popular with the British public. I 
am in favor of an entente with the 
great or small in Europe and America, 
although I confess that when I think 
of the 178,000 political prisoners now 
destined in Russia and Siberia, there 
is one international entente that has, 
perhaps, been a little premature. 



li 



BRITISH CHARACTER IN THE MAKING 



105 



ENGLAND'S DECLARATION. 



Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 
Editorial, H. L. Brand, Chicago. 

England declared war upon Ger- 
many ostensibly because of the vio- 
lation of Belgian neutrality.* The 
later reason as given out by England 
is, that militarism as exemplified by 
the German army must be forever 
annihilated. Back of this declaration 
from England lies — in plain view — 
the third and probably the all im- 
portant, although not publically ac- 
knowledged reason, namely: the de- 
sire to destroy Germany's fleet of 
warships and of merchant-ships. 

This article concerns itself only 
with England's declaration that mili- 
tarism must be destroyed in the in- 
terest of peace and humanity. 

Let us, citizens of the United 
States, view this declaration unbi- 
asedly. 

Germany's vast army — or war-ma- 
chine, as it is called — was built up 
as a sequence to the Franco-Prussian 
war. Since then it was a dreaded 
power and a powerful factor in main- 
taining or destroying the peace of 
Europe. Up to the month of July, 
it was used only to maintain the 
peace of Europe. But it existed — a. 
dreadful menace in the eyes of other 
nations. 

Why did it exist? 

In the control of treacherous, 
scheming or warlike men it might 
have been used, many times prior to 
July, 1914, to plunge Europe into 
war. But Europe remained at peace. 
Does this not prove that the German 
government used its powerful war- 
machine to maintain peace instead 
of for the purpose of warring upon 
other nations? 

Why, then, have this huge war- 
machine? 

Geographically, Germany lies be- 
tween two powerful countries — Rus- 
sia and France. France has the 
wealth and Russia the men. France 
cherishes hopes of revenge and Rus- 
sia cherishes dreams of expansion 
and conquests. Prance formed an 
alliance with Russia. Both will gain 
by reducing Germany's importance 
and power. France will wipe out an 
old score and perhaps get Alsace and 
Lorraine back. Russia will advance 
the sphere of influence of Slavism 
and perhaps gain some territory. 
Thus, Germany lies uneasy between 
two foes who are moreover banded 
together by an alliance. Should Ger- 
many have looked quietly on while 
French money and genius was not 
only developing a superior army of 
Frenchmen but was also building a 
most formidable war machine in 
Russia? 

Let uSi ask calmly: What would 
the United States have done in a 
similar case? 

Let us take the hypothetical case 
of Canada and Mexico. The Mexi- 
cans do not like us any too well. 
England, in the past, has been our 
greatest enemy. England is allied 
with the Japs. Suppose they receive 
English money and English genius 
and then the Japs start the Mexicans 



on the path of building up an im- 
mense war-machine: Suppose, fur- 
ther, that Mexico's population was 
more than half as large as ours (as 
is the proportion between the popula- 
tion of Prance and Germany) . Would 
we need any other factors in order 
to start the building of a United 
States war-machine? 

But another factor exists in the 
case of Germany. And it is the most 



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SAYS CAP FITS BRITISH. 



(From "The Chicago Tribune," Oc- 
tober 15, 1914.) 

Chicago, Oct. 10. — [Editor of "The 
Tribune."] — The statement by fa- 
mous British authors is character- 
istically British. They accuse other 
nations of daring to do the very 
things which they are doing, and say 
that other nations have no rights. 

These famous British authors ac- 
cuse Germany of holding that "Ger- 
man culture and civilization are so 
superior to those of other nations 
that the ordinary rules of 
morality do not hold in her case." 
This is just exactly the way the Eng- 
lish feel and act; and then the au- 
thors say rightfully: "The views in- 
culcated upon the present genera- 
tion of Germans by many celebrated 
historians and teachers seem to us 
both dangerous and insane." Could 
not the English people apply this to 
themselves? 

And where can you find displayed 
more brazen audacity than when 
these authors state: "We cannot 
admit that any nation has the right 
h'y brute force to impose its culture 
upon other nations." 

Why do not the English apply this 
to their own government? How 
about the Boers, the Egyptians, the 
Hindoos, the Zulus, and lastly the 
Irish in Ireland? 

EUGENE F. O'RIORDAN, M. A., 



important factor. It is the slav- 
power of Russia. 

Let us suppose that Canada was 
settled by a race alien to ours. By 
Slavs, for instance. Canada is larger 
than the United States, just as Russia 
is larger than Germany — but Russia 
can carve twenty Germanys out of 
its domains, while Canada is not even 
twice the size of the United States. 

Still another factor! 

Russia's population is many times 
as large as Germany's, while Can- 
ada's is but one-tenth as great as 
ours. 

And another factor! 

Russia has wonderful natural un- 
touched wealth, vastly greater than 
Germany's. Canada's natural wealth 
is greatly inferior to ours. 

Therefore, to state a parallel case, 
we must bless Canada with several 
million people and untold natural, 
untouched wealth. 

This formidable sleeping giant on 
our north receives English gold and 
English genius with which to build 
up a monster war-machine. (It is 
proven that French gold and French 
genius, for years previous to the last 
French loan of $500,000,000 per 
year for 5 years was given Russia, 
has been poured into Russia for the 
purpose of making it a dangerous 
neighbor for Germany and a valu- 
able aid to Prance when all was 
ready to strike down the conqueror 
of 1870). 

In this hypothetical case, what 
would this nation of ours do? 

But we forget another factor. 
France and Russia are allied for de- 
fensive and offensive actions. 

Therefore, we must further assume 
that Canada and Mexico have formed 
a defensive and offensive alliance. 

What then? 

Would the United States idly look 
on while all the cards were being 
stacked against her? 

Or would the United States (like 
Germany) look with distrustful eyes 
upon the friendship between Canada 
and Mexico: with fearful heart upon 
the growing army in Canada and the 
increasing wealth of Mexico? 

And would not the United States 
(as Germany did) strain every 
muscle ta build up a gigantic war- 
machine so as to prevent a successful 
invasion from north and south? 

We are Americans. Let us be fair. 
Let us not condemn Germany be- 
cause of its war-machine but only 
because of the possible use of it In 
starting war. It is conceded by fair- 
minded men generally, that Germany 
did not use its war-machine to start 
war, but rather to compel peace. 

Let us be fair. Let us not join In 
England's cry that England's cause 
is a holy one because militarism 
must be destroyed. Let us look 
deeper and discover why militarism 
in Germany exists today and then 
decide if England's declaration is sinr 
cere, justifiable and humane. 



*Read also, "Has Germany Vio- 
lated Belgian Neutrality?" reprinted 
elsewhere in this book. Consult also 
the Index and the Table of Contents on 
Militarism. — Editor. 



106 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



HALL CAINE'S APPEAL TO 

NEW YORK IN THE 

GREAT WAR. 

(The following opening para- 
graphs of Mr. Hall Caine's appeal to 
the United States are reprinted from 
the first page of the "Chicago Exam- 
iner" of Sunday, September 20, 1914. 
The appeal continued for several col- 
umns on Page Seven. The second 
part of this firebrand appeal to the 
United States to help take the chest- 
nuts out of the fire for outraged 
England who is trying so hard to 
civilize the "German barbarians" oc- 
cupied three columns in the "Exam- 
iner" of September 21. At the end 
of this precious article the "Exam- 
iner" said: "Hall Caine's next article 
■will discuss what America should do. 
It will be published tomorrow." 

Did you read it? We saved our 
penny! — The Publisher of "War 
Echoes." 

By Hall Caine. 
(The Famous English Novelist and 
Publicist.) 
We in England hear of women go- 
ing In procession in New York under 
the symbol of the white flag, and we 
are not surprised. 

We hear of powerful leading arti- 
cles, powerful sermons and powerful 
speeches in America denouncing the 
theory of war as a means of set- 
tling international disputes in gen- 
eral, and of our present dispute in 
particular, and we are neither aston- 
ished nor offended. 

It would be strange, indeed, it the 
United States, sitting in its geograph- 
ical aloofness across 3,000 miles of 
ocean, should not feel that the spec- 
tacle it is now called upon to wit- 
ness in the theater of Europe — the 
spectacle of two groups of highly civ- 
ilized nations tearing themselves to 
pieces by all the devilish arts of me- 
chanical warfare, involving the lim- 
itless outpouring of blood, the mur- 
dering of hundreds of thousands of 
men, the destruction of villages, the 
burning of historic cities, the impov- 
erishment of the well-to-do classes, 
the starvation of the poor, the desti- 
tution of women with child and the 
outraging of young girls — is a spec- 
tacle of deeper and crueler irony than 
any other of which the history of 
man in this world has record. 

Limitless Self-Deception or Abject 
and Degrading Hypocrisy. 

It would be still more astonishing 
if America, with its ever-conscious 
religiosity, should not feel that the 
fact that these two groups of nations 
should claim to be Christian nations 
and should be praying at the same 
time to the same God for the success 
of their opposing armies, ringing 
their church bells to celebrate their 
victories or to lament their defeats, 
singing on the one hand their Te 
Deum and on the other their Mis- 
erere, and all in the name of Him 
who said "Resist not evil," is proof 
beyond dispute that man is a crea- 
ture capable either of limitless self- 
deception or of the most abject and 
degrading hypocrisy. 

And, feeling like this, it is per- 
\iaps that you in America should do 



your best to persuade yourselves that 
you have neither part nor lot in the 
hideous European saturnalia, and 
that your President has done wisely 
in recommending to you an attitude 
of personal as well as national neu- 
trality. 

Inhuman and Wrong for America to 
Remain Neutral, Author Ai-gues. 

But is your neutrality possible? Is 
it human? Is it right? In the face 
of the appalling spectacle of a great 
part of the family of man in the 
death throes of a struggle which 
must surely affect for good or ill the 
very foundation of human society, is 
it conceivable that 90,000,000 en- 
lightened people in the United States 
bound to the belligerents by the 
closest ties of blood, intellectual in- 
terest, religious sympathy and mate- 
rial welfare, can sit at the other side 
of the Atlantic Ocean and say to each 
other: "This bloody business is none 
of ours; so, for God's sake, let us 
keep out of it?" 

It is because I think it is not pos- 
sible, not human and not right for 
America to adopt even passively an 
attitude of neutrality, that I am mak- 
ing the present appeal to you — ^an 
appeal that is intended to assert with 
whatever power I possess, your re- 
sponsibility under the -moral law for 
the present state, the continuance 
and ultimate outcome of this fright- 
ful European struggle.f 

Does this strike you as an auda- 
cious aim,* seeing that you in Amer- 
ica had nothing on earth to do with 
the making of the accursed war?t 

Have patience with me and I think 
I may be able to show that neither 
had we in England anything to do 
with the making of the war; and yet 
we are in it and w^ere compelled to 
be in it by every clause of the moral 
code which regulates the relation 
of nation to nation or yet man to 
man.t * * * 



President, rallies to the support of 
his plans for mediation.* The Amer- 
ican people are united, irrespective 
of racial sympathies and political 
differences of opinion, in their desire 
for peace. But our pacific demon- 
strations lose the ring of sincerity, 
if we sell powder and rifles to the 
belligerents by the back door while 
we shout for peace from the house 
tops. 

In spite of the President's procla- 
mation, a number of American firms 
are selling even now huge war sup- 
plies to the Allies. 

Japan buys field guns and ammu- 
nition through Mitsui and Company. 
Japan, moreover, purchases dyna- 
mite from the Hercules and from 
the Giant Powder Company in all 
available quantities. 

The Winchester Arms Manufac- 
turing Company has furnished since 
August 5th, 500,000 rifles to a Lon- 
don Armory. 

Russia has bought from the Pow- 
der Trust (Dupont Company) 1,000 
tons of cannon powder and 1,000 
tons of gun powder, delivered by way 
of San Francisco. 

No wonder the Allies are unwill- 
ing to discuss peace terms. Every 
rifle in their hands means a pro- 
longation of the war. Every ton 
of powder means new sacrifices of 
life and property. 

It has been stated that the de- 
cided stand taken by Americans of 
foreign extraction for the countries 
of their affiliation has handicapped 
the President's efforts. Nothing that 
has been said or done by any Amer- 
ican of foreign extraction weigfhs as 
heavily in the balance against peace 
as one pound of powder or dynamite 
furnished by American concerns to 
any of the belligerents. How long 
will the Government permit the 
greed for profit on the part of a few 
traflnckers in ammunition to stand 
in the way of the noble endeavor of 
the President and the fervent wish 
of the entire nation for peace? 



*We wonder whether this appeal 
struck President Wilson "as an au- 
dacious aim" and whether the Chief 
Magistrate of this strictly neutral 
country appreciates the way in 
which the Hon. William Randolph 
Hearst is trying to live up to the 
President's appeal for STRICT NEU- 
TRALITY. — The Publisher of "War 
Echoes." 

fEmphasized in bold type by the 
Editor. 



THWARTING THE PRESIDENT'S 
PEACE PLANS. 



(From "The Fatherland," New 
York, September 30, 1914.) 

If President Wilson can bring 
about peace in Europe, he will shed 
lustre upon his administration and 
add to the undying glory of the 
United States. There can be no 
doubt that, both for ethical and for 
practical reasons, the people of the 
United States would like to see the 
end of fratricide in Europe. Even 
Mr. William Randolph Hearst, the 
most unrelenting antagonist of the 



*If interested to know how the 
Hon. William Randolph Hearst 
rallies to the support of the Presi- 
dent's plans for mediation, consult 
index for "Sit Down On Hearst." — 
Editor. 



FAIR FLAY WAS DENIED THE 
RUSSIAN EMPIRE. 



What Might Have Occurred Had Jus- 
tice Been Accorded the Muscovite. 



Britain's Tardy Y'lelding. 



Momentous Utterances Made by Sir 
Edward Grey in the House of Com- 
mons. 



From "Chicago Daily News," Feb., 
1915. 

The "eastern question" that for 
nearly a century has unsettled the 
politics of all Europe is reaching final 
dissolution — not solution, but disso- 
lution. 

The millions of money and thou- 
sands of lives that Great Britain has 
sacrificed during the past fifty years 
to keep tottering Turkey upon the 



BRITISH CHARACTER IN THE MAKING 



107 



map of Europe have been worse than 
thrown away. Had Russia been al- 
lowed to go to Stamboul, instead of 
being attacked on the Crimea, a 
series of wars that have distracted 
central Europe never would have oc- 
curred. Had she been permitted to 
remain at the Bosporus in 1878, when 
her soldiers had fought their way 
thither, the Russo-Japanese and Bal- 
kan wars would not have taken place. 
Russia would have expanded 
toward the warm waters of the Medi- 
terranean instead of toward the frigid 
shores of Kamtchatka; Manchuria 
never would have attracted the atten- 
tion of her statesmen; Japan would 
have lived in peace with all the 
world except China; every citizen 
of the Russian empire, poor or rich, 
would have stood higher in the so- 
cial scale; Germany would have been 
content to absorb Austria and pos- 
sessed two fine ports in the Adriatic 
almost as near to the United States 
and much more serviceable for her 
colonization schemes in Africa and 
the far east. 

Had Russia Received Justice. 

In short, Fulton Chambers writes 
in the "Brooklyn Eagle," had Russia 
been accorded the fair play to which 
she was entitled all the world would 
be different! 

Sir Edward Grey, British secretary 
of foreign affairs, rose in the house of 
commons the other day and an- 
nounced formally that Great Britain 
is now "entirely in sympathy with the 
aspirations of Russia to go to Con- 
stantinople"! He declined to admit 
that Russia's foreign minister, M. 
SazanofC, had declared the czar's in- 
tention to permanently occupy the 
city at the Golden Horn, but said, in 
so many words, England would no 
longer oppose objeetions thereto. 
How momentous! 

Although fully expected, this is 
great news for humanity. It means 
the ultimate amalgamation of Rou- 
mania and the Balkan states into a 
great kingdom, of which Hungary 
will ultimately become a part. 

Russia will sweep over Armenia 
and Anatolia — satisfied to allow the 
Bulgarians to repossess Adrianople. 
She will be content with Turkish ter- 
ritory as far west as the Tchataldje 
lines of defense, the Gallipoli penin- 
sula, which safeguards the Darda- 
nelles, and complete dismantling of 
the present forts on the Asiatic side 
of that waterway. 

War's Most Important Outcome. 

Brusa has practically reassumed 
the aspect of the Turkish capital. 
Thither the official records and con- 
tents of the treasury, much or little, 
have been removed from Stamboul. 

Russia will absorb all ports along 
the Asiatic coast of the Black sea. 
Turks given to agriculture must seek 
the rich soil of Mesopotamia or re- 
turn to the undefined but arid wastes 
east of the Caspian sea, from whence 
they originally emerged to blight all 
eastern Europe for 700 years! 

Nobody in all this earth cares 
where the Turks go, if they keep 
away from the habitations of civilized 
mankind. Eight bells have rung for 
Turkey! 

Realization of Russian ambition to 



have unrestricted access to the sea 
through the Bosporus is far and away 
the most important outcome of the 
tremendous struggle now convulsing 
Europe. And the curious feature 
about its concession is that it de- 
velops naturally out of the fortunes 
of war! 

Whether or not Germany holds 
Russia safe on the frontier of East 
Prussia matters little to her now as- 
sured destiny! 

All things are possible for her now! 
She will cease wasting her energies 
on conquests in Central Asia. Pro- 
jected irrigation of the vast Kizil and 
Kaa deserts lying east and south of 
the Aral sea will be deferred indefin- 
itely. 

Glorious Prospects for Russia. 

The Black sea, classic Propontus, 
will be converted into a Russian lake. 
It never freezes and nothing stands 
to prevent Russia from becoming one 
of the maritime nations of the globe. 

Situation matters little if a nation's 
ports have behind them a hinterland 
capable of supplying cargoes for their 
argosies! Venice was the mightiest 
of sailor nations for nearly two cen- 
turies, although the location of her 
chief port was as wretched as could 
possibly be imagined. 

It is a safe prediction that Russia's 
capital will be removed to Moscow 
and that Petrograd will become a port 
of little more importance to the em- 
pire than Archangel, Odessa, Sebas- 
topol and other Black Sea cities of 
less importance will welcome mer- 
chant steamers from all parts of the 
world. * * * 



BEARDS BRITISH MON IN HIS 
DEN. 



George Raffalovich Dares to Write 

for liondon New Age of 

Hypocrisies. 



From the "New Age," Iiondon. 
(By George Raffalovich.) 

Let me make one more attempt to 
bring before your readers the reality 
of the tragedy of the Ukraine. One 
does not expect much from Mr. T. P. 
O'Connor, but his last dictum, that we 
are fighting the cause of the small na- 
tionalities, makes sad reading to me. 
It is so utterly untrue. While we are 
fighting, two nations at least are be- 
ing crushed to death by Russia. Fin- 
land is moribund and the Ukraine 
movement loses its Piedmont. I am 
only concerned with the latter case 
because of the tremendous spiritual 
and intellectual possibilities I believe 
to lie in a free Ukraine. 

Dr. Dillon, in the Telegraph, as- 
sured us that the Ruthenians were 
Russians at heart. I know that is con- 
trary to the truth. It is so much 
easier to take the work of Russian 
Nationalist journalists. 

It is useless to say that the Little 
Russians are Russians, unless you 
concede at the same time that the 
Russians are not Russians. Let me 
explain. The word Rusj was used 
centuries ago to describe the inhabit- 
ants of the Ukraine. Muscovy ab- 
sorbed them later on, and the name 
of Muscovy was dropped and that of 
Rossia, a very similar one, adopted 
for the whole. If you ask a Ukrain- 



ian what he is, he will use the word 
Rusiky to describe his language and 
Rossiysky for that of the Great Rus- 
sian. 

Another argument is that the Uk- 
rainians are as happy as they are. 
Yes, so did the seventeenth century 
landlords say that the peasants of 
France were pleased to be treated as 
cattle. But they were not cattle and 
proved it. That is the great trouble 
of the Ukraine. It is a criminal of- 
fense in the Russian Ukraine to teach 
the Ukrainian language. Letters ad- 
dressed in Ukrainian are not deliv- 
ered. 

Only the worst and least moral of 
Ukrainians will engage to teach Rus- 
sian to their pupils, and the whole 
population is thus gradually demoral- 
ized. But the great-little Wellses go 
to Russia, others of the same stripe go 
to Galicia; they question, being 
strangers, the only people they can 
question, an ambitious priest, a dis- 
satisfied official, a land owner of 
Polish or Jewish or Muscovite race, 
or a few peasants, carefully selected 
by their guide, in carefully selected 
districts. 

I do not imagine them; I know 
them, and after months of hard, and 
I can assure you, wholly disinterested 
work on their behalf, I have been able 
to reach the heart of those Ukrain- 
ians of Russia who dared to speak. 
I have spoken with scores of them, 
poor and rich. 

The truth is that the people of Eng- 
land do not believe in their hearts in 
the rights of small nationalities. 

Take the Belgian case. The viola- 
tion of Belgium as an argument used 
against Germany is weak. We know 
very well that Prussia will not retain 
Belgium after the war, even though 
Sir Roger Casement and the Alba- 
nians are said to have sided with the 
Kaiser. We have had a good deal of 
evidence showing that the Belgian 
government and ours knew long ago 
that Germany had altered her war 
plans to fit in with the Franco-Rus- 
sian alliance and meant to pass 
through Belgium willy-nilly. 

Let us forever drop this silly prat- 
tle about helping small nations. We 
allow Russia, our ally, who depends 
today on our staff officers for the. 
brains of> her army and on our Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer and our Ger- 
man-Jewish financiers for several mil- 
lion pounds monthly, to establish her 
government (save the mark!) over- 
Europeans who are not Russians. 

Our ears will be closed, our eyes; 
will be shut. What the Ukrainians-, 
need is a friendly statesman with two' 
million bayonets behind him. This-, 
they will never get from England un- 
til it suits England's book. Cease> 
then to rav^ about chivalry. Do not 
insult our intelligence by prating; 
about the sacred cause of smaller na- 
tionalities. Or else help them all 
alike! 



It's about time somebody were sit- 
ting down on Hearst, and sitting 
down hard. 

Only a few weeks ago he was using 
his newspapers to attempt to force 
this country into war with Mexico 
and brutally cartooning President 
Wilson and Secretary Bryan. 



108 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



THE "BARBARIAN" HAJjIiUCINA- 
TION. 



The General Suggestion About Ger- 
many the War-Seeker. 



By L. Niessen-Deiters, Bonn. 

Motto: "Hier tut sich das Entsetz- 
liche auf: Die Liige wirkt genau so 
stark wie die Wahrheit, denn sie 
wird geglaubt!" "Here the mon- 
strous fact becomes evident; a lie 
has the same power as the truth, for 
it is believed." (War Essays by 
Houston Stewart Chamberlain; 
Bruckmann, Munich.) 

On a previous occasion there has 
been a general suggestion which 
spread from one country to another 
like an infectious disease, raging 
most wildly in the name of Culture 
just against the most progressive ele- 
ments. The civilized humanity of 
today looks back upon it with a pain- 
ful feeling of shame, and even the 
poorest scavenger shrugs his shoul- 
ders in disgust at people who were 
once capable of believing such non- 
sense. And yet, at one time states- 
man and beggar took up friendly 
party for this shameful absurdity; 
for this hallucination of the witches. 
Today, in this enlightened twen- 
tieth century, we have something 
new. A new general suggestion: — 
the barbarian hallucination. 

Can there be anything more gro- 
tesque or stupid than to stamp one 
of the most progressive nations of 
the world, with printer's ink, as dan- 
gerous barbarians who must be killed 
in the name of Culture? Can there 
be anything more absurd than this; 
the only country that has nothing to 
gain by a war, but has all the fruits 
of forty-three years' labor to lose, 
- just this country is said to have 
caused the war? And yet, statesman 
and beggar are again taking up 
friendly party for this new shameful 
absurdity — for this barbarian hallu- 
cination! 

But this new madness is something 
more than merely shameful; it is 
malicious. Though its supports are, 
as on the previous occasion, lack of 
knowledge and fear, still its origin 
is different; it has been bred in full 
consciousness in a criminal manner, 
and it is being criminally nourished 
in full consciousness. What they de- 
serve is told us with refreshing 
clearness by the author of the above 
motto: "Liars who destroy the 
peace of Europe ought to be hanged! " 
Houston Stewart Chamberlain, an 
Englishman, says so as the result of 
a cutting criticism of the English 
Harmsworth Press, that newspaper 
trust, the most widely read paper 
of which everybody knows is the 
"Times." In France and Russia they 
could erect gallows with an equal 
right. 

Even during the darkest period of 
the belief in witches there were a 
few independent minds that kept 
aloof from this general suggestion 
of the barbarian hallucination. Hous- 
ton Stewart Chamberlain, the histo- 
rian and ethnologist who wrote "The 
Rudiments of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury," is one of them. A short time 



ago he published six "War Essays," 
all independent of each other and 
treating on six different subjects. 
But through all six runs like a red 
streak the parrying off of the barba- 
rian hallucination and the very clear 
knowledge as to who, though mod- 
estly and in secret, has not only pre- 
pared and fanned into flame the bar- 
barian hallucination, but in reality 
the whole war as' well. On the very 
second page of his book he says quite 
openly, "From the very start Eng- 
land has been the moving power. 
England wanted the war and has 
brought it about; England has ef- 
fected the estrangement of Russia 
from Germany; England has been 
constantly inciting France." We 
must agree, however, that it is not 
the English people, who have been 
disgracefully deceived both by their 
famous Harmsworth Press and by 
their ministers, not the English peo- 
ple who cold-bloodedly decided upon 
this course some years ago in fur- 
therance of material interests, but a 
mere handful of men. 

True enough, the incitement of the 
English has been very successful; 
just as successful as the incitement 
of the whole world. On this sub- 
ject Chamberlain says: "On my last 
visits to England, in 1907 and 1908, 
I found everywhere a startlingly 
blind hatred towards Germany, and 
the impatient expectation of a war 
of destruction." On the other hand, 
he gives proofs, based on his forty- 
five years' thorough knowledge of 
Germany, that nowhere in the whole 
of Germany during all this time he 
has found any inclination whatever 
for war: "In the whole of Germany 
there has not lived a single man dur- 
ing the past forty-three years who 
has wanted the war; no! not one! 
Anyone who declares the contrary 
lies, either knowingly or unwit- 
tingly!" 

Still (as every child knows), it 
gradually became more and more 
difficult for Germany to preserve the 
peace that was so necessary and for 
which she so much longed. Mr. 
Chamberlain, the Englishman, cred- 
its the Emperor with having most 
persistently preserved it under the 
most trying circumstances: "Wher- 
ever during the last ten years the 
situation became incompatible with 
Germany's honor — and England took 
care of this possibility — he it was, 
the Emperor, who invariably main- 
tained peace." 

Political Germany — the post-Bis- 
marck one — is sharply criticized in 
one of the six essays. By the way, 
it is a criticism which every real pa- 
triot ought to read attentively. Seen 
from the standpoint of "barbarian 
hallucination" even this severe criti- 
cism almost becomes a compliment. 
It proves that Germany — that peace- 
destroying and all-threatening Ger- 
many — has not known how to bring 
forth men who were a match for the 
warlike intrigues of a Grey, an Iswol- 
sky or a Delcassf. And this is a fact 
much to be regretted. In a previous 
article I have already said, "It was 
a master stroke of English politics 
to push onto Germany, that had 
struggled for peace up to the very 
last moment, to all outward appear- 



ances the hated role of the attacker." 
Amongst people who are incapable 
of forming an opinion of their own, 
this one fact will long be nourish- 
ment for the barbarian hallucination: 
He who declares the war begins it; 
Germany issued the first declaration 
— consequently Germany caused the 
war! Witches have red eyes — that 
man over there has red eyes — conse- 
quently he is a sorcerer! The logic 
of the two is about on an equal level; 
but when was there logic in general 
suggestion? The logic of a fanatical 
crowd has always been: "Crucify 
him!" 

Chamberlain fully believes Ger- 
many, that stands so much in need 
of political reform, to be quite capa- 
ble of carrying out these reforms, 
but when speaking of German cul- 
ture and German liberty his tone in- 
creases to admiration. As regards 
the latter quality, in particular, he 
expresses himself in a manner consti- 
tuting the biggest possible contrast 
to all the catchwords now being 
bawled into our ears; he attacks 
most energetically one special type 
of barbarian hallucination — the mad- 
ness about the German bondage. 

Well! The disciple of Kant goes 
deeper and more thoroughly into the 
idea of "freedom" than on the half- 
mouldy commons of Egalite and Fra- 
ternity, or the permission to walk on 
the lawns in public gardens. To him 
freedom, the summum tonum of cul- 
ture, is not a political phrase handed 
down to us by our forefathers, but 
an idea. He looks for freedom in the 
inner truth, not in the outward 
slackening of the reins; freedom is 
not free will, but truth! And he 
finds it not in the street, but in that 
internal freedom of thought common 
to great reformers and to the great- 
est thinkers. "A non-German free- 
dom is no freedom!" is therefore his 
watchword. And now compare this 
with a few examples of the freedom 
so clamorously eulogized nowadays. 
"There is no need to talk about the 
freedom Russia can give; what free- 
dom poor misguided and dissipated 
Prance — that land of political cor- 
ruption and hollow phrases — can of- 
fer us, needs just as little explana- 
tion. But the English idea of free- 
dom is the right of might, and this 
for herself alone; in the whole of 
England's vast colonial empire not 
a single spark of intellectual life can 
be pointed to; there is nothing but 
cattle-dealers, slave-holders, storers 
of goods, mining exploiters, and 
everywhere we find that uncondi- 
tional despotism and brutality hold- 
ing sway which crop up everywhere 
where the culture of mind does not 
permanently banish them." As re- 
gards the English "culture of the 
mind" he sarcastically quotes the 
words of the Swedish writer Stef- 
fens: among the English there was 
"a superstitious fear of the mind 
taking any part in the working out 
of human affairs." 

He, the Englishman, cannot be de- 
ceived like the foreigner by that tiny 
clique of highly intellectual and in- 
dependent men of letters, nor by that 
equally tiny clique of political and 
financial giants that rule over and 



BRITISH CHARACTER IN THE MAKING 



109 



push into the background all the rest 
of the people. He, the Englishman, 
has his own opinions about the ever- 
repeated phrase about English free- 
dom. He inquires: "Where is the 
fieedom of a people that is under 
the absolute control of such a tiny 
minority? Where is there freedom 
in this oppressive uniformity of pub- 
lic life?" All of the same stamp! 
The same pants, the same hat, the 
same scarf, the same craze for sport, 
the same false reading matter, the 
same political opinion — the last- 
named after the motto: "If you 
won't be my brother I'll crack your 
skull for you!" Chamberlain relates 
how, on an occasion, he was the only 
one to wear liberal colors, which re- 
sulted in his getting a good thrashing 
for it at the hands of a paid gang. 
He adds, not without a certain sense 
of humor: "On that day I learned 
more about English constitution and 
English ideas of freedom than I ever 
learned later on from the books of 
Hallam and Gneist." 

In the German idea of freedom he 
sees, on the other hand, an intellec- 
tual possession that has been ac- 
quired little by little during centuries 
of hard fighting, both with the in- 
tellect and with the sword — charac- 
terized by the conscious subordina- 
tion of quite unique and independent 
individuals to the welfare of the 
whole. This conscious and inten- 
tional action in place of the mechan- 
ical repetition of the village greens, 
a repetition which often enough 
proves to be of the darkest possible 
origin — as in the case of the barba- 
rian nonsense — this is "freedom" to 
him. And in this sense "the sur- 
vival and further development of 
freedom on earth depend on the vic- 
tory of the German, arms and also 
on Germany's remaining true to her- 
self after the victory." 

Chamberlain, who is proud of be- 
ing an Englishman, has not arrived 
unthinkingly at this condemnation of 
his native country. He gives his rea- 
sons for it in a historical study of 
the career of the present political 
England, which he significantly in- 
troduces With the following quota- 
tion from Ruskin: "The English- 
man no longer avows, T believe in 
God the Almighty Father and Cre- 
ator of Heaven and Earth,' but, T 
believe in the Father Dollar, the all- 
powerful.' " From the conquest of 
Anglo-Saxon England by the Nor- 
mans and the consequent breaking 
up of the people into two classes, by 
way of the great "turning-point 
which, from about the sixteenth cen- 
tury onward, made merry agricultu- 
ral England into a sea-faring, impe- 
rious trading England — by way of 
Lord Bolingbroke's policy, which is 
upheld to this day, according to 
which, on the one hand England is 
to have a strong fleet, whereas on 
the other hand it is-in the interests 
of England to let the continental 
powers fight against each other with- 
out having to support an army her- 
self, by way of England's develop- 
ment into a state, uncommonly like 
the present-day one, which carries 
on the cruel slave trade as long as 
it is profitable to her, but which dis- 
covers it to be her duty to enter a 



moral protest as soon as she has 
need of the unfortunate negroes her- 
self" — by way of this slow transfor- 
mation of the national character he 
at last comes to what he calls "a day 
on which history and character cut 
each other" and we suddenly get a 
peep into its innermost depths. 

Such a day was the one on which 
Warren Hastings was acquitted by 
the House of Lords. 

Warren Hastings, the man who 
nearly doubled the income of the 
East India Company, who started the 
opium trade, never committed a 
crime himself. But he attained his 
ends by permitting and provoking 
horrible and inhuman deeds the likes 
of which were never since heard of 
till — as Chamberlain says — "the 
charming Belgians occupied the Con- 
go Territory." Against this mon- 
strous immorality for the sake of 
enrichment to England, the honest 
and respectable part of the country 
once more raised objection in the 
person of Burke. For ten years all 
manner of tricks were employed to 
prolong the trial of Hastings. For 
six whole days Burke spoke on be- 
half of England's honor. "My 
Lords," said he, "if you close your 
eyes to these horrors you will con- 
vert England into a nation of receiv- 
ers of stolen goods, a nation of hypo- 
crites, a nation of liars, a nation of 
sharpers!" It was of no avail! 
Hastings was acquitted — Burke lost; 
England's honor was lighter than her 
ruoneybags. 

Alongside the new England stood 
on that day the modern statesman, 
the man of irreproachable character 
in private life, but who for the sake 
of England's moneybags is capable of 
any lie, any treason, any perjury — ■ 
capable of tolerating any crime and 
every meanness. Chamberlain adds, 
"Just such a man is Sir Edward 
Grey." 

That is the political England and 
these are the men who, in consid- 
eration of the carefully prepared 
war of destruction against Germany, 
have for years been preparing and 
supporting this general suggestion 
of barbarian hallucination! These 
are the men who for several years 
have shunned no lie, no perjury, no 
treachery to poison the public opin- 
ion against Germany, who supported 
behind the scenes any anti-German 
tendency, who were never tired of 
secretly inciting, provoking, encour- 
aging — who publicly occupied the 
chair at the peace conferences so 
that, as Chamberlain says, "the war 
might be sure not to be avoided," 
the war that was to give back . to 
England all those rich markets 
which an intelligent and industrious 
brother-tribe had begun to conquer. 

Warren Hastings has found many 
disciples, but those of Burke have 
died out. For even Chamberlain, 
that Englishman who has the cour- 
age today to stand up for the truth, 
no longer believes In the honor and 
truthfulness of his native country. 
He has so little faith in it that he 
openly expresses his fears lest Ger- 
many, political Germany, should one 
day again permit herself to be mis- 
led by England. "This might be dis- 
astrous. Therefore 1, an English- 



man, must have the courage to speak 
the truth. Nothing can rescue us 
all, but a powerful, victorious and 
wise Germany." 

It is out of conviction that Cham- 
berlain, an Englishman, most se- 
verely attacks that nonsense about 
barbarian hallucination. "Where," 
he asks, "is the country of which 
even a Napoleon could say he had 
devastated and impoverished it by 
taxation; that he had not lost in 
Germany in all those years a single 
soldier by murder, i. e., by francti- 
reurs? Where is the army that takes 
with it expert artists to see to the 
preservation of works of art even in 
the enemy's country?" Where have 
the German soldiers — the "only ones 
that are reliably disciplined" — 
wrought havoc like barbarians? The 
American reporters said "in the next 
village." The family that had suf- 
fered, that complained on its own 
behalf, has never been found. "Yes, 
we! We were lucky, we had good 
people but at this place or at that 
one it must have been awful!" Al- 
ways rumors, never facts! And yet 
the ineradicable belief in Heaven 
knows what sort of horrors! Cham- 
berlain says of this, "We may see 
how true it is that human fancy leads 
human reason by the nose!" And 
under the conditions of the present 
day press one can only add, "espe- 
cially when human fancy is led by 
the nose itself." 

The disciple of Kant treats with 
biting irony the reviling "cultured," 
something after the style of Jacques 
Dalcroze (or is he called Jacob 
Dalkes?). "It is always an advan- 
tage to know that about which we 
are to form an opinion," says he. 
"Most probably, for instance, Jacques 
Dalcroze does not know much more 
about Germany than that she has a 
liberal purse, and supposes in all 
earnest that with his musical gym- 
nastics he has taught the first ' 
elements of culture to the coun- 
try of Diirer, Bach, Kant ■ and 
Goethe." And he compares this man 
of hue and cry with his fellow-coun- 
tryman Carlyle who, just because he 
had thoroughly investigated not only 
the intellectual life, but also the ca- 
reer of the German nation, loved 
Germany from the bottom of his 
heart, the whole of Germany, includ- 
ing both Prussia and the army. 
Chamberlain says, "Today the army 
is, and deserves to be, the backbone 
of the German nation; the German 
army is today the most important 
moral school in the world." Includ- 
ing "militarism" — and I should like 
to wager that not one in a thousand 
foreigners is capable of forming any- 
thing like a positive idea of what 
this word really means. The whole 
of Germany, right down from Goethe 
to the General Staff — not that neb- 
ular Germany of Messrs. Haldane & 
Co. "A single Carlyle outweighs a 
thousand confused Haldanes," ex- 
claims Chamberlain, "not to mention 
every leader-writer in the world! 
How stupid envy and hate make men! 
Three great nations have been equip- 
ping themselves for years and form- 
ing a criminal plot to invade and de- 
stroy Germany, that peace-loving and 
hard-working country which threat- 



110 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



ened nobody. And now, because 
Germany, the wise, smart and brave 
Germany, defends herself, and that 
with a giant strength that had never 
been suspected, she is affronted with 
being the den of a supposed mili- 
tarism and recommended to the ha- 
tred of all. It is just the same as 
if burglars were to complain because 
the police were baflBed in their well- 
laid plans and to become morally dis- 
gusted in consequence. Sometimes 
it strikes us as if we were dealing 
with stupid youngsters who had not 
yet had practice enough to make two 
ideas fit into each other." 

Here Mr. Chamberlain makes a 
mistake! There are a few young- 
sters among them who are generally 
quite smart, but they have neither 
the courage nor the strength to rid 
themselves of this general sugges- 
tion — at present they are hopelessly 
under the spell of this great nonsense 
- — this barbarian hallucination. 

Chamberlain goes a step farther 
and says, "The foreigner who does 
not love Germany does not kaow the 
nation." And the causes of this lack 



of knowledge seem to be such as the 
present "defenders of culture" will 
least care to hear. "About ancient 
Germany they knew nothing," says 
he, "and for modern Germany they 
themselves are too ancient — let us 
employ their favorite word in the 
right sense for once: — they are too 
barbarian to be able to understand 
it.* For these quarrelsome gray- 
beards, who walk about on rotten 
crutches of abstract 'freedom' and 
•equality,' cannot comprehend that 
freedom is only to be obtained by 
sacrificing their own personal des- 
potism, and equality only by a gen- 
eral subordination of all to one com- 
mon head, and not by promoting 
every soldier to the rank of Field- 
Marshal, as is done on the Island 
of Hayti." 

Will there come a time when this 
general suggestion dies away? Will 
the time come when people look back 
upon the craziness of this artificially- 
bred barbarian hallucination with 
feelings similar to those with which 
they look down upon that nonsense 
about witches? 



We Germans do not know. We 
have to put up with this humbug 
and work on unswervingly — at 
that culture for which people were 
formerly burnt at the stake, and for 
which nowadays others would like to 
kill them — at that serious, stern, en- 
lightened and sacred culture of in- 
tellect which idler nations find too 
troublesome and too uncomfortable. 

Chamberlain carries his hopes 
much further. He prophesies, not 
only the day on which this halluci- 
nation about barbarianism will be 
shaken off — on the strength of his 
own feelings he believes in a good 
deal more. He believes there will 
be great change and says: 

"The present generation will no 
longer live to see this great trans- 
formation from hatred to love. But 
the day will come. I, as a foreigner, 
predict it out of the depths of a uni- 
versal, well-founded and imperturb- 
able conviction." — Hamburger Frem- 
denblatt. 



•The Editor of "War Echoes" empha- 
sizes these phrases. 



British Principles and Character in Action 



WHO IS AMERICA'S ENEMY? 



Translation of Editorial. 
Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 

We are bound to turn once more 
to the editorial of the London Times 
we were dealing with yesterday. 

True enough it is bestowing too 
much honor upon the London Times, 
but we feel obliged not as Germans, 
but chiefly as citizens of this coun- 
try, to save our fellow citizens from 
drinking out of the public wells which 
are poisoned by the London Times 
day by day. 

We appreciate fully that the Lon- 
don Times is not in love with that 
Germany which since 1870 with ref- 
erence to industry, to commerce and 
especially with reference to her ex- 
port trade became a rival to England 
to be reckoned with. And we do not 
blame the London Times for having 
some ill feeling because Germany suc- 
ceeded In building up a mighty navy to 
safeguard her commerce. And if the 
London Times deemed it proper to 
sound eternally war against Germany 
civilized mankind will regret the actual 
outbreak of the war, but will admit, as 
we readily admit, that it is quite com- 
prehensible, viewed from the stand- 
point of English national and com- 
mercial policy, that England Is anxious 
to shove aside a progressive and, 
therefore, the more disagreeable com- 
petitor. 

But what has that war to do with the 
United States? Why does the London 
Times turn constantly to this country, 
which measures the situation from the 
height of a solemn neutrality? Why 
does the London Times try and try 
again to stir the people of America 
against Germany? Why does the Lon- 
don Times waste an ocean of ink in 
the vain effort (let us hope) to con- 



vert Americans to the belief that a 
victorious Germany is going to crush 
the United States as a world power? 

Where are the moral, where the 
economic motives, that ever could or 
would induce Germany to throw the 
war glove into the face of this West- 
ern giant. It seems as If the suspicion 
that the London Times endeavors to 
arouse feeling against Germany is to be 
converted to the proverbial "stop thief 
of the thief. 

Not a victorious Germany, but a 
victorious England whose supremacy 
on the waves will be confirmed In case 
of victory, is liable to constitute a 
danger for the United States. 

Let England first become the sole and 
omnipotent ruler of the waves and she 
will use her power immediately to re- 
vive a past that she never has buried. 
She will be seized by the insane ambi- 
tion to become once more ruler of 
the world, which was ruled by her 
once. 

Just 100 years ago England was 
forced by the United States to a peace 
treaty. It means that England was 
in war with this country. We were 
forced by England to shed blood first 
for our political and later for ou» com- 
mercial independence. And England 
never ceased to plot against the United 
States. Then the Indians were stirred 
against us, then England put her 
finger in the pie of the civil war in the 
hope to see her interests furthered. 
And in the still unsettled Mexican ques- 
tion It was once more England who 
joined the opponents of this govern- 
ment. ♦ * * 



"There," said a famous German 
diplomat, pointing to a box marked 
Made in Germany, "is the Briton's 
grievance against us. Too many 
things are made in Germany." — 
From "The World's Work," Septem- 
ber, 1914. 



WHEN WASHINGTON WAS CAP- 
TUBED ONE HUNDRED 
YEARS AGO. 



Capital Was Burned by British Naval 
and Military Forces Under Gen- 
eral Ross, in War of 1812. 



(From "The Boston Herald," August 
23, 1914.) 

Fly, Monroe, fly! Run, Armstrong, 

run! 
Were the last words 6t Madison. 

One hundred years ago a news- 
paper, alluding with grim humor to 
some of the ridiculous scenes which 
attended the capture and burning of 
Washington by the British, remarked 
that if within the next century some 
eminent poet should see fit to write 
an epic on the battle which produced 
panic In the capital of the United 
States, he might fittingly conclude his 
lines with the above couplet. 

It will be just 100 years ago to- 
morrow, August 24, that the capital 
of this country was ignominiously 
captured and ruthlessly sacked by a 
force of British soldiers and sailors 
under the command of Gen. Robert 
Ross and Admiral George Cockburn. 
In many respects it was one of the 
most spectacular events of the war 
of 1812, the last military struggle In 
which two English-speaking nations 
have been engaged. 

The treaty of Utrecht, which closed 
that half-hearted conflict, was signed 
in December, 1814, but, as cable and 
wireless were then lacking, news of 
the peace treaty did not reach Amer- 
ica until February, 1815. The peace 
celebration program, planned for dif- 
ferent localities, has been suddenly 
disarranged by the unlooked-for Eu- 



BRITISH CHARACTER IN ACTION 







mi^. |lirl5 i' 


1 



ropean war, which has involved Eng- 
land, but the committee has an- 
nounced that it intends to carry out 
so much of the original program as 
circumstances will permit. 

The uncomplimentary lines on 
President Madison s.uggested by the 
editor for the use of some future poet 
had some basis in fact. In the more 
politely worded records of that affair 
it is stated that when Madison, with 
his secretary of State, James Mon- 
roe, who became the next President, 
and his secretary of war, John Arm- 
strong, rode out to the field of Bla- 
densburg, where the battle was 
fought which decided the fate of 
Washington, he found things so hope- 
lessly confused that he turned to his 
cabinet aids and said: 

"I think it is best to let the mili- 
tary commanders attend to this 
thing, and we had better retire to 
the rear. * * * " 

Leaving the Capitol in flames, Ross 
and Cockburn went to the White House. 
They found nothing of value except the 
notes sent to Mrs. Madison by her hus- 
band, which had been left in a desk 
drawer, and the British officers car- 
ried them away in great glee. The sol- 
diers did the rest, smashing the furni- 
ture and then setting fire to it. 

The treasury building was next set 
on fire, and to these confiagrations 
was added that of the navy yard, ig- 
nited by one of the American officers. 
On the next day the buildings occu- 
pied by the departments of state and 
war were burned, in addition to two 
or three private houses. The only 
public buildings that escaped the fury 
of the Invaders was the wooden struc- 
ture used for the postofflce and patent 
office. 



INDIA PACATA 

By Verestchagin 

(By Courtesy of the "Open Court") 

Late in the afternoon one of the 
severest storms in the history of Wash- 
ington broke over the city. Trees were 
torn up by the roots, roofs ripped off 
houses and other damage done. After 
the storm was over, Ross and Cock- 
burn decided to depart, and by night- 
fall were well on their way toward 



ENGLAND'S FAIiSE STEPS. 



From tbe N. Y. Evening Post. 

"The course proposed is without 
sanction in international law. How 
is it justified? By the conduct of 
our adversary." 

This Is an extract from a London 
newspaper. It is commenting upon an 
action, not of the German Government, 
but of the British. Yet it will be noted 
that it goes over precisely to the Ger- 
man position. What is International 
law compared with "necessity ?" Any- 
thing is warranted which you must 
do in order to smash an adversary 
before he smashes you. Mr. Asquith 
declared in Parliament that England 
was not going to be prevented from 
working her will on her enemy in 
"judicial niceties." This is in line 
with the comment of the London 
Morning Post, that Great Britain is 
now throwing into the sea "the whole 
strangling web" of "judicial net- 
work." There can be no doubt what 
this means. The judicial niceties are 
the accepted principles of interna- 
tional law. The judicial network is 
a solemn international agreement — 
the Declaration of Paris — to which 
England set her hand and seal, but 
which she now proposes coolly to vio- 
late. * * • 



their ships. They set fire to the long 
wooden bridge across the Potomac as 
they left. 

The British army was in the capital 
less than 24 hours, but during that 
time they destroyed the best buildings 
in Washington, consigned thousands of 
dollars' worth of property to the 
flames, put the President, his wife, all 
of the cabinet and, from contemporary 
accounts, more than half the inhabi- 
tants of the city, to flight, and gave an 
opportunity for the heaping of violent 
invectives upon the heads of the Pres- 
ident and his advisers for the weak- 
ness of their war preparations and 
management. This opportunity was 
not lost. Mrs. Madison spoke truth- 
fully when, in the letter to her sister, 
she mentioned having heard of much 
hostility toward the President. 

The utter Incapacity of every one in 
authority is something which histo- 
rians have been unable to explain satis- 
factorily. One of the British officers, 
in writing of the affair, said that the 
capture of Washington was owing more 
to the faults of the Americans them- 
selves than to any other cause. The 
secretary of war, John Armstrong, had 
merited the contempt of a large part 
of the population, owing to the in- 
capacity he showed in managing the 
Canadian campaign in preceding years. 
Now, with Washington in ruins, the 
demand that he be retired was so well 
justified that, on September 3, at the 
request of the President, Armstrong 
resigned and spent part of his latter 
years in writing a history of the war. 



England's only objection to the 
bear that walks like a man is that 
he doesn't walk fast enough. — From 
the "New York American." 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



BUTTRESSING OF ENGLAND'S 

CASE. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 

New York. 

Herman Ridder. 

The buttressing of England's case 
before the world goes merrily on. 
Another White Paper has appeared 
and, like its predecessors, throws the 
whole blame for the war on the 
German Emperor. Sir Arthur Conan 
Doyle arises from a sick bed to read 
Nietzsche and Treitschke and dis- 
covers that Germany has produced 
nothing in the last forty years but 
"the literature of the devil," and 
that Nietzsche and Treitschke "with 
their magic flutes led the whole, 
blind, foolish, conceited nation down 
that easy, pleasant path which ends 
in this abyss." A galaxy of English 
writers have syndicated their mental 
efforts and published a "round-rob- 
in," impressive in verbiage but of 
no great value except in so far as it 
shows that England, true to nothing 
else. Is faithful still to her historic 
love of fighting with the pen in pref- 
erence to the sword. If pen-wielding 
could win battles England would 
rule the world. 

England has cleverly avoided the 
discussion of her mongrel allies. We 
hear but little of Russia, of Servia 
and of Japan. A glance at the bom- 
bastic war literature of England and 
the speeches of Mr. Asquith and 
Winston Churchill leads to the ques- 
tion: "Is England ashamed of her 
Allies?" An occasional reference to 
the "rape of Alsace" which the Brit- 
ish government condoned at the con- 
clusion of the war of 1870, and the 
Times of London characterized as 
pure business sense, is about all we 
hear or see today on anything but 
England. Even the violation of Bel- 
gium's neutrality, against which Sir 
Edward Grey was once so loud in 
his protest, has ceased to be able to 
keep Belgium in the English mind. 
The "unfortunate companionship," 
to borrow a phrase of Col. Watter- 
Bon, with Russia cost Great Britain 
two of her ablest cabinet members 
and I presume the less said about 
It the better pleased the British Gov- 
ernment is. Servia, too, is a silent 
partner. With all their faults Eng- 
lishmen do not like to mix with regi- 
cides, unless they have something to 
gain by it, and then they prefer not 
to have too much publicity given to 
the fact. The Russians and Servians 
aad Japanese are good enough to 
fight England's battles for her but 
for little else. When John Morley 
and John Burns resigned from the 
British Government as a protest 
against the alliance with Russia to 
crush Germany the fact was probably 
deleted from the despatches to St. 
Petersburg. The Indian immigrant 
to South Africa can be treated with 
Impunity and even the Japanese, told 
by Canada and Australia they are 
not wanted there, are mollified by 
their British ally. But it is scarcely 
to be expected that England would 
attempt the same patronizing tactics 
with Russia. It speaks more than 
volumes for the hopeless inconsist- 
ency of Great Britain in this "war of 



freedom against militarism," that 
among the allies which she has sum- 
moned to her colors to serve her ends 
are some of whom she blushes to 
speak. No nation has been subject of 
British vilification in the past to a 
greater extent than Russia, no nation 
more deserving of the just castiga- 
tion of true Englishmen. And, yet, 
today we find this same Russia and 
this same England fighting shoulder 
to shoulder and sharing each other's 
bread and salt. 

The one thing the British Govern- 
ment should do before all others is 
to make it clear to a candid world 
on what it bases its present attitude 
toward Russia and the consequent 
abandonment of its historical hatred. 
Is it simply the hope of crushing 
Germany? Then let the British Gov- 
ernment say so and in so many 
words. And if this is the basis of 
the Russian entente it should make 
it clear at the same time what it is 
going to do with Russia when Ger- 
many has been crushed. Is the Brit- 
ish Government so imbued with its 
own self-importance that it can de- 
lude itself into thinking that the 
world will not judge its words by 
its actions? If this is a war of free- 
dom against despotism, and only 
England claims it Is, are we to be 
asked to believe that the substitution 
of Russia for Germany as the domi- 
nant power in central Europe would 
promote Its purpose? A nation that 
has always stood in the minds of 
Englishmen as the last expression of 
all that was autocratic and despotic, 
anachronic and barbarous, cannot 
consistently be brought forward by 
England at this eleventh hour as a 
sanctuary of enlightment. But that 
is what England would have us be- 
lieve. Or, perhaps, when the war Is 
over she will kiss the Little Father 
on both cheeks, in true Russian fash- 
ion, and send him and his knout- 
driven hordes back to Petrograd. 
One might almost forgive England 
her sins if such were her intentions. 
But they are not. The cossack may 
not be good enough to welcome In 
London, the Englishman may blush 
at his name, but he, and for that 
matter anyone, is good enough to as- 
sist into Berlin — and once there it 
is more than likely that he will not 
fold his tents and move away at the 
bidding of Georgie or of Georgie's 
Government. 

It is no wonder that England 
blushes at her own perfidy. When 
prominent men from one end of the 
British Empire to the other are pro- 
testing in no weak and unmeaning 
words against this unnatural alli- 
ance, with its hypocritical object, the 
whole Empire should blush for her. 
The action of Morley and Burns is 
a by no means isolated case. The 
Irish people have given the world to 
understand that they are thoroughly 
out of sympathy with the war. A 
committee of prominent Hindoos 
have placed themselves on record in 
the same sense. And even in the 
Union of South Africa, that often ad- 
vanced example of British political 
sagacity, a general resigns rather 
than go into a war and speaks his 
mind. 

This is what General Beyers says: 
"I have only to indicate how the 



independence of the South African 
Republic and of the Orange Free 
State was violated and of what 
weight the Sand-River Convention 
was. 

"It is said this war is being waged 
against the barbarity of the Germans, 
I have forgiven, but not forgotten, 
all the barbarities perpetrated on our 
country during the South African 
war. With very few exceptions all 
the farms, not to mention many 
towns, were so many of the LouvainS 
of which we now hear so much." 



ENGLAND TO FIGHT ON IF 
ALLIES QUIT. 



Winston Churchill Says Navy Pres- 
sure on Germany Will Be Unre- 
lenting. 



'GRIP NOTHING CAN RESIST." 



"For First Time in History Sea Is 

Free to Us," Admiralty Lord 

Tells French Editor. 



(The DaUy News, Feb. 2, 1915.) 

[By the Associated Press.] 

Paris, France, Feb. 2. — "For the first 
time in history England can say 'The 
sea is free,' " said Winston Spencer 
Churchill, Great Britain's first lord of 
the admiralty, in an interview with 
Hughes Leroux, editor of the Matin. 
"In the days when you and we fought 
each other," he continued, "our most 
important victories never brought us 
security comparable with that which 
we enjoy today. Even after Trafalgar 
we knew nothing like it. 

"Supposing Germany has friendships 
and relationships in South America, 
how can help reach her from them 
now? There remains the United 
States. Public opinion there hesitated, 
perhaps, in bestowing its sympathies, 
but at the present moment it is fully 
unified. We shall arrange to take pre- 
cautions fully compatible with the 
rights of belligerents and the respect 
due to neutrals. 

Complete Blockade a Chimera. 

"Our adversary perhaps can obtain 
a few supplies from Turkey and Asia 
Minor. I cherish no illusions, for as 
long as there are neutrals a complete 
blockade must be a chimera. Germany 
will continue to receive a small quan- 
tity of that whereof she has consider- 
able need while you and we breathe 
freely, thanks to the sea we have kept 
and can keep open. 

"Germany is like a man throttled 
with a heavy gag. You know the effect 
of such a gag when action is neces- 
sary. The effort wears out the heart 
and Germany knows it. This pressure 
shall not be relaxed until she gives 
in unconditionally, for even if you of 
France and if our ally Russia should 
decide to withdraw from the struggle, 
which is inconceivable, we English 
would carry on the war to the bitter 
end. 

Action of Navy Unrelenting. 

"The action of a navy necessarily Is 
slow, but the pressure it exercises on 
an adversary is unrelenting. Compare 
it to the forces of nature, to the inex- 
orable grip of winter, and remember 
that it is a stress nothing can resist" 



BRITISH CHARACTER IN ACTION 



113 



ONE ANGIiOMANIAC TO ANOTHER. 



A Letter in Which Are Set Forth a 
Few Arguments Designed to Teach 
a Lesson to Those Whose "Teu- 
tophobia" Destroys All Sym- 
pathy for Great Britain. 



Milwaukee Free Press. 

To An Anglomaniac : Good for you, 
Mr. Bayliss ! I like to see a man like 
you — a man with the courage of his 
convictions ! Just read your letter in 
today's Free Press, but had not seen 
your previous letter until now, after 
reading a number of comments by other 
letter writers. But from these com- 
ments I saw that your letter must have 
been a hot one. And it is ! I know 
it, I just read it. The letter is excel- 
lent, quite English. It is brutal, of 
course, but frank ! I love a man who 
will stand up like you and flght with 
a punch, no matter where and how he 
strikes. 

You know, Mr. Bayliss, people ac- 
cuse the English of being domineering, 
perfidious, regicidal, etc. They claim 
they are right, and they are sometimes, 
are they not? Let's take a look at a 
few of their accusations : 

1 — Persecution and oppression of Ire- 
land for seven centuries. This is an- 
cient stuff, isn't it, Mr. Bayliss? It 
isn't our fault that the Irish would not 
submit sooner, as they would have done 
had they the proper common sense. 
Still, accusers ought to invent some- 
thing new. 

2 — Regicides. It is true, we did kill 
a king or two, and a queen, also, didn't 
we? But it was the law that sanc- 
tioned it. 

3 — Opium war with China ; opium 
forced on China and Hongkong taken 
away in 1S42.' This is supposed to be 
a precedent for Germany's seizing 
Kiau-Ohau. But, of course, that is a 
different matter, the Germans had no 
right to take, while we did. 

4 — India, Afghanistan, Burma, etc., 
wrested from the French and Dutch 
and the people of India in wars extend- 
ing through two centuries. The mis- 
sionaries say that censorship is. so 
strict down in India at the present date 
that not a word of the constant op- 
pression and rebellions get into the 
American and continental press. Fur- 
thermore, India has been called the re- 
cruiting place for broken English for- 
tunes. Now this, of course, may be 
true, but, anyway, we deny it; at best 
it is none of their business, especially 
none of the business of Americans. 

5 — Egypt — England euchred France 
out of the protectorate and then the 
Khedive out of his rule so that at the 
present day England virtually owns 
Egypt, in spite of her often repeated de- 
nial of anything more than a suzeran- 
ity. Humbug, isn't it? English rule 
has been beneficient, hasn't it, for every 
country that England ever owned? 

6 — The Boer war, the seizure of 
South Africa, the famous English battle 
line of Boer women and children which 
forced the Boers to surrender since they 
refused to shoot their own wives and 
children. Also true. But that was in 
South Africa, in a barbarous country 
where barbarous methods are sanction- 
able. And, even so, if others had the 
chance, they would do the same thing, 
wouldn't they, Mr. Bayliss? 

7 — The so-called Congo scandals of 



King Leopold, claimed as invented by 
England so that she would have reason 
to annex the Congo. Of course, that is 
rot. Still, the Congo is pretty rich. 

8 — Persia, handed to Russia on a 
platter, not permitted to rule herself as 
she wished but as the Russian bear dic- 
tated. Well, now, these Asian states 
don't know how to govern themselves, 
anyway. And that American financier 
had no business there, anyway. 

9 — Inveigled Japan to join the 
war against Germany. In spite of 
assurances of respecting neutrality 
the first action of Japan was to attack 
the Caroline islands (which she was 
not supposed to attack, although they 
are German) and to land her troops on 
Chinese territory 100 miles from Kiau- 
Ohau. Necessity of war — very simple. 

10 — England and the United States. 

1776 — American colonies rebelled, due 
to oppression, injustice, etc. (England 
only saved Canada by most extravagant 
promises. Tried the same tactics on 
Australia and had the example of the 
United States pointed out to her.) 
Fought with unfair means, inciting In- 
dian massacres. 

1812 — Similar tactics in warfare. 

1848 — Mexican war — once more the 
same Indian tactics. 

1861-64 — Again incited Indians, as 
witness massacres at New Ulm, Fort 
Ridley, etc. Helped confederacy with 
money and ships and had the effrontery 
to demand payment of the confederacy's 
debt from the United States, the matter 
being finally refused within the last ten 
years. 

1898 — Tried to engineer a coalition of 
European powers against the United 
States ; prevented by Germany. Then 
tried to inveigle Germany into a war 
with the United States. 

1913-14 — Panama canal tolls. Acts as 
though she owned canal. 

1914 — September. Opposed United 
States naval expansion, using France 
as catspaw in her protest and even 
trying to Inveigle Italy, Spain, Portugal, 
etc., into similar protests. 

Let others twist their noses at this 
record, which they will call appalling; 
you and I, Mr. Bayliss, being Anglo- 
maniacs, lift our noses in proud super- 
iority. For we know that England 
must be supreme, that she must and 
does lead — even if it be only by the 
blackness of her page in history. We 
pride ourselves that we outrank even 
Russia in regicides ; only in Russia kill- 
ing the king is illicit and the assassin 
suffers death, while we kill our rulers 
through the law and thus stand as he- 
roes and f ulfillers of the law. 

What care we if India and Ireland 
used their last heart's blood in the de- 
fense of their race, their creed, their 
language and their customs ! They had 
no business trying to be different from 
us ; anyway, they are inferior to us and 
the right of the stronger prevails. In 
Ireland we went Russia and Prussia 
one better in the expropriation of our 
respective vassals. For we did accom- 
plish what we set out to do ; we ex- 
tinguished the Irish tongue so thor- 
oughly that when the universities of 
Ireland, England and America wanted 
to establish chairs of the Irish language 
they (haw ! haw ! it's the joke of the 
century — that they had to go to Ger- 
many for men to fill the chairs, haw ! 
haw ! In Prussia and Russia — ignorant 
countries, anyway (of course, Russia 



being our ally, we must whitewash her) 
— they'll never get that far. There they 
are too much afraid to hurt the people. 

Physically, I mean. A lash does won- 
ders ; famine is even better. 

Sympathy? You are right. We do 
not need sympathy. The Briton is su- 
perior to sympathy ; if he wants some- 
thing he goes and takes it. He does not 
need sympathy because of something 
that he lacks. But the Germans ! They 
do need sympathy and more of it. For 
they have more to lose. They have 
a greater industry that risks destruc- 
tion, a higher science, a higher economy, 
a better civilization. So of course they 
need sympathy. 

England plays a higher game. She 
fights because this is a good opportunity 
to fight, because France and Belgium 
bear the brunt of the fight, because 
England will draw whatever benefits is 
to be reaped from the war. Why send 
many soldiers? There ought 'to be 
enough French and Belgians; if there 
are not, more should be enrolled. On 
the sea France does what little fighting 
there needs to be done. Inveigle our- 
selves into a battle with the German 
North Sea fleet? Not much. Not until 
Italy has been drawn to the allies and 
can send her fleet to attack the Ger- 
man fleet; then when the latter is 
greatly weakened Britain can step in 
and claim the credit and results of the 
fight. Of course, where there isn't 
much danger like in the Paciflc and in 
the Atlantic, and when we outnumber 
the enemy's small boats, we will gladly 
offer battle. But really, you know, we 
are superior fighters. We have always 
said so, and, therefore, it must be true. 
Let no one dare doubt that ! 

You know, Britannia rules the Waves 
and that means everything surrounded 
by them. That means Europe and Asia 
and Australia, and Canada and also the 
damned United States (we'll get them 
yet). England owns it all, of course, 
not quite yet, you know, but those 
crazy Americans will soon know what's 
good for 'em, blast 'em ! You know, 
once or twice, in 1776 and 1812, we 
nearly whipped them ; we gained a 
moral victory, anyway, and I bet you 
they've never forgotten it. 

And now, all together: 

Britannia rules the Waves — 

And everything that's in 'em ! 

AN ANGLOMANIAC. 
Madison,' Wis., Sept. 18. 

P. S. Now you, Mr. Anglomaniac, 
will call the preceding gentle sarcasm 
brutal, or intolerant, or prejudiced. So 
it is, so it was intended to appear — 
elemental in its brutality. But — it car- 
ries a lesson. It does not at all repre- 
sent the opinions of the writer, rather 
the reverse of it. But you, men of Mr. 
Bayliss' type, need a lesson, and need 
it badly. And I have merely sketched 
for you what a man whose Anglophobia 
would parallel your Teutophobia, might 
achieve. Intemperate language is not 
argument, but is resorted to constantly 
by the lowest type of mind, that of the 
bully or rowdy. Among that category 
the man who can scold the loudest and 
use the most vulgar language Is the 
hero and victor. Draw your analogy ! 

Personally I sympathize a little more 
with the French than with the Ger- 
mans. Yet men of Mr. Bayliss' type 
make it hard for me to retain what 
sympathy for the English there re- 
mains. 



114 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



THE DEFENDER OF SMALL 
NATIONS. 



Excoriated by One of Her Own; Who 

Also Wants to Prod the Irish 

Awake. 



The Irish Voice, March 4, 1915. 

I who write am a wife and motlier, 
British by birth, education and senti- 
ment, Protestant in religion, Progres- 
s,ive, and Pacifist. Like all people 
who live somewhat for others than 
solely for themselves, I am inter- 
ested in the great problems con- 
nected with this war. I want my 
country to win not because 1 believe 
her blameless, but because she is my 
country. I learn many things from 
current history, pre-eminently that 
there is not, perhaps never has been, 
a really Christian government on 
earth. Even the government of the 
church herself has at times been filled 
with political and moral corruptions 
of every sort. The civil govern- 
ments of Christian nations surpass 
each other in political chicanery and 
hypocrisy. Your own government of 
the TJ. S. A. is perhaps the nearest 
approach (but, oh, how far off) to a 
Christian government that has ever 
been. 

The British government is probably 
the greatest political hypocrite that 
has ever been; the Russian govern- 
ment the greatest tyrant, and the Ger- 
man government the greatest fool. 
England wins by hoodwinking other 
nations, keeping her heart a secret, 
and wearing a religious mask. The 
British press for months past is teem- 
ing with falsehoods about the Kaiser, 
the German government, army, navy, 
and people. The Canadian press, 
English and French alike, is savage 
in its hatred of Germany. I could 
send you multitudes of samples as 
proofs. 

When the Spanish-American war 
was on, the press of England and Can- 
ada continually assailed the yellow 
journalism of your country; today the 
press of those countries copy pro- 
fusely the assaults made on Germany 
by the Anglo-Saxon press of the 
United States. I say Anglo-Saxon, for 
it is evident that in the New England 
and Southern States you have no 
longer, with few exceptions, a distinc- 
tive, independent, neutral, American 
press. Your press, like many of your 
millionaires, your anlbassadors, and 
your American leagues in London are 
all playing toad to England. The New 
York Times calls Austria a dying and 
decrepit nation, but judging by the 
Anglo-Saxon press of America one 
might return the compliment to the 
Times. Your clever, oily Englishmen 
all over the U. S. A. are evidently 
getting a grip on your American char- 
acter and moulding you into good lit- 
tle English children. Even the Irish- 
Americans are not proof against the 
subtle fascination of John Bull. John 
Bull could capture Japan and bring 
on a Russo-Japanese war with the se- 
cret motive of destroying the Russian 
navy. He could capture France and 
Russia, for the secret purpose of de- 
stroying the German navy and then 
proudly sing as he has been singing 
for centuries in the teeth of the world. 



"Britannia Rules the Waves." Shall 
the navy of France grow and take the 
place of the German, then it in turn 
shall be doomed for destruction by 
England. And what of the navy of 
the U. S. A.? But, no, England shall 
long eat the dust before she goes to 
war with your country. She will plead 
every excuse, but above all her ties of 
blood, creed and language. Oh, cow- 
ardly hypocrisy, what a useful part 
you sometimes play in the destinies of 
nations'. In the future it shall be as 
in the past. Belgium is now Eng- 
land's darling pet. But a little while 
ago the English government and 
people were casting longing eyes on 
Belgium's rich possessions in Africa 
and the British government press, 
people and established church were 
assailing the Belgian king, govern- 
ment and people on the score of in- 
humanity to natives. The beam at all 
times in her own eyes, she, England, 
always sees the mote in the eyes of 
her neighbors. She forgets Ireland, 
India, America and Australasia. And 
Irishmen in America forget the 
speeches of Grattan and Burke and 
Shiel and Curran, Redmond, O'Brien, 
Healy and company have surrendered 
to England in the squabble for office 
under an Irish parliament. The Irish 
parliament may come, probably will 
come, but it will come mutilated in 
every joint as the Orangemen of 
Ulster and the Tories of Great Brit- 
ain shall demand this, and the de- 
mand shall be granted. It was 
Fronde who said: 

"Put the stick hard and fast on the 
back of the Irishman and you win his 
respect and attachment every time." 

England has been doing this for 
centuries and today Irishmen are ty- 
ing the boot laces of her grandees 
and shedding their blood for her 
praises. Smack Pat well on the back, 
then pat him, tell him he is a fine 
fellow and like the cur dog he'll lick 
the hand that smote him. The secret 
of John Bull's strength is his power 
to keep his own secrets and a com- 
mon weakness of other nations, espe- 
cially of the Irish, is the capacity for 
blabbing out everything. Lord Der- 
by's speech to both houses of parlia- 
ment, July 15, 1634, said: "Divide 
not between Protestant and Papist. 
. . . Divide not nationality betwixt 
English and Irish. The King makes 
no distincton between you . . . and 
madness it were in you to raise the 
wall Of separation amongst your- 
selves." 

But England has always divided be- 
tween Protestant and Papist and di- 
vides between them still. Divide et 
impera has been the ruling principle 
of her government of Ireland. With 
consummate hypocrisy she conceded 
to Nationalists the right to organize 
and drill only after the war was de- 
clared. She had a motive as always 
— to hoodwink the soft, spineless 
Irish Catholic by a pat on the back 
and get him to do her dirty work in 
Europe. She is now sending an am- 
bassador to the Pope, after 400 years 
of open warfare with the Vatican and 
there is treachery in the gift. Wit- 
ness the following from the Church 
Times — leading organ of the estab- 
lished church. In its leader of No- 
vember 13 last, I find the following 



paragraph describing the object of 
the war: 

"There is, then, an immense task in 
hand. To carry the war to a victor- 
ious issue is to destroy two great 
monarchies. But mere destruction is 
no policy. Reconstruction must fol- 
low. But that will be the work of the 
ensuing peace. The object of the war 
is destruction, nothing less; no 
patched-up treaty, no accommodation. 
Englishmen are well aware that to 
this they have set their hands. They 
have a national purpose, and in this 
they are at one." The same journal, 
with characteristic Anglican inso- 
lence, dares tell the Pope that he' 
should take sides at once with the al- 
lies. The good Pope Benedict needs 
to hold in check his Italian impulses 
when dealing with the wily self-con- 
tained John Bull. I have said that 
you Irish have forgotten the speeches 
of Grattan, etc.; also of O'Connell and 
Parnell. Think you that Grattan, 
O'Connell and Parnell would become 
recruiting sergeants for the govern- 
ment of England? Redmond's plea is 
gratitude, etc. Listen to Grattan. De- 
livering himself against English im- 
perialism — he said: 

"I know of no species of gratitude 
which should prevent my country 
from being free, no gratitude which 
should oblige Ireland to be the slave 
of England. In cases of robbery and 
usurpation, nothing is an object of 
gratitude except the thing stolen, the 
charter spoliated. A nation's liberty 
cannot, like her treasures, be meted 
and parceled out in gratitude; no 
man can be grateful or liberal of his 
conscience, nor woman of her honor, 
nor nation of her liberty; there are 
certain unimpartable, inherent, in- 
valuable properties, not to be alien- 
ated from the person, whether body 
politic or body natural. I laugh at 
that man who supposes that Ireland 
will not be content with her free 
trade and a free constitution, and 
would any man advise her to be con- 
tent with less?" 

In closing I have the following 
question to ask of you and your read- 
ers: 

By what right, divine or human, 
does England claim to rule the waves 
to the exclusion of every other sover- 
eign power? 

VERITAS. 



SUBMARINE BLOCKADE FORCES 

DRASTIC BRITISH ACTION 

AGAINST KAISER. 



No Longer Question of Whether Food 

Is Contraband or Whether It Is 

Intended for Non-Conibatante ; 

Announcement to Come 

Monday. 



From the "Chicago Examiner," Feb. 
28, 1915. 

LONDON, Feb. 27. — It is under- 
stood that formal notification has 
been given by Great Britain to the 
United States that in view of the 
German submarine attacks on mer- 
chant vessels, Great Britain and her 
allies maintain the right to stop all 
shipping between neutral countries 
and Germany, Austria and Turkey. 



BRITISH CHARACTER IN ACTION 



115 



In other words, it is proposed to 
tie up all traffic with Germany. It 
will no longer be a question of con- 
traband or of whether food is in- 
tended for consumption by the civil 
population or by the military. Grain, 
cotton, even medical supplies may be 
stopped. Not only that, but goods 
coming out of Germany may under 
the terms of this declaration be 
seized. 

This apparently is the form of the 
reprisals which the allies have agreed 
upon. The idea is not merely to 
starve Germany into submission, but 
to cripple her industries in every pos- 
sible way. 

As Indicated yesterday, Asquith 
will, it is expected, make an an- 
nouncement of the government's pol- 
icy on Monday. In support of the 
right of the allies to take such dras- 
tic measures he will urge that the 
Germans have violated all the codes 
of warfare in sinking ships with non- 
combatants aboard, without warning 
and without even making efforts to 
save the lives of the persons thus at- 
tacked. 

As to the injury that will be in- 
flicted upon the trade of neutrals by 
this procedure, on the part of the 
allies, Asquith, it is expected, will 
rely upon the plea of necessity and 
the argument that only by drastic 
action of this sort can the war be 
brought to an early conclusion. 



The declaration, it is understood, 
will not apply to shipments made be- 
fore formal announcement of the 
blockade. Every effort will be made 
to safeguard the lives of passengers 
and crews on ships that may be seized 
or sunk. 

Would Create Issue. 

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27. — Secre- 
tary Bryan tonight said the State De- 
partment had not received the answer 
of Great Britain or Germany to the 
American notes sent on February 19 
in relation to shipments of foodstuffs 
and submarine attacks on neutral 
commerce. 

It is generally agreed here that 
any attempt of England to shut off 
the shipment of foodstuffs through 
the North Sea by way of the English 
Channel would create a very serious 
issue. 

If it proved true that Great Britain 
has taken the stand that all food- 
stuffs to Germany and Austria are to; 
be held up otherwise than through a 
blockade of ports, and if her declara- 
tion to that effect shall become pub- 
lic before the adjournment of Con- 
gress on March 4, a flare-up In Con- 
gress may be expected. 

Already there is a strong feeling of 
resentment in both the Senate and 
the House over the extent to which 



Great Britain has seen fit to inter- 
fere with American commerce carry- 
ing over established routes of trade. 

Feeling Manifested. 

That feeling has been manifested 
in the embargo resolution which was 
proposed in the resolution introduced 
by Representative Dietrick today 
asking that the President be author- 
ized to require assurance of Great 
Britain that her obnoxious practices 
shall cease within sixty days and in 
the speech of Senator Lewis in the 
Senate yesterday. 

Under international law the right 
of a neutral to ship foodstuffs over 
established routes to a belligerent 
country for the use of noncombatants 
is a right never heretofore brought 
into question. If the United States 
should not now stand firm for that 
right, many members of Congress 
undoubtedly would take the position 
that by submission to Great Britain's 
disregard of that right the United 
States would be incurring some re- 
sponsibility for the consequences. 

Leading members of the adminis- 
tration, who thoroughly understand 
the temper of Congress with respect 
to such a contingency, probably will 
be inclined to withhold Information 
of the proposal, . if it has actually 
been made, until after the adjourn- 
ment of Congress. 



The English Nursing Hatred Toward the Kaiser 



HIS INDISCRETION WAS "CAL- 
CULATED." 



Interview With Kaiser Wilhelm n., 
Oct. 28, 1908, auA Its Con- 
sequences. 

An interview 'between the German 
Emperor and "a representative Eng- 
lishman, who long since passed from 
public to private life," appeared in 
"The London Telegraph" on October 28, 
1908, and was the next day authenti- 
cated by the German Foreign Office in 
Berlin with the comment that it was 
"intended as a message to the English 
people." This last expression of the 
Kaiser toward Great Britain — until his 
declaration on the eve of the present 
war — deeply stirred the German people 
and resulted in the Kaiser's pledge to 
Chancellor von Buelow that henceforth 
the imperial views loould be subject to 
the bridle of the m,inistry and the 
Council of the Empire. The interview 
as recorded by the "representative Eng- 
lishman" was as follotcs: 

Moments sometimes occur in the his- 
tory of nations when a calculated in- 
discretion proves of the highest public 
service. It is for this reason that I 
have decided to make known the sub- 
stance of a lengthy conversation which 
it was my recent privilege to have with 
the Emperor. 

I do so In the hope that it will help 
to remove that obstinate misconception 
of the character of the Emperor's feel- 
ings toward England, which I fear is 
deeply rooted in the ordinary English- 
man's breast. It is the Emperor's sin- 
cere wish that it should be eradicated. 
He has given repeated proofs of his de- 



sire by word and deed. But, to speak 
frankly, his patience is sorely tried 
now ; he finds himself so continually 
misrepresented and has so often expe- 
rienced the mortification of finding that 
any momentary improvement in rela- 
tions is followed by renewed outbursts 
of prejudice and a prompt return to 
the old attitude of suspicion. 

His Majesty spoke with impulsive 
and unusual frankness, saying: "Xou 
English are as mad, mad, mad as 
March hares. What has come over 
you that you are completely given over 
to suspicions that are quite unworthy 
of a great nation? What more can I 
do than I have done? I declared with 
all the emphasis at my command in my 
speech at the Guildhall that my heart 
was set upon peace and that it was 
one of my dearest wishes to live on the 
best terms with England. Have I ever 
been false to my word? Falsehood and 
prevarication are alien to my nature. 
My actions ought to speak for them- 
selves, but you will not listen to them, 
but to those who misinterpret and dis- 
tort them. 

Resents a Personal Insult. 

"This is a personal insult which I 
resent ; to be forever misjudged, to 
have my repeated ofllers of friendship 
weighed and scrutinized with jealous, 
mistrustful eyes taxes my patience se- 
verely. I have said time after time 
that I am a friend of England, and 
your press, or at least a considerable 
section of it, bids the people of Eng- 
land to refuse my proffered hand and 
insinuates that the other hand holds a 
dagger. How can I convince a nation 
against Its will?" 



Complaining again of the difficulty 
imposed on him by English distrust, his 
Majesty said: "The prevailing senti- 
ment of large sections of the middle 
and lower classes of my own people is 
not friendly to England. I am, there- 
fore, so to speak, in the minority in my 
own land, but it is a minority of the 
best element, just as it is in England 
respecting Germany." 

The Englishman reminded the Kaiser 
that not only England but the whole of 
Europe viewed with disapproval the re- 
cent sending of the German Consul at 
Algiers to Fez and forestalling France 
and Spain, by suggesting the recogni- 
tion of Sultan Mulai Hafid. The Kaiser 
made an impatient gesture and ex- 
claimed : "Yes, that is an excellent ex- 
ample of the way German actions are 
misrepresented," and with vivid direct- 
ness he defended the aforesaid inci- 
dent, as the German Government has 
already done. 

The interviewer reminded the Kaiser 
that an important and influential sec- 
tion of the German newspapers inter- 
preted these acts very differently, and 
effusively approved of them because 
they indicated that Germany was bent 
upon shaping events in Morocco. 

"There are mischief makers," replied 
the Emperor, "in both countries. I will 
not attempt to weigh their relative 
capacity for misrepresentation, but the 
facts are as I have stated. There has 
been nothing in Germany's recent ac- 
tion in regard to Morocco contrary to 
the explicit declaration of my love of 
peace made both at the Guildhall and 
in my latest speech at Strassburg." 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



Kaiser and the Boer War. 

Reverting to his efforts to show his 
friendship for England, the Kaiser said 
they had not been confined to words. 
It was commonly believed that Ger- 
many was hostile to England through- 
out the Boer war. Undoubtedly the 
newspapers were hostile and public 
opinion was hostile. "But what," he 
asked, "of official Germany? What 
brought to a sudden stop, indeed, to an 
absolute collapse, the European tour of 
the Boer delegates, who were striving 
to obtain European intervention? 

"They were feted in Holland. France 
gave them a rapturous ivelcome. They 
wished to come to Berlin, where the 
German people ivould have crowned 
them with fioicers, but lohen they aslced 
me to receive them I refused. The agi- 
tation immediately died away and the 
delegates returned empty-handed. Was 
that the action of a secret enemy f* 

"Again, when the struggle was at its 
height, the Germ,an Government was 
invited by France and Russia to join 
them in calling upon England to end 
the war. The moment had come, they 
said, not only to save the Boer repub- 
lic, but also to humiliate England to 
the dust. What was my reply? I said 
so far from Germany joining in any 
concerted European action to bring 
pressure against England and bring 
about her downfall, Germany would al- 
ways keep aloof from politics that 
could bring her into complications with 
a sea power like England. 

"Posterity will one day read the ex- 
act terms of a telegram, now in the 
archives of Windsor Castle, in lohich I 
informed the sovereign of England of 
the answer I returned to the poioers 
which then sought- to compass her fall. 
Englishmen ivho now insult me tiy 
doubting my tvord should Icnow lohat 
my actions icere in the hour of their 
adversity.* 

"Nor was that all. During your 
black week in December, 1899, when 
disasters followed one another in rapid 
succession, I received a letter from 
Queen Victoria, my revered grand- 
mother, written in sorrow and afflic- 
tion and bearing manifest traces of the 
anxieties which were preying upon her 
mind and health. I at once returned a 
sympathetic reply. I did more. I bade 
one of my officers to procure as exact 
an account as he could obtain of the 
number of combatants on both sides 
and the actual positions of the oppos- 
ing forces. 

"With the figures before me I worked 
out what I considered the best plan of 
campaign in the circumstances and sub- 
mitted it to my General Staff for criti- 
cism. Then I dispatched it to England. 
That document likewise is among the 
State papers at Windsor awaiting the 
serenely impartial verdict of history. 

"Let me add as a curious coincidence 
that the plan which I formulated ran 
very much on the same lines as that 
actually adopted by Gen. Roberts and 
carried by him into successful opera- 
tion. Was that the act of one who 
wished England ill? Let Englishmen 
be just and say." 

The German Navy. 

Touching then upon the English con- 
viction that Germany is increasing her 
navy for the purpose of attacking 



Great Britain, the Kaiser reiterated 
the explanation that Chancellor von 
Billow and other Ministers have made 
familiar, dwelling upon Germany's 
worldwide commerce, her manifold in- 
terests in distant seas, and the neces- 
sity for being prepared to protect them. 
He said : 

"Patriotic Germans refuse to assign 
any bounds to their legitimate commer- 
cial ambitions. They expect their in- 
terests to go on growing. They must 
be able to champion them manfully in 
any quarter of the globe. Germany 
looks ahead. Her horizons stretch far 
away. She must be prepared for any 
eventualities in the Far East. Who 
can foresee what may take place in the 
Pacific in the days to come, days not so 
distant as some believe, but days, at 
any rate, for which all European pow- 
ers with Far Eastern interests ought 
to steadily prepare? 

"Look at the accomplished rise of 
Japan. Think of a possible national 
awakening in China, and then judge of 
the vast problems of the Pacific. Only 
those powers which have great navies 
will be listened to with respect when 
the future of the Pacific comes to be 
solved, and if for that reason only, 
Germany must have a powerful fleet. It 
may even be that England herself will 
be glad that Germany has a fleet when 
they speak together in the great de- 
bates of the future." 

The interviewer concludes : 

"The Emperor spoke with all that 
earnestness which marks his manner 
when speaking on deeply pondered sub- 
jects. I ask my fellow-countrymen 
loho value the cause of peace to 
weigh lohat I have written and revise, 
if necessary, their estimate of the 
Kaiser and his friendship for England 
by his Majesty's own words. If they 
had enjoyed the privilege of hearing 
them spoken they would too longer 
doubt either his Majesty's firm desire 
to live on the best of terms with Eng- 
land or his growing impatience at the 
persistent mistrust with which his offer 
of friendship is too often received."* 

The Consequences. 

On November 17 following, Prince von 
Bulow met the Kaiser at Kiel, taking 
with him evidence of the feeling in 
Germany regarding the Emperor's pub- 
lished interview and setting forth : 

First, that the Foreign Affairs Com- 
mittee of the Bundesrat, or Federal 
Council, is firm in the opinion formu- 
lated at the meeting held yesterday 
that it would be wiser for the Emperor 
not to express views affecting the re- 
lations of the empire with other coun- 
tries except through his responsible 
Ministers. This expression derives 
weight from the fact that the Govern- 
ments of Bavaria, Wiirttemberg and 
Saxony were represented on the com- 
mittee. 

Second, that the entire Reichstag as- 
sented to the declarations made by the 
speakers on Tuesday that the Empei'or 
had exceeded his constitutional prerog- 
atives in private discussion with for- 
eigners concerning Germany's attitude 
on controverted questions. 

Third, that the feeling of the people 
at large on this matter was accurately 
indicated by the press of the country. 



The Kaiser's reply was published on 
the same date in the "Reichsanzeiger," 
in the form of a communication, which 
read : 

"During today's audience granted to 
the Imperial Chancellor, his Majesty, 
the Emperor and King, listened for 
several hours to a report by Prince von 
Bulow. The Imperial Chancellor de- 
scribed the feeling and its causes 
among the German people in connec- 
tion with the article published in 'The 
Daily Telegraph.' He also explained 
the position he had taken during the 
course of the debates and the inter- 
polations on this subject in the Reichs- 
tag. His Majesty the Emperor re- 
ceived the statements and explanations 
with great earnestness, and then ex- 
pressed his will as follows : 

" 'Heedless of the exaggerations of 
public criticism, which are regarded by 
him as incorrect, his Majesty perceives 
that his principal imperial task is to 
insure the stability of the jpolicies of 
the empire, under the guardianship of 
constitutional responsibilities. In con- 
formity therewith, his Majesty the Em- 
peror approves the Chancellor's utter- 
ances in the Reichstag, and assures 
Prince von Billow of his continued con- 
fidence.' " 



WILHELM n.'S LETTER TO LORD 
TWEEDMOUTH. 



Published by The Morning Post of 
London, Oct. 30, 1914. 

The subjoined letter written to the 
late Lord Tweedmouth'by the German 
Emperor is made public for the first 
time. It is a literal transcript of the 
original document in which occur a 
few slight errors in spelling. The ex- 
istence of the document was first made 
known to the public by the military 
correspondent of "The Times," who 
published a letter on the subject on 
March 6, 1908, but its contents were 
not divulged. 

The significance of the letter can be 
understood only in the light of the 
naval and political situation six years 
ago. During the preceding year, 1907, 
The Hague Conference, ostensibly con- 
vened in the interests of international 
peace, had resolved itself into a com- 
mittee to determine how to diminish 
the severities of war. There was a 
section of opinion in this country which 
was persuaded that the only method 
of seeking peace was to reduce the 
navy and army. At the same time the 
Imperial German Navy was making 
swift and steady progress, and its 
menace to British supremacy aroused 
considerable alarm in this country. 
Although the British Navy held supe- 
riority over the German Na^T in ships 
not of the dreadnought type, the bal- 
ance in dreadnoughts was virtually 
even. 

Dreadnought Supremacy. 

It was stated in Parliament that in 
the year 1916 Germany, according to 
her naval law, would have tliirty- 
six dreadnoughts, a number which 
would involve the building by this 
country of forty-four such vessels in 
the same period, toward which the 
Government was only providing two in 
the current year. It was also stated 
that in the year 1911 Germany would 



BRITISH CHARACTER IN ACTION 



possess thirteen dreaduoughts and 
Great Britain only twelve, which state- 
ment was founded upon reasonable as- 
sumptions. Could Germany reckon 
upon the continuance of such a rela- 
tive position, the advantage to her 
would be very great. 

It was at this critical moment that 
the German Emperor indited his let- 
ter to the First Lord of the Admiralty, 
which is printed below. When the fact 
became known there was a good deal 
of public feeling aroused both in this 
country and abroad. Lord Tweed- 
mouth stated that the letter was a pri- 
vate letter and purely personal. Prince 
von Bulow informed the Reichstag 
that the letter was of both a private 
and political character, adding some 
remarks concerning the "purely de- 
fensive character of our naval pro- 
gramme which," said the Chancellor, 
"cannot be emphasized too frequently." 

The German Foreign Office officially 
announced that "in his letter the Em- 
peror merely corrected certain er- 
roneous views prevalent in England 
regarding the development of the Ger- 
man fleet." 

Keaders are now in a position to 
judge for themselves the accuracy of 
these statements. It should be remem- 
bered that the reduced navy estimates 
of 1908-9 were followed by national 
alarm and the publication of Admiral 
Lord Charles Beresford's shipbuilding 
programme and large increase in es- 
timates of the following year. Here 
is the letter : 

The Kaiser's Ijetter. 

"Berlin, 14th-2, 190S. 

"My Dear Lord Tweedniouth — May 
I intrude on your isrecious time and 
ask for a few moments' attention to 
these lines I venture to submit to you? 
I see by the daily papers and reviews 
that a battle royal is being fought 
about the needs of the navy. I, there- 
fore venture to furnish you with some 
information anent the German naval 
programme, which it seems is being 
quoted by all parties to further their 
ends by trying to frighten peaceable 
British taxpayers with it as a bogy. 

"During my last pleasant visit to 
your hospitable shores I tried to make 
your authorities understand what the 
drift of German naval policy is, but I 
am afraid that my explanations have 
been either misunderstood or not be- 
lieved, because I see 'German danger' 
and 'German challenge to British na- 
val supremacy' constantly quoted in 
different articles. This phrase, if not 
repudiated or corrected, sown broadcast 
over the country and daily dinned into 
British ears, might in the end create 
the most deploraile results.* 

"I, therefore, deem it advisable, as- 
Admiral of the Fleet, to lay some facts 
before you to enable you to see clearly 
that it is absolutely nonsensical and 
untrue that the German naval bill is 
to provide a navy meant as a chal- 
lenge to British naval supremacy. The 
German fleet is built against nobody at 
all ; it is solely built for Germany's 
needs In relation with that country's 
rapidly growing trade. The German 
naval bill wfl.s sanctioned by Imperial 
Parliament and published ten years 
ago, and may be had at any large boob- 



♦Bmphasized by the Editor. 



seller's. There is nothing surprising, 
secret, or underhand in it, and every 
reader may study the whole course 
mapped out for the devolpment of the 
German Navy with the greatest ease. 

Thirty to Forty Battleships in 1920. 

"The law is being adhered to, and 
provides for about thirty to forty 
ships of the line in 1920. The number 
of ships fixed by the bill included the 
fleet then actually in commission, not- 
withstanding its material being al- 
ready old and far surpassed by con- 
temporary types. In other foreign 
navies the extraordinary rapidity with 
which improvements were introduced 
in types of battleships, armaments, 
and armor made the fleet In commis- 
sion obsolete before the building pro- 
gramme providing additions to it was 
half finished. 

"The obsolete fleet had to be struck 
off the list, thus leaving a gap, lower- 
ing the number of ships below the 
standard prescribed by the bill. This 
gap was stopped by using the finished 
ships to replace the obsolete oues in- 
stead of being added to them as orig- 
inally intended. Therefore, instead of 
steadily increasing the standing fleet 
by regular additions, it came to a 
wholesale rebuilding of the entire Ger- 
man Navy. Our actual programme in 
course of execution is practically only 
the exchange of old material for new, 
but not an addition to the number of 
units originally laid down by the bill 
of ten years ago, which is being ad- 
hered to. 

"It seems to me that the main fault 
in the discussions going on in the pa- 
pers is the permanent ventilating of 
so-called two to three or more power 
standard and then only exemplifying 
on one power, which is Invariably 
Germany. It is fair to suppose that 
each nation builds and commissions its 
navy according to its needs and not 
only with regard to the programme of 
other countries. Therefore, it would 
be the simplest thing for England to 
say : 'I have a world-wide empire and 
the greatest trade of the world, and 
to protect them I must have so and 
so many battleships, cruisers, etc., as 
are necessary to guarantee the su- 
premacy of the sea to me, and they 
shall, accordingly, be built and 
manned.' 

"That Is the absolute right of your 
country, and nobody anywhere would 
lose a word about it, and whether it 
be 60 or 90 or 100 battleships, that 
would make no difference and cer- 
tainly no change in the German na.val 
bill. May the numbers be as you think 
fit, everybody here would understand 
it, but the people would be very thank- 
ful over here If at last Germany was 
left out of the discussion, for it is 
very galling to the Germans to see 
their country continually held up as 
the sole danger and menace to Great 
Britain by the whole press of the dif- 
ferent contending parties, considering 
that other countries are building too, 
and there are even larger fleets than 
the German. 

Fears German Retaliation. 

"Doubtless, when party faction runs 
high there is often a lamentable lack 
of discrimination in the choice of 



weapons, but I really must protest that 
the German naval programme should 
be regarded as for her exclusive use, or 
that such a poisoned view should be 
forged as a German challenge to Brit- 
ish supremacy of the sea. If perma- 
nently used, mischief may be created 
at home, and the injured feeling en- 
gendering the wish for retaliation in 
the circle of the German Naval League 
as a representative of the nation which 
would influence public opinion and 
place the Government in a very dis- 
agreeable position by trying to force 
it to change its programme through 
undue pressure, diflicult to Ignore. 

"In a letter which Lord Esher 
caused to be published a short time 
ago he wrote that every German, from 
the Emperor down to the last man, 
wished for the downfall of Sir John 
Fisher. Now, I am at a loss to tell 
whether the supervision of the foun- 
dations and drains of royal palaces 
is apt to qualify somebody for the 
judgment of naval affairs in general. 
As far as regards German afEalrs, the 
phrase is a piece of unmitigated bal- 
derdash, and has created immense 
merriment in the circles of those here 
who know. But I venture to think 
that such things ought not to be writ- 
ten by people who are highly placed, 
as tbey are liable to hurt public feel- 
ings over here. 

"Of course, I need not assure you 
that nobody here dreams of wishing 
to influence Great Britain in the 
choice of those to whom she means to 
give the direction of her navy or to 
disturb them in the fulfillment of their 
noble task. It is expected that the 
choice will always fall on the best 
and ablest, and their deeds will be 
followed with Interest and admiration 
by their brother ofiicers in the German 
Navy. 

"It is, therefore, preposterous to in- 
fer that the German authorities work 
for or against persons in official posi- 
tions in foreign countries. It is as 
ridiculous as it is untrue, and I hereby 
repudiate such calumny. Besides, to 
my humble notion, this perpetual quot- 
ing of the German danger is utterly 
unworthy of the great British Nation, 
with its world-wide empire and mighty 
navy. There is something nearly lu- 
dicrous about it. The foreigners in 
other countries might easily conclude 
that Germans must be an exception- 
ally strong lot, as they seem to be able 
to strike terror into the hearts of the 
British, who are five times their su- 
periors. 

"I hope your Lordship will read 
these lines with kind consideration. 
They are written by one who is an 
ardent admirer of your splendid navy, 
who wishes it all success, and who 
hopes that its ensign may ever wave 
on the same side as the German 
Navy's, and by one who is proud to 
wear a British naval uniform of Ad- 
miral of the Fleet, which was con- 
ferred on him by the late great Queen 
of blessed memory. 

"Once more, the German naval bill 
is not aimed at England and Is not a 
challenge to British supremacy of the 
sea, which will remain unchallenged 
for generations to come. Let us all 
remember the warning Admiral Sir 
John Fisher gave to his hearers in 



118 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



November, when so cleverly lie cau- 
tioned them not to get scared by using 
the admirable phrase 'If Eve had not 
always kept her eye on the apple she 
would not have eaten it, and we would 
not now be bothered with clothes.' 
"I remain yours truly, 

"WILLIAM I. R., 
"Admiral of the Fleet" 
— The New York Times. 



GERMANY'S STRONG CASE. 

"The American," of Marion, Va., in 
its issue of February 25th, says edi- 
torially : 

"The refusal of Great Britain to 
permit the United States or neutral 
countries to send foodstuffs to the 
civilians of Germany violates all the 
laws of civilized warfare, and is a blot 
upon a Christian nation. * * * 

"The British Government in 1812 
claimed, as it is claiming now, supreme 
authority for regulating the laws of 
commerce on the high seas both as to 
belligerents and neutral nations, and 
also for fixing to suit herself, regards 
the rules that should control naval 
warfare. * * * 



"Then the merchant vessels of the 
United States, according to the state- 
ments of President Madison, "freighted 
with the products of our soil and in- 
dustry, or returning with the honest 
proceeds of them, were wrested from 
their lawful destinations, confiscated 
by prize courts, no longer the organs 
of public law, but the instruments of 
arbitrary edicts.' 

"Then, as now. Great Britain was 
asserting her authority as 'mistress of 
the seas,' a position she has claimed 
and held ever since it was won for her 
in the sixteenth century by her piratical 
admirals — Drake, Hawkins, and Mor- 
gan — who were knighted and feasted 
by royalty because of the successes 
they won as buccaneers. The war of 
1S12 did not end at Trafalgar, but had 
a bloody and humiliating end for Eng- 
land at New Orleans. * * * 

"Why does Mr. Jeffrey speak of Ger- 
mans as the 'barbarian nation?' They 
are of his own kindred, the only pure 
Teutonic nation on earth. The Anglo- 
Saxon blood which flows in our veins 
is Teutonic; and if the Englishman, by 
birth or descent, has any right to the 



claim of a higher civilization, he must 
base that claim not upon his Anglo- 
Saxon origin, but to the influences of 
other tribes of the Teutonic race. 
* * * 

"Who was it that saved Great Brit- 
ain from defeat at Waterloo, and Bel- 
gium from permanent annexation as a 
French pro vice? The so-called German 
barbarians. At the battle of Water- 
loo the Duke of Wellington command- 
ing the allied forces was being crushed 
by the army of France. In his sore 
strait the Iron Duke exclaimed: 'Oh, 
for night or Bliicher!' Before night 
came, Bliicher arrived upon the scene 
with his army of Prussian barbarians, 
saved the battle and rescued Welling- 
ton from certain defeat. Since then 
Great Britain has been the enemy of 
its savior at Waterloo ; and since then 
the Germans have developed into bar- 
barians." * * * 

It is refreshing to see this Virginia 
paper come out fearlessly on the side 
of right, the more so as Mr. Pendle- 
ton, its editor, is not one of those dread- 
ful "hyphenated Americans." — From 
"The Crucible." 



British War News 
The Press Must Assist Us in Fighting Our Battles 



AN ENGLISH ME NAILED. 



WAR NEWS. 



The Story that 193 Belgian Catholic 

Priests Were Shot or Mutilated 

Is a Base Fabrication. — ^All 

Priests Arrested Have 

Been Set Free. 



"Irish World," March 13, 1915. 

With reference to the alleged mal- 
treatment of Belgian priests by the 
German authorities in Belgium, the 
German Information Service, at the 
instance of the German Embassy in 
Washington, has issued the follow- 
ing statement: 

"The London Times recently pub- 
lished a much noticed letter, signed 
by a certain Wilfrid Ward, according 
to which it was alleged that the Ger- 
man authorities had taken severe re- 
prisals against Belgians who had tes- 
tified as to German atrocities before 
an English commission of investiga- 
tion. The letter quoted a statement 
of the Observer, according to which 
193 Catholic priests 'whose names 
are unknown' have been shot, in- 
jured, mutilated, or made prisoners. 

"The German Information Service 
is advised by the German Embassy at 
Washington that the above state- 
ments are devoid of all truth and 
are nothing but a malicious fabrica- 
tion. In a report to the Imperial 
Chancellor the chief of the German 
civil administration in Belgium, 
Freiherr von der Lacken, says: 

" 'In so far as Belgian priests have 
become victims of the present war, it 
has merely been due to their unlaw- 
ful behavior against the German 
troops. Those who have been miade 
prisoners and were interned in Ger- 
many have been released and have 
returned to Belgium.' " 



Extracts, Editorial, The World, New 
York. 

Neither side has had a monopoly 
of the faking in this war. If there 
is more of it on the side of the 
allies, that preponderance is easily 
explained by the fact that more war 
news of all kinds comes from those 
sources. The untruthful reports 
against which Mr. Prieth protests are 
not part of a deliberate campaign 
of "slander, vituperation and boast- 
ing," as he thinks. They are an in- 
evitable result of such a censorship 
as all the governments have applied. 
Correspondents are not allowed at 
the front. In the German army they 
are wholly under the ban, and corre- 
spondents everywhere have to be 
guided not by what they see, but by 
what they are told.' 

There is no more unsatisfactory 
way of gathering news; yet in re- 
spect to the main operations of the 
different armies, the American people 
in particular have been kept remark- 
ably well informed. Nothing reflects 
more credit upon the energy and re- 



'And what the correspondents are 
not told they supply from their own 
imagination, "The World's" editorial 
writer forgot to add. That helps the 
London-Paris-Petrograd War News 
Lies Factory. The war correspond- 
ents thus get even with the nasty 
German barbarians for being pre- 
vented to follow their columns. But 
"The World" forgets Mr. James 
O'Donnell Bennett and his four com- 
panions who signed the famous 
"Round Robin." They are not guided 
"by what they are told." — The Pub- 
lisher of "War Echoes." 



sourcefulness of the American press 
than the manner in which it has 
overcome the obstacles that military 
despotism and a rigid censorship 
have imposed upon a correct report- 
ing of this war. 

Fakes there have been, and plenty 
of them, but few have survived the 
publicity of 24 hours. Where the 
news proved to be wrong it has been 
corrected as soon as possible, and 
there is no important particular in 
which readers of American news- 
papers are misinformed except In 
matters in which the conflicting re- 
ports from both sides make it impos- 
sible to separate the true from the 
false. 

Of the complaints about the news 
which come to The World, we have 
found that in a majority of cases 
the fault was with the reader. Ru- 
mors that were printed as rumors 
he had persisted in taking as direct 
statements of facts. Unofiicial re- 
ports printed as unofficial reports he 
has twisted into official reports. 
Even obvious typographical errors' 
have been construed as proof of gross 
unfairness or shocking ignorance on 
the part of the newspapers. 

The man who reads the New York 
newspapers every day with an intelli- 
gent and open mind, and who care- 
fully checks up not only the correc- 
tions of misleading false reports but 



'We refer to the article "Will the 
New York 'World' Explain?" printed 
on another page. Does the "World's" 
editorial writer explain the mutila- 
tion of Mr. Vieweger's letter as one of 
the "obvious typographical errors" 
which the readers "with an intelli- 
gent and open mind" should have no 
trouble in detecting? — The Publish- 
er of "War Echoes." 



GREAT BRITAIN AND INTERNATIONAL LAW 



the corroborations of correct reports, 
will have very clear and accurate in- 
formation as to the general progress 
of the war.^ More than that no news- 
paper can hope to do for its readers. 



SICK OF IT! WHY NOT? 



'We ask the readers of Anglo- 
American newspapers of the New 
York "World" brand, of course only 
those "with an intelligent and open 
mind:" did they ever attempt to se- 
cure "a very clear and accurate in- 
formation as to the general progress 
of the war" by following the sugges- 
tions of "The World's" editorial 
writer? If they attempted it, did 
they succeed? We strongly doubt 
whether "The World's" intelligent 
editorial writer with his open mind 
could himself, by following his own 
suggestions, accomplish the herculean 
*ask of checking up "not only the 
corrections of misleading false re- 
ports but the corroborations of cor- 
rect reports." 

To attempt to sift out the truth 
from so many prejudiced news and 
editorial columns, from rumors, from 
official and unofficial reports, from 
"obvious typographical errors," as 
"The World" expects its readers to 
do, even from deliberate lies, would 
be a task not worth the effort, for 
"Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of 
nothing, more than any man in all 
Venice; his reasons are as two grains 
of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; 
you shall seek all day ere you find 
them and when you have them they 
are not worth the search." — The 
Publisher of "War Echoes." 



Editorial from the "Milwaukee Free 
Press," October 7, 1914. 

It is not easy to understand the psy- 
chology of the expression, "I am sick of 
war news." It seems hardly possible that 
any one should be so narrow in his In- 
terests, so lacking in human sympathy as 
to become surfeited with the details of one 
of the most portentous crises of humanity. 

Here is the opening paragraph of an 
editorial in the New York Sun which 
must have provoked the hilarity of the 
nethermost pit. 

The American public is not sick of 
war "news," but it is sick, mighty sick, 
of the miserable fabrications, the verbal 
debauchery, that papers like the Sun 
are trying to ram down the throats of 
their readers under the guise of "news." 

When the intelligent reader sees one 
issue giving the lie to another in the 
fairy tales that are being relayed over 
Paris and London ; when he reads ac- 
counts of Russian victories one hundred 
miles distant from the location of the 
troops ; when he discovers the allied 
correspondents describing in detail the 
very reverse of what the official bul- 
letins state as fact; he tosses aside 
sheets of the Sun's journalistic policy 
and justly exclaims : "I am sick of war 
news !" 

Nor is this the worst of it. Seventy- 
five per cent of the alleged news in 
papers of this class is boldly and vic- 
iously anti-German. In headline and 
feature story, as in the handling of 
news, he who reads may discover the 
imprint of the cloven hoof. 



No alleged defeat of the Germans 
too preposterous, no alleged atrocity 
too vile, no alleged incompetence, 
confusion or disorganization of the 
German army too absurd, to deny it 
space or heralding in the columns of 
this press. 

"Cut out the army of words," writes 
a distinguished national legislator to 
the Sun, "just give us information." 
Replies that journal with seemingly 
outraged patience : 

He does not realize that there are not 
words enough to give the information, that 
language is bankrupted by the facts, that 
it is only by heaping Ossa upon Pelion 
that some dim picture of the reality can be 
thrown before the eyes of such as will 
read with imagination and feeling. 

This is rich. 

Night after night, our copy readers 
dump reams of what the Sun considers 
"information" — stuff that intelligence, 
reason and the very map at our elbows 
condemns as bold-faced invention. 

Language is not bankrupted by the 
facts, but by the hectic fancy of the 
penny-a-liners who are composing these 
yarns, miles away from the smell of 
gunpowder, for the satisfaction of the 
British censor. 

And these romances, anti-German 
with scarcely an exception, the Sun asks 
its readers to peruse "with imagination 
and feeling." 

Sick of war news? No. But the 
people are getting heartily sick of a cer- 
tain kind of American journalism, 
whose hotbeds are New York and Chi- 
cago, that is trying to prostitute Amer- 
ican sense and sentiment in the inter- 
ests of the foes of Germany. 



Great Britain and International Law 



BRITAIN'S COWABDIiY ATTACK 
ON LEGAL NEUTRAL BIGHTS. 



From 



'Milwaukee Free Press," 
March 20, 1915. 



The British government promises 
that the measures which it takes will 
involve no "risk to neutral ships or to 
neutral or non-combatant life" and will 
accord with "a strict observance of the 
dictates of humanity." But that is 
merely sugar coating a bitter dose. No 
neutral nation can be any the less 
averse to surrendering its established 
rights on the high seas because the 
belligerent who is trying to take them 
away agrees to conduct holdup opera- 
tions in a more or less civil and consid- 
erate manner. 

No Reason to Abandon Rights. 

Great Britain's new program is based 
on a theory which cannot be justified in 
law or in reason. It is a piece of arro- 
gance for any one nation to hold that 
international understandings must yield 
in an emergency to its temporary self- 
interest. That is what Great Britain is 
doing in calling on neutral nations to 
suspend commerce with Germany, al- 
though Germany's ports are not block- 
aded and Great Britain declines to ac- 
cept the military risks of blockading 
them. There is no reason why the 
United States or any other neutral na- 
tion should abandon the right to trade 
with Germany simply because a volun- 



tary cessation of such tirade would al- 
low Great Britain and her allies to reap 
all the benefits of a legal blockade with- 
out incurring any of the inconveniences 
of maintaining one. 

We Cannot Submit. 

We are asked to participate, at least 
passively, in a punitive operation 
launched by one belligerent against an- 
other. We cannot any more submit to 
Great Britain's demand that to sur- 
render our right to trade with un- 
blockaded German i)orts or with Ger- 
many through neutral ports (subject, of 
course, to contraband restrictions) than 
we could have allowed ourselves to be 
intimidated by Germany's "war zone" 
threat into abandoning our trade with 
the unblockaded ports of Great Britain 
and Ireland. 

The excuse given for the order in 
council is that it is a reprisal. That 
excuse may hold against Germany, but 
it cannot hold against neutrals. Just 
because Germany has sunk allied mer- 
chantmen and has intimated that her 
submarines might accidentally sink neu- 
tral merchantmen Great Britain is not 
justified in going still further and say- 
ing that neutral merchantmen may not 
hereafter carry any goods destined to 
Germany or outward bound from Ger- 
many. 

British Order Flagrant. 

If one combatant in a quarrel strikes 
out wildly at an innocent bystander. 



that does not warrant the other com- 
batant in turning to and knocking the 
innocent victim out. What the belliger- 
ents do to one another does not directly 
concern us. But when either attacks 
us as an incident of his warfare on the 
other we must defend ourselves. The 
United States should not be faithful to 
its honorable traditions as a champion 
of neutral interests if it did not protest 
with all its energy against the British 
order in council's flagrant subversion of 
international rights. 

Voicing its regret that England 
should voluntarily relegate obligations 
which she had defended, the Spring- 
field Republican says : 

It is with the deepest regret that 
many American sympathizers with Eng- 
land contemplate this development since 
in its complete disregard of established 
usage and treaty obligation the Brit- 
ish measure of retaliation against Ger- 
many's submarine warfare deprives 
Great Britain of very much of the mor- 
al strength that had come from her de- 
fense of the sanctity of solemn interna- 
tional obligations. 

Violates International Law. 

The development may in time be all 
the more deplorable if this new mani- 
festation of England's determination to 
"rule the sea" without scrupulous re- 
gard for the established rights of neu- 
trals arouses resentment in neutral 
countries, particularly in America, 
whose history in the Napoleonic period 



120 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



was identified with a struggle to force 
powerful belligerents to treat neutrals 
with respect. It is impossible to ignore 
the fact that in their measures of re- 
taliation the belligerents of today are 
virtually proceeding on th3 theory that 
law must yield to force even in the case 
of the innocent bystander. Pushed to 
its logical conclusion, the doctrine that 
military necessity knows no law would 
leave neutral states to exist merely on 
sufferance. And in practice it actually 
makes over international law regardless 
of the wishes and the vital interests of 
nations remaining at peace except in 
so far as some neutrals may be poten- 
tially strong enough to modify bellig- 
erent pretensions and hold belligerent 
action in restraint. 

"Would Destroy Trade. 

Great Britain will assert the right to 
seize neutral ships and cargoes any- 
where on the high seas and send them 
before British prize courts if those 
ships are engaged in any kind of trade 
with Germany either by way of Ger- 
man ports or by way of neutral ports. 
Neutral ships with noncontraband car- 
goes bound for Genoa or Naples are to 
be overhauled and taken to some Brit- 
ish port for judicial proceedings, more 
or less protracted, on the mere suspi- 
cion, perhaps, that the cargoes have a 
German destination. A British cruiser 
lying in wait off New York or Boston 
may seize these ships almost before 
they have passed from sight of land. 

One notes with satisfaction that in 
no case will noncontraband cargoes be 
confiscated and that provision is made 
for the restoration of the cargoes, or a 
money equivalent, to neutral owners 
who may establish their property 
rights. But it cannot be argued from 
this fact that a neutral trade hitherto 
lawful will not be virtually destroyed 
nor that neutral rights hitherto re- 
garded as firmly ' established will not 
be wiped out to satisfy presumed bellig- 
erent needs on the arbitrary decree of 
a single nation at war. 
Duty of United States Government. 

But, regardless of the injury done, it 
is impossible that our government 
should consent to the principle that 
these nations at war may rewrite the 
rules of international law to please 
themselves while war is in progress 
without admitting the right of neutrals 
to be heard — nay, more than that, the 
right of neutrals to a full share in de- 
termining what the changes in the rules 
shall be. If international law, as now 
appears to be the fact, is being remade 
it is the duty of our governemnt, in the 
interest of the nations at peace, to de- 
mand proportional representation in the 
lawmaking that is going on. 



CONTRABAND LIST IS GROWING. 



Britain Enforcing New Prohibitions 
on Trade With Germany. 



[Correspondence of the Associated 
Press.] 

London, England, Jan. 21. — Gradu- 
ally the economic phases of the war 
are becoming more apparent in Great 
Britain. The military activities, which 
monopolized attention at the opening 
of the struggle, are now overshadowed 
at times by the blockade of the North 
Sea and the strict measures the navy 



is enforcing against German commerce 
and trade with the neutrals adjoining 
Germany, which have been supplying 
foodstuffs to Germany and Austria. 

i'rom time to time the contraband 
list has been lengthened as it became 
possible for English officials to make a 
more thorough study of the needs of 
their adversaries and the probable 
source of supplies. Every week Eng- 
land also is increasing the list of arti- 
cles the exportation of which from the 
English isles is prohibited. 

The latest commodity to go on this 
list is copra, or dried cocoanut. Im- 
mediately after the exportation of 
copra was forbidden the price fell ap- 
preciably in England, as little of the 
material is consumed here. The Ger- 
mans extract an oil from the cocoanut, 
which is used as the basis for oleo- 
margarine. 

The Philippines are the greatest pro- 
ducers of copra and will probably be 
the greatest sufferers because of the 
difficulty of getting the product to Ger- 
man manufacturers. It is known that 
within a few days additional lists of 
oil bearing products will be put on the 
same list with copra. Peanuts, palm- 
nuts, sesame seeds, lard and several 
other products which Germans use ex- 
tensively in making artificial butter 
and cooking fat are to be barred from 
exportation. In the colder sections of 
Germany imitation butters are in great 
demand, while the troops use large 
quantities of oleomargarine and other 
substitutes. 



THE PEACE OP THE ANGLO- 
SAXONS. 

A book with the above title was 
written by Major Stewart L. Murray, 
of the British army, in 1905 and ad- 
dressed to the laboring class of Eng- 
land. Lord Roberts wrote a lauda- 
tory preface, "with pleasure,", as he 
stated. 

The following are a few extracts 
which we copy from an article by Dr. 
Edmund von Mach in "The Father- 
land :" 

"It cannot be too clearly stated that 
international law is no protection ex- 
cept to the strong, .and that the only 
laws which great powers recognize as 
binding are those of power and expedi- 
ency" (page 44). "The worst error in 
war is a mistaken spirit of benevolence. 
* * * It was not in such a spirit 
of weakness that we wrested the com- 
mand of the sea from the Dutch, that 
we fought the great struggle against 
Napoleon, or seized the Danish fleet at 
Copenhagen in 1S07 to avert its possi- 
ble use against us" (page 48). 

The question is, "Who will have the 
supremacy * * *? To share and 
agree is impossible" (page 81). "Let 
us, therefore, make up our minds once 
for all that we icill be supreme upon 
the sea, cost what it may, and let us 
get to work at once. Let us add at 
once another 5,000,000 pounds yearly to 
our shipbuilding program and recoup 
ourselves from the foreigner, and if 
necessary, from futurity" (page 168). 

"If one nation yields to another na- 
tion, such weakness only encourages its 
opponent to play the same game of 
threats again" (page 39). "Instead of 
listening to the unpractical nonsense 
of those who talk much about the wick- 
edness of war, let us regard war as it 



really is — as an inevitable event in the 
life of each generation" (page 40). 
"Russia interprets international law 
simply as pleases herself, without the 
slightest reference to anybody else's 
opinion. And so will every other bel- 
ligerent who is strong enough" (page 
44). 

When people in such high places in 
the council of the British nation, as 
Lord Roberts undoubtedly was, sub- 
scribe "with pleasure" to such senti- 
ments then may God protect us from 
the "peace of the Anglo-Saxons," for 
it is the peace of the beast in the 
jungle rather than of a civilized na- 
tion. 

And incidentally this book is the 
most shocking and the most complete 
list of England's political crimes which 
ever was compiled, and well may King 
George exclaim : "God protect me 
against my friends!" — ^From "The 
Crucible." 



PROTEST AGAINST TURCO 
SOLDIERS. 

In a recent issue of the Minnesota 
"Staats Tiding," Editor Schonberg, 
in an editorial bearing the caption, 
"The Black Soldiers of France," 
makes these comments: 

"According to reports from Mar- 
seilles, France is importing native 
troops from Northern Africa for use 
against the Germans. The French, 
who are so anxious to be looked upon 
as the elite of all civilization in the 
world and the bearers of the highest 
humanity, really intend to repeat the 
extreme barbarities of 1870. Wedid 
not think that it was possible that 
they again would use these half wild 
people in European war after the 
horrible brutality of the North Afri- 
cans in 1870. 

"Luckily they did not reach the 
battlefields as often as they like 
under the cover of darkness to 
torture the wounded. It was not 
French discipline, however, that held 
them back from so doing, but the 
German weapons that nearly always 
were masters of the battlefields. If 
the work of the French had been 
successful these half wild people 
would have carried on their barbaric 
practices not only on the battlefields; 
but she would also have taken them 
into the enemy's country. How they 
would have behaved toward the Ger- 
man women we dare not think. That 
a cultured nation of Europe should 
sully its shield of arms by driving 
half-wilds against their European 
opponents is beyond understanding. 
Against such an act one may have 
the right to protest in the name of 
humanity and express indignation at 
France for daring for a second time 
to do anything so terrible in the 
face of all Europe. 

"But the Swedes believe that the 
righteous God knows on which side 
the deepest civilization is to be found. 
We, therefore, with faith foresee the 
result of this 'speed hunting' which 
has been taken up by Slavs and 
Gauls — alas, with the help of Eng- 
land — and which long has been pre- 
pared for as a blow to German 
culture on the continent." — Re- 
printed from the "News of the War 
in Europe," supplied by "The 
Fatherland," New York. 



BRITISH CHARACTER IN ACTION 



121 



Great Britain's Position — Some Remarkable Confessions 



THE EUROPEAN WAR. 

(Conclusion.) 

Ttiis is the twelfth and the last ar- 
ticle of a series on THE EUROPEAN 
WAR, which appeared in the October 
Number of TEE OPEN COURT, under 
the title "Conclusion," written by the 
Editor, Dr. Paul Garus. 

Consult the INDEX for the complete 
series, and, in order to see loliere in 
the various Chapters of the boolc, the 
different articles of this treatise may 
be found, look for EUROPEAN WAR 
(THE). In this way the reader may 
read the entire series of articles in 
their original order, if he chooses to do 
so. lohile the present arrangement still 
gives him the advantage of bringing 
the various articles under their proper, 
respective Chapter-headings of the 
book. 

This is a series of exceptionally fine 
articles on the subject in question, and 
they bear a unique and important rela- 
tion to each other. Be sure to read 
them, also in their original order. — 
Editor, "War Echoes." 

A few personal comments may 
throw light on the fundamental con- 
ception upon which my opinion of 
the war rests. I have been, for al- 
most my entire life, since I began to 
think, an advocate of the federation 
of the great Teutonic nations, as a 
guarantee of the peace of the world 
— Great Britain and her colonies, 
Germany with Austria, and the 
United States. 

This political ideal of mine is not 
founded upon pan - Germanism, 
though it does not in the least ex- 
clude it. Modern civilization has 
been worked out in England, Ger- 
many and the United States. Here 
are the centers of progress, here live 
the people from whom we may ex- 
pect further progress, deeper thought, 
clearer science, and advancement in 
a conception as well as in a realiza- 
tion of noble humanity. Other 
smaller countries cluster about them; 
they are either of kindred blood or 
kindred language and thought. They 
belong to them as younger brothers 
who look up respectfully to their 
elder brothers. 

If these three groups of nations, 
centering about Germany, England 
and the United States, stand together, 
the peace of the world will be as- 
sured. So long as they do the right, 
all the smaller nationalities, states 
and groups of states will have to 
behave, and the peaceful realization 
of a highly cultured civilization will 
most assuredly be ours. But now 
this ideal — a by no means impossible 
one — has become an illusion. My 
hope of seeing it established has now, 
within a day, turned to despair. And 
why? Because one brother does not 
want another one to grow beyond his 
present stature. The Anglo-Saxon 
grew at first more quickly than the 
older German, but since, of late, the 
German has made a sudden start, 
and threatens to outdo the Saxon, 
the specter of war has appeared, and 
the two brothers face each other. 



sword in hand. And the end will be 
that one of them will fall. What a 
tragedy for mankind! Whatever 
the final result may be, mankind, 
with its ideals, will be the loser. 

Woe unto those villainous advisers 
who have begun the war. They 
think themselves wise, but they are 
short-sighted. They appeal to the 
lowest and vilest motives of their 
countrymen, and hope to enrich their 
country by the ruin of their brothers. 
Woe unto them! The curse of their 
own people will most surely fall upon 
them. So far the English people 
seem only to have expected to see the 
Germans crushed between the French 
and the Russians. But what if Ger- 
many should rise beyond her present 
state, and develop a grandeur of un- 
told strength? What if the spirit of 
God should come upon her, and she 
should smite her foes, and chastise 
them according to their deserts? 
What if, after conquering her Gallic 
enemy, she should overcome the 
giant Slav, and finally the Saxon, her 
own wicked brother beyond the chan- 
nel? 

My dear English friends! I love 
the English nation, and I wish that 
England could be regenerated. On 
my last visit to Europe I beheld with 
joy a new growth in Prance, but sen- 
sible thoughtful minds do not yet 
figure sufficiently in her politics. 
They are still in the minority. Any 
mob of self-styled patriots can cry 
them down, and if they should ever 
dare to utter an honest opinion they 
would be denounced as traitors.* In 
Germany I have witnessed an almost 
incredible advance in every line, and 
though there are still many things 
which have not my approval, I must 
state my conviction that, upon the 
whole, the life of the nation is de- 
veloping in the right direction. Even 
a hater of Germany cannot deny her 
his admiration. In England condi- 
tions are different; wretched poverty, 
almost unknown on the continent, is 
apparent in the very streets of Lon- 
don, and in the by-ways of the coun- 
try. My dear good English friends, 
believe me, for the sake of your own 
best interests, that you cannot enrich 
your poor countrymen by ruining 
your German brothers on the other 
side of the channel. It will do you 
no good to wipe the Teuton, with his 
competition, off of the face of the 
earth, but it will be terrible to face 
him when he rises against you with 
all his might, in his just wrath. Why 
did Greece fall? Because Sparta and 
Athens hated each other. Will you 
not learn from history, and must you 
repeat the sin of older generations, 
only to reap the same punishment? 
The Germanic civilization, repre- 
sented by Germany, England and the 
United States, is leading now, but the 
Slav hopes to take their place, and 
the Japanese, the most active people 
of the yellow race, are filled with 
ambition also to enter the field. An 



•M. Jaur6s was against the war and 
he was shot by an unknown hand. No 
serious effort appears to have been 
made to punish the assassin. 



internecine war of the Germanic na- 
tions is apt to pave the way for both 
Slav and Asiatic ascendency. 

As a friend of the English, and 
also in the interest of the further , 
development of the British empire, 
I cannot help feeling a grim dis- 
satisfaction with English politics. 
The present war which Great Brit- 
ain has undertaken against Germany 
and Austria-Hungary is against the 
real, the vital, and the all-important 
interest of Great Britain; hence I 
believe that the statesmen who, by 
their advice, their conduct, and their 
decisions, have brought about this 
war, have shown an obvious lack of 
Judgment and have become guilty of 
gross criminality. 

The war is unjust, the leaders of 
government affairs have not been 
fair to the German cause; but, in 
addition, they have neglected to ac- 
quire even the most superficial in- 
formation about the ability of the 
German people to wage a war, and 
have thoughtlessly and unnecessarily 
changed a vigorous, powerful and 
friendly nation into a most formid- 
able foe. The consequences of this 
action will endure into the most dis- 
tant future, and can, under no cir- 
cumstances, even in case of a victory, 
ever be or become favorable. And, in 
addition, England will, of course, 
have to suffer the usual curses which 
follow in the wake of war, — slaugh- 
ter and ruin, the blighting of civili- 
zation and culture, of industry and 
commerce, and the death knell of 
the blessings of peace. 

The men of England who have ad- 
vocated the war and have stirred the 
English people with hatred, are 
guilty of the blackest crime; they 
have committed the sin against the 
Holy Ghost, that sin which can 
never be forgiven. If I were an Eng- 
lish citizen, I would advocate their 
removal from those high offices 
which they have so shamefully dis- 
graced, and would even go so far 
as to have them indicted for high 
treason against Great Britain for 
their neglect of duty and because 
they have brought upon the British 
empire the curse of evil counsel. 

The outbreak of war between 
Great Britain and Germany has 
proved to me the greatest and sad- 
dest disappointment of my life. I 
have investigated the conditions and 
motives which led to it with sincere 
impartiality, but I have come to def- 
inite conclusions which place the 
guilt first of all, mainly and almost 
exclusively at the door of English 
diplomacy. Should I be mistaken, 
I wish to be refuted not by general 
declarations against German mili- 
tarism, by denunciations of Kaiserism 
and Prussianism, such as betray 
mere ignorance and prejudice, but by 
real facts or good, sound arguments. 
I am open to conviction and I shall 
carefully study all answers which 
contain actual points worth consider- 
ing, yea, I will give publicity to them 
and, in case I shall have to change 
my views, promise to confess my er- 
rors openly and without reluctance. 



122 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



WHY WE ARE AT WAR. 

In an editorial of March 12th the 
London "Times" says : 

"We joined the Triple Entente be- 
cause we realized, however late in the 
day, that the time of 'splendid isola- 
tion' was no more. We reverted to 
our historical policy of the balance of 
power, and we reverted to it for the 
reasons for which our forefathers 
adopted it. They were not, either for 
them or for us, reasons of sentiment. 
They were self-regarding, and even 
selfish reasons. Chief amongst them 
certainly was a desire to preserve the 
peace of Europe, but it was the chief 
only because to preserve that peace 
was the one certain way to preserve 
our own. * * * 

"England is helping her allies to 
fight in defense of their soil and of 
their homes against the aggressor, and 
she is proud to pour out her blood and 
her treasure in so sacred a cause. But 
«he is not fighting primarily for Bel- 
gium or for Serbia, for France or for 
Russia. They fill a great place in her 
second. The first place belongs, and 
rightly belongs, to herself * * * 

"It is to save ourselves from the 
deadly consequences of Germany's con- 
sidered malignity that we stand in 
arms. To shield our homes from the 
murder and the rape, from the organ- 
ized loot and the systematic arson we 
have seen across the seas; to protect 
the Empire our race has reared at so 
dear a cost ; to secure for our children 
and for mankind the spiritual heritage 
of which it is the embodiment and the 
guardian — these are the ends for which 
we are launching upon the battlefields 
of France the greatest and the most 
powerful armies our history has ever 
known; the ends for which England 
has pledged her last shilling and her 
last man." 

It was pre-eminently the London 
"Times" which upheld for a long time 
the fiction of Sir Edward Grey that 
England had joined "the sacred cause" 
of Russia (pardon me for smiling!) 
and France because Germany violated 



the neutrality (so-called) of Belgium, 
but the ridicule launched against this 
untenable assertion has at last pierced 
even the thick hide of John Bull, and 
his retainers have received orders to 
press lightly henceforth on the Belgium 
stop and to sound more and more 
loudly the note of England's honor and 
plighted word to her allies, and of 
her self-interest. 

When Russia shall have made a sepa- 
rate peace one of these days and Eng- 
land shall have to stand more and 
more on her own legs, she will, per- 
haps, give up the fiction of "Russia's 
sacred cause," too, and acknowledge 
that from the beginning she thought 
of her own interest only and consid- 
ered the war a game of grab and noth- 
ing else. — From "The Crucible." 



WHAT CAUSED THIS WAR? 

In an interview which appeared in 
the London "Daily Chronicle" of Jan- 
uary 1, 1914, that is to say, only seven 
months before the outbreak of the war, 
Lloyd George, now a slanderous enemy 
of Germany, made the following re- 
marks : 

Flays the Press. 

"The Agadir incident served a very 
useful purpose in bringing home to 
these two great countries the perils 
involved in the atmosphere of suspicion 
which had been created and main- 
tained by the politicians, the press and 
certain interests. 

"The realization of the Imminence 
of the danger came as a great shock, 
and sanity has now been more or less 
restored on both sides of the North 
Sea. 

German Militarism. 

"The Gertaan army is vital, not 
merely to the existence of the German 
Empire, but to the very life and inde- 
pendence of the nation itself, sur- 
rounded as Germany is by other nations 
each of which possesses armies al- 
most as powerful as her own. 



Army Absolute Necessity. 

"The country has so often been in- 
vaded, overrun, and devastated by 
foreign foes, that she cannot afford to 
take any chances in that direction. 
We forget that while we insist upon 
a CO per cent superiority (so far as 
our naval strength is concerned) over 
Germany being essential to guarantee 
the integrity of our own shores — Ger- 
many herself has nothing like that 
superiority over France alone, and she 
has, of course, in addition to reckon 
with Russia on her eastern frontier. 

"Germany has nothing which ap- 
proximates to a two-power standard. 
She has, therefore, become alarmed by 
recent events, and is spending huge 
sums of money on the expansion of 
her military resources. 

Does Not Threaten England. 

"That is why I feel convinced that, 
even if Germany ever had any idea of 
challenging our supremacy at sea, the 
exigences of the military situation must 
necessarily put it completely out of 
her head." 

Here we have it acknowledged by 
Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer — 

(1) That the press, the politicians 
and certain interests are responsible 
for the bitter feeling in England against 
Germany. 

(2) That the German army is vital 
to the very independence and life of 
the nation. 

(3) That Germany is not by far as 
strongly armed as England, and, 

(4) That the German navy does 
not constitute a threat against Eng- 
land. 

Since August 4, 1914, Lloyd George 
has changed — if not his opinions — at 
least his song, but we doubt whether 
he would say that he had lied in that 
interview. — From "The Crucible." 



Bits of News on France in the Great War 



DISTORTING ALL TRUTH IN 
FRANCE. 



Impressions of a Swiss Journalist 

After a Tour Along the Firing 

Line. 



From "The Fatherland." 

Georges Wagniere, director of the 
"Journal de Geneve," recently under- 
took a tour of observation along the 
French front by permission of General 
Jofifre. His remarks on the impression 
received on seeing a French newspaper 
after a considerable time is highly in- 
teresting in view of the impression 
made upon this undoubted Swiss friend 
of the French by the irresponsible and 
distorted twaddle of the Parisian press. 

"In Sezanne I bought a 'Journal,' 
for I hadn't seen a paper in a long 
time. The heroically sentimental tone 
of the very first article made a pecu- 
liar impression upon me. I felt all of 
a sudden far — very far — away from the 



front, far away from all those brave 
lads who are constantly face to face 
with death, who often confront death 
with courage and even cheerfulness, 
and who, deeply devoted to their coun- 
try, use only plain and intelligible 
words. But the moment one opens a 
paper truth remains behind ; one ex- 
changes it for mere literature. 

"A second article seeks to prove that 
Intellectual Germany has never pro- 
duced anything of value. Because 
General von Kluck burned the town of 
Curtacon, Goethe is an obscure little 
poet and Richard Wagner — only yes- 
terday compared to a divinity — be- 
comes a composer of the fourth rank. 

"I know of nothing more offensive in 
this war than this sort of depreciation, 
to which the most intelligent people 
have become addicted. The soldier on 
the firing line judges his opponent with 
more sense and fairness. He does not 
represent him — like most of the papers 
and artists — as persistently flying and 



advancing to attack only when im- 
pelled to do so by the kicks of his of- 
ficer. There would be no credit in con- 
quering such a foe. 

"A French officer recently described 
to me In a radically different tone a 
German Infantry attack, when the 
battalions in thick masses charged 
across the open ground in total disre- 
gard of the hellish effect of the mit- 
raileuses, all the time singing at the 
top of their voices. But unbridled pas- 
sions seem to have cast the whole 
world into darkness, and error pre- 
vails everywhere. Already this war 
surpasses every other in horrors ; in 
spite of which disordered minds are In- 
venting all sorts of refined tales of In- 
human atrocities. Legends are contin- 
ually being circulated and exaggerated 
in France and in Germany. If one 
single authentic case is found it is 
magnified to boundless proportions. 
.\tterapt to trace the truth, and you 
soon discover it to be a He. 



SOME NEWS FROM FRANCE 



"It is really remarkable how the 
truth is concealed in all places, so to 
speak. To give a single example: All 
Frenchmen are firmly convinced that 
Joffre purposely lured the Germans to 
the neighborhood of Paris to inflict a 
defeat upon them on the Marne! 

"As though any general stafC ever 
conceived the fantastic idea of draw- 
ing a million Germans into their coun- 
try and allowing them to keep the rich- 
est province!" 



would run out and fall over each other ; 
the squadron of light cavalry detailed 
at Froschweiler from Regiment 11 sta- 
tioned at Niederbronn would gallop 
hither and yon; the regiment itself 
would come up from Niederbronn and 
patrol around in all directions — but the 
Prussians did not come and everything 
would quiet down again. And yet no 
one could feel quite comfortable; the 
railroad trains rumbled so mysteriously 
from Reichshofen across the "great 
forest" (Grossenwald). The calm was 
beginning to weigh oppressively on peo- 



COUNT ZEPPEMN IN AliSACE 
IN 1870. 



(By Courtesy of The Open Court.) 
By Karl Klein. 

[Count Ferdinand Zeppelin, the in- 
ventor of the dirigible balloon, is promi- 
nently before the public because of the 
important part his airships play in the 
present European war. He is now in his 
seventy-seventh year, and a man of active 
intelligence and in vigorous health. He is 
an extraordinary character and remark- 
ably young for his age. 

By birth the Count is a Swabian. He 
first saw the light on July 8, 1S38, very 
near Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. 
He acquired a very good and broad educa- 
tion, not only of a general nature but also 
in technical and mechanical science. He 
attended the polytechnic institute at Stutt- 
gart, the military academy at Ludwigs- 
burg and the University of Tubingen. In 
1858 he entered the Wurttemberg army. 
In 1863 while the war of Secession was 
waging in the United States he could not 
stay at home, but in his anxiety to profit 
by experience in actual warfare he left 
for America, entering the army of the 
North as a cavalry officer, where he did 
good service until the end of the war m 
1865. Even thus early he had taken spe- 
cial interest in aeronautics, for he once 
made an ascent in a captive balloon in or- 
der to spy out the position of the Confed- 
erate army. For some time he was at- 
tached to the staff of General Carl Schurz 
and barely escaped being taken prisoner 
at Fredericksburg. , , ^ t. 

Upon his return home the Austro-Prus- 
sian war broke out in 1866. and he served 
in the Wiirttemberg army against Prussia. 
At the very beginning of the Franco-Prus- 
sian war in 1870 he played a conspicuous 
part in a brilliant dash into Alsace which 
he made in the service of the German 
armies in order to reconnoiter the country 
and determine the position of the various 
French army corps. This experience is 
told in the diary of the Bey. Karl Klein, 
an Alsacian pastor of the village of 
Froschweiler. The diary was published 
after the war of 1870-71, .and has the 
fresh and impartial tone which belongs to 
such an informal document. Since the 
Rev Karl Klein was a subject of France, 
he could hardly be said to be a German 
yet as an Alsacian he was not without 
sympathy for the German invaders. At 
?hr«me he wrote, Count Zeppelin was not 
famous, nor could his 'ater exploits in 
aeronautics be , foreseen. ^e J^fP"^'!f 
here Pastor Klein's account of Count Zep 
pelin's adventure, translated into Bnglisn 
by Lydia G. Robinson and accompanied by 
mustrations made by Ernest Zimmer, a 
German artist, after a careful study of 
the localities, the uniforms and all the 
personalities concerned. 

We will conclude our comment bv stat- 
ins that after the foundation of the em- 
p"fe count Zeppelin served in the Bnndes- 
rat (the imperial council representing the 
sovereign princes of Germany) as the 
wurttemberg Plenipotentiary, a very high 
™sition He retired from active service 
Fn'the°arm??nT901 with the rank of Lieu- 
tenant-General and has since then devoted 
himself to the development and perfection 
of the dirigible balloon which now bears 
his name. — ^Bd.l 

"The Prussians are coming! i-Oe 
Prussians are coming!" During the 
summer of 1870 this alarm had 
sounded more than once in Froscli- 
weiler Worth and the neighboring Al- 
sacian villages. Who said so? Where 
are they? How could any one make 
sense out of such hubbub ! The people 




M. Poincare— President of France 

(Photo by the International News 
Service) 



FRENCH SOCIALIST OBJECTS. 



Gustave Herve Ashamed of Treatment 

Accorded to Germans and 

Austrians. 



"The Fatherland." 

Gustave Herve, according to infor- 
mation received by the Neue Freie, 
Presse from Paris, has demanded that 
the conditions prevailing in French 
concentration camps be at once inves- 
tigated. "The concentration camps," 
says Herve, "by no means constitute 
a page of glory in the history of 
France. For lack of any better ex- 
cuse for the defeat in the early stages 
of war, the blame has been put upon 
espionage. The government has lost 
its head and ordered all Germans and 
Austrians to be interned. 

"These unfortunate victims were 
herded together in railway trains, and 
under the shouts and insults of the 
populace were removed to various 
places. There they were escorted by 
a double row of soldiers and police- 
men to some quarters unprepared and 
unfit for habitation. For weeks men, 
women and children had to sleep on 
a thin layer of straw, if not on the 
bare floor, and were treated like crim- 
inals. The number of children who 
died in consequence of such treatment 
will never be known. 



pie's spirits, when suddenly early in 
the morning of July 24, the boy from 
the castle came running in as pale as 
death from Elsasshausen, crying at the 
top of his voice: "The Prussians are 
coming! The Prussians are here! I 
saw them myself. They rode through 
Elsasshausen and I had to show them 
the way." And Babe Lanze broke in 
with : "Oh dear, oh dear ! we are all 
lost! Every Prussian carries a saber 
in his mouth crosswise and has a 
loaded pistol in each hand!" And as 
they went shouting about through the 
village, all the others crowded around 
shouting after them until there was as 
great a consternation and screaming 
;\nd howling as if a hundred thousand 
brigands were down there by the 
churchyard and were sure to massacre 
everything that had skin and hair. 
Crowds flocked around the parsonage, 
and especially the women were wring- 
ing their hands and whimpering and 
weeping as if all was already lost. 
And we were admonishing them to be 
still and leave everything in God's 
hands, when a gendarme came gallop- 
ing up from Worth who confirmed the 
news that a troop of Prussians had 
rushed through Worth with flashing 
swords and muskets cocked, shouting 
"War ! War !" He said he was hurry- 
ing to Niederbronn to inform the regi- 
ment so that these marauders would be 
killed or captured. Then our people 
quieted down somewhat and every one 
— both young and old— that went on 
two feet, stood ready to sacrifice them- 
selves on the altar of the fatherland. 

The captain of the squadron, a val- 
iant and courageous young hero, who 
was infuriated at the slightest sign of 
fear and cowardice, could not stay 
quietly on the spot another moment. 
He rushed hither and thither with his 
company, scouted in every direction, 
down hill, across country and back 
again, and when one or another of his 
men wiped the sweat from his brow 
with beating heart and grave forebod- 
ings, he consoled them with "Allons, 
mon 'brave! pas peur! nous mourons 
povr la patrie!" (Courage, my brave 
fellow, fear not ! we are dying for our 
country!) And all who could under- 
stand it and carried Christian hearts 
in their breast could not keep back the 
tears, thinking: 

"God keep you! 
Yesterday on mounted steed. 
Today with hero's heart ableed, 
Tomorrow in the peaceful grave." 
So as much as an hour and a half 
was spent in riding up and down, lying 
in ambush, coming back, keeping quiet, 
receiving all sorts of good wishes and 
words of encouragement, emptying can- 
teens, filling them up again and strik- 
ing out in all directions without blood- 
shed Then the gendarme came back 
and announced that the regiment had 
broken camp at Niederbronn and had 
gone to meet the enemy by way of 
Gundei-shofen. "They must forget the 
way home !" opined Lindenbauer, drunk 
with triumph. "Yes, if they don't run 
away, or if there is a rear guard be- 
hind them," whispered the shrewd Wil- 
libald, "they are hardly likely to be left 
to themselves." 

The enemy's forces consisted of an 
oflttcer of the Wurttemberg general 
staff Captain Count Zeppelin, three 
officers from Baden and four dragoons. 



124 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 




RUINS OF HEIDELBERG CASTLE 

Devastated in 1G8S by .the French under Malec. previous to the establishment of Militarism 

(By Courtesy ot the "Open Court") 



Tliey had orders to recouuoiter across 
Lauterburg out into the country and 
see whether any considerable number 
of troops had mobilized In lower Al- 
sace. They had succeeded in passing 
through Sulz, Worth, Froschweiler. 
and had advanced on an unfrequented 
mountain path so far from Elsasshau- 
sen that they could look down upon 
the railroad tracks from Gundershofen 
to Niederbronn and also over a good 
part of Hanau. 

Whether they had finished their 
Joshua and Caleb errand or w-ere just 
about to carry it out we shall not here 
betray for the best of reasons. But it 
is our duty to communicate to posterity 
what took place at the Schirlenhof Inn 
lying in lonely Isolation iu the woods 
midway between Eberbach, Gunders- 
hofen and Reichshofen, and what fate 
overtook the venturesome horsemen 
there. 

They had returned to the courtyard 
and put up their horses in stables and 
sheds; they were about to rest a while 
after their hard ride and already the 
omelets were merrily steaming in the 
pan and were going to taste all the bet- 
ter on French ground — when all of a 
sudden there was an uproar, the whole 
cavalry regiment was coming up, the 
yard was already surrounded. What 
next? Knives and forks fell to the 
table, swords were unsheathed, the 
guests plunged headlong out of the inn 
.ind barricaded themselves behind their 
horses. The first shot stretched a 
French subaltern on the ground ; other 
shots followed ; Lieutenant Winslow 
vi'as fatally wounded and others were 
injured. There were a few shots of 
retaliation, but superior force had 



conquered. Two officers and two dra- 
goons were taken and Winslow bled to 
death ; but Count Zeppelin and the two 
other dragoons escaped. The regiment 
turned right about face and reached 
Niederbronn again that very evening 
in the midst of general rejoicing. In 
Paris the "battle of Schirlenhof" was 
celebrated with Illuminations, and even 
iu Froschweiler the joy was so great 
and the enthusiasm so universal when 
our squadron came back that our good 
people never tired of asking questions, 
praising and admiring, and the soldiers 
could not finish eating, drinking, and 
telling stories until far into the night. 
As booty they brought back with them 
a short musket and a thick wooden 
cudgel, still preserved In Froschweiler 
as a permanent memorial. How these 
trophies were prized and marveled at ! 
Count Zeppelin escaped on the black 
horse of the fallen French subaltern, 
people in the forest say, and returned 
to Schirlenhof shortly after the battle 
and settled his account there. Whether 
this is true or not he himself must 
know best, for he is still alive, and 
even if he does not confess it perhaps 
history will throw light on the matter 
at some future day. At any rate he 
is a bold horseman, for his retreat into 
Pfalz not only shows a very exact 
knowledge of our locality, but also such 
contempt of death as to compel admira- 
tion. From the scene of the battle he 
wended his way in a northeasterly di- 
rection through the "great forest" and 
it must have been not far from Frosch- 
weiler that he crossed the Reichshofen 
military road which at that time was a 
much frequented highway. Then he pro- 
ceeded over the outskirts of the for- 
est into the mountains, always in com- 



pany with the black' horse, which has 
become a legendary figure. 

When Wendling's Peter (God bless 
him ! ) was tending his cows in the pas- 
ture that evening close to the wood by 
the mountain slope between Nahweiler 
and Linienhausen, there came along a 
strange looking man who could not be 
a Frenchmau. He was leading a tired 
warhorse by the bridle and asked if he 
couldn't get a little milk. Peter looked 
at him in alarm. "Yes, I would just as 
soon give you a little milk if I had 
something to milk into." "That is eas- 
ily arranged," said the man and drew 
a leather object out of his pocket which 
could be drunk out of and milked 
into, and Peter milked into it bravely 
enough. The milk tasted so good to 
the stranger that he let the cowherd 
fill the cup again, whereupon he gave 
the dumbfounded fellow a two-franc 
piece, said "Thank you" and "Good- 
bye." And all this happened while 
French horsemen were scouring up and 
down not more than three hundred 
paces away, and were execrating the 
Prussian in the wood though they did 
not go into the wood after him. 

Count Zeppelin went on his way, and 
that very evening reached Giinsthal. 
There at the so-called "Big" Peter's 
house he drank two glasses of red wine 
for which he paid a ten-franc piece and 
next day arrived in the kingdom of 
Bavaria with important communica- 
tions after his fatiguing ride. But 
never to his dying day did Wendling's 
Peter forget that evening, nor how he 
milked into the stranger's leather cup. 

There were two dragoons also who 
escaped from the battle of Schirlenhof, 
as we said before. They sought and 
found shelter and lodging in the forest 



SOME NEWS FROM FRANCE 



125 




befoim: the days of "militarism" 

The Eeturu of the French Troups from Petrowski Park 
(By Courtesy of the "Open Court") 



while their eouirades were given an 
opportunity of silent meditation behind 
the walls of the Niederbronn prison. 
One of the two who escaped had been 
shot in the foot, and so the way home 
on shank's mare through hedges and 
thorns could not give him any particu- 
lar pleasure. They had started off 
straight towards the south not far from 
Eberbach. had stopped at Albert's Inn 
(commonly called the Tx)use lun) be- 
tween Morsbronn and Worth to ask for 
refreshment and civilian's clothes, and 
hoped that from there they could suc- 
ceed in getting back to their home by 
way of the Hagenau forest near by, 
which extends down to the Rhine. But 
they were to find out very soon what 
Alsacians can do when it becomes a 
question of protecting their fatherland 
from barbarians. 

It was reported that a few Prussians 
were lurking in the forest, and al- 
though the regiment at Niederbronn 
might sleep in peace, in Sauerhof no 
one could be expected to do so under 
the circumstances. No indeed, you 
must not think that Sauerhof is any 
ordinary place on the map. Who is at 
all acquainted with it knows that it 
contains many prominent people, phi- 
losophers and poets (there is one poet 
there who is firmly convinced that 
he reaches at least up to Schiller's 
ankles!). And here above all we have 
patriots without a peer. I tell you it's 
great when these men strike the table 
and set about dividing up the world! 
So we can easily understand that no 
one in Sauerhof could rest in peace un- 
til those dreadful villains were caught 
and wiped off the face of the earth. 

First of all the patricians assembled 
to take measures to save their country ; 



the unprecedentedness of such an in- 
vasion was set forth in its proper light 
with all its dangers and horrors; the 
people's wrath was aroused to the 
necessary pitch by means of large black 
type; and, to make a long story short, 
it was decided to make an expedition 
into the forest and bring back the ban- 
dits to Sauerhof, dead or alive. Now 
imagine the village, if you can, at such 
an exalted moment ! The enthusiasm, 
the outbursts of wrath, the contempt of 
death and the joy of victory ! What a 
pity there were not a hundred Prus- 
sians lying in the forest Instead of only 
two. Yesterday they did not as much 
as imprison one, today each man would 
kill a dozen. 

But who will lead the expedition? 
What a question I You can easily des- 
cry the vengeance-breathing commander 
there on the white horse. See how 
smartly his hair is dressed and how 
valiantly he gallops up and down under 
the window of the fine ladies so that 
the sparks fly from his charger's hoofs. 
I give you my word of honor that he 
will take to his heels, and escape across 
the Kniebis before the first battle!' 
And there is the adjutant at the head 
(his name has just escaped me but it 
does not matter) who has been a sol- 
dier, even a subaltern. You can tell 
him by his voice and the Prussians will 
know him by his stripes. Hear him as 
with pistol in either hand he goes roar- 
ing about among the raging crowd. 
"Where are they? Where are they? 
Allans, enfants de la patrie!" And the 
crowd takes it up after him. See how 



• Pastor Klein says In a footnote that 
this is what actually occurred in less than 
ten days, on August 4. 



the zealous army of citizens with flint- 
locks, knives, scythes, pitchforks, stakes 
and all manner of death-dealing imple- 
ments, swearing death and destruction, 
surge through the streets, and away 
they go without fear and without wav- 
ering, forth, forth to the bloody fray. 
Only one man, the wise ^sculapius, 
looks on with a philosophical smile 
from behind the palings of his garden 
and mutters in his beard, "Oh ! if there 
were only some way to muzzle such 
specimens !" But he nevertheless takes 
bandages and other remedies, has his 
gig hitched, and still musing rides along 
behind the rest to the scene of battle. 

What incidents occurred on the way, 
what sorts of "vive la France !" and 
other slogans resounded through the 
forest, the present historian cannot say. 
All he knows is that when the main 
body of troops in fighting array sur- 
rounded Albert's Inn (commonly called 
the Louse Inn) and the spokesman had 
solemnly demanded the unconditional 
surrender of the hostile army, there 
stepped out — two young unarmed strip- 
lings, who stood silent before their vic- 
tors as in days of old Vercingetorix 
stood before Cffisar. "There they are! 
There they are! Vengeance! a ias la 
Prusse! We've got 'em!" sounded 
from a hundred throats, besides what- 
ever else in the way of curses, threats 
and patriotic effusions, all who had 
particularly distinguished themselves in 
the battle could utter. 

A beautiful twilight glow spread over 
the great forest ; the expedition had 
succeeded beyond all expectations. 
Beaming with joy the leaders of the 
army returned to Sauerhof with aj)- 
plauding legions and barbarians In 
chains. The doors of the carcere duro 



126 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



clanged, and therein lay two captive 
dragoons tortured the whole night long 
with curses and execrations. The next 
morning they were led like ordinary 
criminals, bareheaded and with torn 
clothes, through Froschweiler and Nie- 
derbronn, and the writer will never for- 
get the look one of them cast up at a 
window where a foul-mouthed spec- 
tator was giving utterance to the genu- 
inely patriotic speech, "Beheading'd be 
too good for them." 



.John Bull comes to the assistance of 
his oppressed friend from motives of 
purest philanthropy. Prance furnishes 
the troops and the fighting grounds for 
the blow which the City statesmen 
have planned against their unpleas- 
antly successful competitor. "Let us 
suppose that France enters into peace 
negotiations with us," the "Tag" says, 
"Is it believed in Paris that Kitchener 
and French will simply evacuate the 
French territory to which they came 



ures, as a result of which France's in- 
dustry and commerce derive some 
profit from the existing conditions 
which place England in the position 
of the Sovereign of the Seas. Evident- 
ly the fear exists in the minds of the 
French that England may use her na- 
val supremacy to the disadvantage of 
French trade and industry. 

The French soldiers, too, have be- 
come disgusted with their English com- 
rades. The "Mannhelmer General- 




THE OUSPINSKI CHITRCH AS A STABLE 

During the days of French Glory, and before the Days of the Modern "Huns" 

(By Courtesy of the "Open Court") 



You shake your head, dear reader, 
and think "Oh, Sauerhof, to what 
heights hath your patriotism soared !" 
Be calm and chide not to me the bound- 
less bravery of the Alsacian people. 
Down in Germersheim or up In Offen- 
burg the dragoon hunt against two 
wounded Frenchmen would have been 
carried on in exactly the same way. 



PRANCE AS AN ENGLISH 
PROTECTORATE. 

Reports come in continually from 
the field stating that the antipathy ex- 
isting between the French and British 
is increasing considerably. The Eng- 
lishmen play the part of lord and ruler 
in many of the most Important French 
cities, such as Havre, and take the 
reins of government out of the hands 
of the French authorities. France is 
following the same path as Belgium. 
We know from the latest exposures 
how Great Britain first offered the 
Belgian government her assistance and 
then forced it upon them. Even the 
members of the French government 
can no longer give credence to the 
idea that this war is a German-French 
passage at arms, in which the knightly 



only as the saviours of France? Eng- 
land would further fortify her 't6te 
de pont,' Calais. To come right down 
to the truth, England never really got 
over the loss of Calais. 'When my 
heart is opened,' said the dying Maria 
Tudor, 'the name Calais will be found 
written on it.' " 

England needs Northern France for 
the purpose of carrying on warfare 
against Germany, in whose possession 
they do not wish, under any circum- 
stance, to leave Ostend and Antwerp. 
France has become an English protec- 
torate. Even the French do not de- 
ceive themselves as to this fact. The 
deputies of the Department of the 
Seine held a consultation, during 
which the Delegate Laval demanded 
that a deputation from the French gov- 
ernment be appointed to adopt meas- 



Add Horrors of War. 

Paris, Sept. 11. — One Parisian, 
seeing his supply of absinthe was 
reduced, with no chance for obtain- 
ing more, drank his last bottle almost 
at one drink and died. — From "The 
Chicago Tribune," September 12, 
1914. 



Anzeiger" prints a letter from Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Ehrt, commander of the 
First "Landsturm" Infantry Battalion 
in Heidelberg, written to the Mann- 
heim Auxiliary of the Red Cross, In 
which the following incident is re- 
lated: "A short time ago, French 
'Landwehr' men sent the following 
note to the German troops" : "Do not 
shoot and we will not shoot, but give 
It to the English good and hot !" The 
"Journal" thinks there is no hope that 
Germany's resources will be exhausted 
by next summer. In order that peace 
be brought about, one of the parties 
must come to the recognition that fur- 
ther efforts are useless. Germany will 
have actually conquered, the paper 
states, when the Allies have been 
driven back over the Loire, when Eng- 
land feels herself threatened in her 
own land, and when the German army 
has won a battle before St. Petersburg 
and Moscow. The end of the war will 
come sooner than It did in 1870, the 
"Journal" thinks, nnd adds that a 
general uprising of the French people, 
after all men capable of bearing arms 
have been called to the front, is out 
of the question. — "Hamburger Frem- 
denblatt." Hamburg, Germany. 



FREEDOM FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE 



127 



The Liberation of the Jewish People by Russia 



AN OPEN LETTER TO ISRAEL 
ZANGWILL. 



The Fatherland, New York. 

Mr. Zangwill, I address to you the 
following lines, because you have tak- 
en the liberty of advising the Amer- 
ican Jews as to what attitude they 
should take in this terrible blood- 
shed. 

True, It is, that we Jews have 
long ago given up the idea of taking 
you seriously. But our Gentile 
brethren still believe that you are 
one of our "leaders," and that hence 
you must have spoken with authority 
in your "Epistle to the Jews." It 
is on this account that I, as an Amer- 
ican Jew, am compelled to protest in 
a publication, read by the general 
public, against the amazing and un- 
just statements contained in your 
"Manifesto" to us. 

You begin by expressing surprise 
that some American Jews should 
sympathize with Prussia, though this 
war was "made in Germany." Let 
me tell you, Mr. Zangwill, that not 
some, but most of the American Jews, 
and I hope of the entire world, are 
sympathizing with Germany. All the 
American Jewish dailies (with per- 
haps one exception) are out-spoken 
pro-German. And do you know 
why? Because we are too intelli- 
gent to believe the poisoned English 
press. We do not allow our minds 
to be made up for us by the anti- 
German editorial writers. We read 
the documents and we are convinced, 
as every honest and sound-minded 
person, familiar with the political de- 
velopments that lead to the war, 
must be, that, in this terrible con- 
flagration, Germany was forced to 
take up arms for self-defense against 
Russian barbarity, French lust for 
revenge and English greed for money. 
For what was it, if not the desire 
to cripple German prosperity, that 
drove the "nation of shopkeepers" 
into the embrace of savage Russia a 
few years ago? And why did now 
England declare war against Ger- 
many? I consider you too intelligent 
to believe that England was willing 
to sacrifice millions of dollars and 
thousands of her subjects because 
she signed a treaty to preserve the 
neutrality of Belgium. You, as well 
as I, know that when she has noth- 
ing to gain, England is not so scru- 
pulous about her signature. One 
example is sufficient to prove this as- 
sertion: In 1878 England signed 
the Berlin Tractate which contains a 
distinct clause that Roumania must 
accord equal rights to her Jewish 
subjects. Up to the present day, 
Roumania has been treating her 
Jews as outlaws, thus violating a 
treaty which England signed. And 
what has England done to enforce 
respect for her signature? She sure- 
ly has not declared war against Rou- 
mania. Why? Because there was 
nothing to be gained for British in- 
terests by punishing little Roumania, 
while there is a great deal to be 
won by weakening powerful Ger- 
many. 



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NICHOLAS II— CZAR OF RUSSIA 



This, as we American Jews believe, 
being the case, how ridiculous it is 
for you to repeat the futile asser- 
tions of the hypocritical English 
press that Britain is fighting against 
German Militarism. If it is noble 
and moral to try to crush Germany 
because she has a splendid army 
(which, by the way, she has been 
compelled to maintain, being hemmed 
in between two powerful and mili- 
tary enemies), why is it less noble 
for another nation to destroy Eng- 
land, on account of her tremendous 
navy? In which way is Militarism 
a greater danger to civilization than 
"Navyism"? 

You speak of Germany's "barba- 
rous" behavior in this war. Hence, 
again, you are condemning Germany 
without listening to her side of the 
story. But, in any case, it sounds 
rather awkward that an Englishman 
should accuse Germany of barbarism, 
when the Allies, not satisfied to cast 
their lot with "civilized" Russia, liave 
called upon the Turco and Japan into 
this European struggle. Your so- 
phisticated excuse that England is 
using "black means for white ends" 
is an empty phrase, for you are beg- 
ging the question. We believe that 
every war is barbarous, unless it is 
fought for self-defence. England 
cannot claim this excuse, hence it is 
England and her allies who brought 
about this war; they are the real 
barbarians. And if you call Ger- 
many's punishing civilian snipers 
"barbarous," I should like to know 
how "civilized" England would treat 
civilians caught firing at her sol- 
diers? 

Your suspicion that the Jews hold 
off their sympathy from the allies on 
account of Russia, is only partly cor- 
rect. Even if Russia would take no 
part in the war we would sympathize 
with Germany, because we believe 



that the allies are wrong. But, now 
that Russia sides with the allies, of 
course, no sane person could expect 
the Jews of neutral states to wish the 
allies success, for this would mean 
greater glory for the Czar and more 
suffering for our Russian co-religion- 
ists. 

Your amazing statement that it is 
better for the Russian Jews to "con- 
tinue to suffer than that the great 
interest of civilization should be sub- 
merged by the triumph of Prussian 
militarism" surpasses in its cruelty 
and injustice anything I have ever 
seen written by a Jew. 

Mr. Zangwill, do you know what 
it means to suffer in Russia? You 
have read about pogroms. Have you 
ever lived through one? You have 
heard of your ally, the Cossack. But 
did you ever feel his lash? And If 
you say that your imaginative mind 
can clearly picture to you all the hor- 
rors of Jewish life in Russia, even 
though you never experienced them 
in person, do you still maintain that 
you are willing to have your unfor- 
tunate 6,000,000 brethren tortured 
indefinitely, in order to save "civili- 
zation," meaning of course, English 
civilization, which allows such atroc- 
ities — nay, which, by its alliance with 
the Czar, sanctions all his barbarities 
perpetrated on our brethren? 

You are trying to win our sympa- 
thy for England by telling us that 
Sir Edward Grey has assured you 
that when Germany will be defeated, 
Russia will be "encouraged" to treat 
the Jews like human beings. And 
you, Mr. Zangwill, state that this Is 
not a promise of "a politician in a 
crisis." Is that really so? Where 
was Sir Edward Grey till now? Why 
did he not "encourage" Russia to 
stop the scandalous Beilis trial? 
Why did he not encourage the Czar 
to allow you, Mr. Zangwill, to enter 
Russia? I suppose you did not for- 
get the answer the same Sir Grey 
gave to the "English Jewish Commit- 
tee" when they asked him to bring 
some pressure on the Czar that he 
respect a British passport in the 
hands of a Jew? 

And in conclusion, let me quote a 
passage from II Chronicles, xx: 37, 
in which Sir Churchill may be inter- 
ested: 

"Then prophesied Eliezer, the son 
of Dodavohu of Mareshah, against 
Jehoshaphat, saying, 'Because thou 
hast connected thyself with Achaz- 
yahu, the Lord hath broken down 
thy works, and the ships were 
wrecked, so that they were not able 
to go to Tarshish.' " 

Meyer I. Leff, M. D. 

September 14, 1914. 



The Anglomaniac press of New 
York and elsewhere will have to in- 
vent a new cause for their anti- 
German belligerency than that Ger- 
many had no business to go to war 
with Russia, for England declared 
war against Austria for no reason 
whatever. Austria was at perfect 
peace with England and was fighting 
Russia and Prance, not England. 



128 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



THE JEWS AND RUSSIA. 



Herman Ridder, New Yorker Staats- 
Zeltung. 

The well-known secretary of the 
American Jewish Committee, Mr. 
Herman Bernstein, in his preface to 
the "American Jewish Year Book," 
which appears today, says: 

"The Beilis affair has constituted 
the darkest tragedy of the Jews in 
recent years. The evil forces of the 
Russian Empire conspired against 
them, an innocent Jew was tortured 
In prison for two years and a half, 
and the entire Jewish peonle in Rus- 
sia was threatened with pogrom 
panics through this political conspir- 
acy. In the Beilis affair, the Russian 
government's policy of cruel, militant 
and anti-Semitism reached its culmi- 
nation. Just as the civilized world 
was shocked at the Kishineff mas- 
sacres, so it was appalled when the 
Russian government revised the in- 
famous hlood legend for the purpose 
of discrediting the Jewish people and 
Justifying new massacres. 

"The list of events in Russia dur- 
ing the past twelvemonth recorded in 
this scheme reveals a painful state 
of affairs. The sufferings and hope- 
lessness of the Jew in the Pale of 
Settlement are shown in the simple 
records of "ordinary" happenings, of 
wholesale expulsions — silent, word- 
less progress — of new devices of per- 
secution, of the suppression of edu- 
cation, and of the ritual murder de- 
lirium with which the Russian gov- 
ernment has crazed the minds of the 
Russian masses." 

The "Year Book" contains also an 
interesting 90-page review of the 
Beilis affair, which well deserves 
reading. 

Some weeks ago it was reported 
from Europe that the Czar had is- 
sued a ukase promising to the Jews 
in Russia complete civil rights. Us- 
ing this ukase as his text, Israel 
Zangwill, the noted Jewish author 
and playwright of England, sent out 
to the Jews of neutral countries, not 
long after, an appeal for Jewish 
sympathy and Jewish prayers for 
Great Britain in her present "war 
for freedom." 

It is apparent from the tone of the 
Jewish press in the United States and 
from letters written by prominent 
members of the Jewish community, 
that Mr. Zangwill's "manifesto" has 
fallen, so far as this country is con- 
cerned, upon sterile soil. The Brit- 
ish advertising clique was unfortu- 
nate in the choice of Mr. Zangwill as 
the man to address the Jews of the 
world, for great as his work has been 
In the field of literature, he has come 
to be regarded by the Jews the world 
over, with the possible exception of 
those in England, as one no longer 
In touch with the sufferings of his 
race in less tolerant countries and 
one who has little sympathy with 
the true racial aspirations of his 
people. But even had Mr. Zangwill 
been the one man to appeal, on the 
strength of the Russian ukase, for 
Jewish sympathy for England, what 
had he to offer them in return for 



such sympathy or as an excuse for 
his appeal? 

The story of the Jews in America 
is known to all — of the Jew in Eu- 
rope to not so many. I know it suf- 
ficiently well 10 state, however, that 
in England alone have the Jewish 
people received complete civil rights. 
In France and Germany their condi- 
tion is not so good as in England, 
but it is as far divided from their 
condition in Russia and the Balkan 
States as high heaven is from hell. 
The great majority of the Jews in 
this country come not from the Brit- 
ish Isles, but from Russia and south- 
' eastern Europe and have come here 
to escape the horrors of the perse- 
cutions to which they were subjected 
there. These Jews have not forgot- 
ten what they and their fathers suf- 
fered from the lash of the Cossack 
and the riflebutt of an ignorant and 
bigoted soldiery. They remember 
the pogroms of Kishineff as vividly 
as Mr. Zangwill the banquets at 
which he has been feasted in Lon- 
don. And many of them have friends 
and relatives submitting to this same 
treatment today, unable to escape 
from Russia. It is not probable that 
such Jews will lend their prayers to 
the Anglo-Russian combine until the 
condition of their race in Russia has 
been definitely and concretely im- 
proved. 

And what is Mr. Zangwill's assur- 
ance that in the event of a Russian 
victory over Germany such will be 
the case? Sir Edward Grey has said 
that in that event he will "encour- 
age" Russia to alter its present atti- 
tude toward her Jewish subjects! I 
do not wish to impugn the word of 
the British Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs. Above all, he is "a 
man of his word." So true was he 
to the promises that he had given 
behind the backs of Parliament and 
the British people to Russia and 
France, that he plunged his country 
into an unpopular war. The com- 
bined efforts of the cinematograph, 
the spell-binders of the government 
and a press campaign by such writ- 
ers as Mr. Zangwill, have failed to 
rouse England to Sir Edward's duty. 
The Secretary for Foreign Affairs 
will undoubtedly carry out his prom- 
ise and "encourage" Russia, when 
the Cossack is in Berlin, but of what 
avail will it be? We have had our 
own experience in such things. When 
Russia accepts the abrogation of its 
American treaty, as a protest against 
her treatment of the Jew, without 
turning a hair, what respect may she 
be expected to show for the "encour- 
agement" of her ally? 

The attitude of England toward 
the suffering Jew In other countries 
is already in black and white. A 
clause of the "Berlin Tractate" of 
1878, to which Great Britain was sig- 
natory, demands of Roumania that 
she accord to her Jewish subjects 
equal rights with those of other re- 
ligious beliefs. The treatment of 
the Jew in Roumania today is known 
to be and for years to have been no 
less brutal and revolting than that 
experienced in Russia. And yet, can 
we doubt that England, and espe- 
cially Sir Edward Grey, has "encour- 
aged" Roumania to alleviate these 



conditions? England is true to her 
treaties. She has told us that so 
often these last few weeks that it 
would seem impossible for anyone 
but herself to doubt it. What good 
has come of it? Has all England's 
encouragement brought back to life 
a single Jew foully murdered be- 
cause he chose to worship God in the 
manner of his fathers? Has it 
erased the scars from one Jewish 
back, wrought there by the lash of 
an avaricious police? Has it won him 
the right to live where he will, to 
possess property in security, and to 
educate his children in the schools 
which he is compelled to support? It 
has done no one of these things, and 
it will do no more in Russia. In- 
stead of looking forward to a con- 
tingency which at best is highly 
problematical, Mr. Zangwill should 
have looked back and told the Jews 
what England has already done for 
them in the dominions of the Slav. 
We have seen what the Jew may 
expect from England in return for his 
sympathy and support. Let us look 
for a moment at what he may rightly 
expect from Russia. 

The "word of a Romanoff" is a 
proverb among the downtrodden sub- 
jects of the Czar. Its value is known 
to Jew and Christian alike. It is 
given today and retracted tomorrow. 
When the voice of the oppressed 
rises to the ears of the Little Father 
in times of peace it is stilled by the 
crack of the knout and the clank of 
Siberian chains. When the throne 
rocks on the waves of an unpopular 
war it is necessary to meet it with 
other weapons. It is then the open 
season for conciliatory ukases. Alex- 
ander I. promised Finland its auton- 
omy under conditions not dissimilar 
from those which exist today, and 
what has Finland profited thereby? 
The Russo-Japanese war purchased a 
Duma, but so emasculated that its 
place is rather with the sewing cir- 
cles of Victorian England than with 
the parliamentary bodies of civilized 
States. The present confiict has de- 
veloped the inner dissension of the 
Russian Empire to the limit. Poles 
are asked to fight Poles, Jews to 
fight not only other Jews but a coun- 
try which has treated the race with 
a large measure of justice. We have 
had, therefore, two examples of "the 
word of a Romanoff." The first was 
to Poles, but that has since been 
retracted by the Russian commanders 
in Galicia, when they found Austrian 
Poles fighting against them. The 
second was to "my beloved Jews." 
But what proof has the Jew in Amer- 
ica that the signature of the Little 
Father has been affixed to this other 
ukase, promising his people in Rus- 
sia full civil rights? It has even 
been asserted, and on authority quite 
as good as that on which the publi- 
cation of the ukase in question was 
made, that the whole story of the 
Czar's promise to his "beloved Jews" 
is a fabrication for foreign consump- 
tion. 

I do not doubt that Russia wishes 
to conciliate the Jews at the present 
time, not only at home but abroad. 
She has spurned their religion and 
cannot, therefore, care very much for 
their prayers. She can use, how- 



FREEDOM FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE 



129 



ever, to good advantage, their money, 
their brains and their lifeblood. In 
the last analysis it is that which 
she seeks. If Mr. Zangwill had been 
moved by a spirit of loyalty to his 
race it is that which he would have 
penned in his manifesto. 

When, however, he comes before 
them with the plea that England is 
fighting a war of freedom against 
German "militarism" he misjudges 
his audience. The Jew can read 
through the tenuous fabric of his 
words as easily as anyone. It is not 
a war of England against Germany, 
but, so far as England is concerned, 
a war for the destruction of Ger- 
man sea power and the seizure of 
Germany's outlying colonies. So far 
as internal Europe is concerned, it is 
a war between Russia and Germany. 
True, Germany has her militarism, 
but she has also her culture, her re- 
finement and her justice. Russia has 
only militarism, in an exaggerated 
and brutal form. She can offer not 
one redeeming trait of government 
or policy. Of the two the Jew will 
know which to choose. 

The appeal of Mr. Zangwill asks 
the Jews of America to forget too 
much. It asks them also to believe 
too much. They have no fight with 
England, but they will not help Eng- 
land to help Russia. When Mr. Zang- 
will can guarantee that equal rights 
will be accorded to the Jews in Rus- 
sia, they will listen to him. When he 
can secure the guarantee of Sir Ed- 
ward Grey to the same effect, they 
will listen to him. When he can 
offer the guarantee of anyone but a 
Romanoff, they will listen to him. 
But not before. 



HOPE FOR RUSSIAN JEWS. 



Editorial from "The Cliicago Trib- 
une," September 14, 1914. 

The cradle of race hatred in Rus- 
sia is the army. It Is the army ofll- 
eers as a class that foster the perse- 
cution of the Jews. It is almost a 
fashion with them to assert them- 
selves as anti-Semites, to cover up 
their own petty natures and dark 
dealings with loud mutterings about 
Russia's greatness and the need of 
downing all foreigners, and especially 
the Jews. 

It is with considerable interest, 
therefore, that the Jews of the world 
will read the news that the Czar has 
decided to admit members of their 
race as officers in the Russian army 
and navy. It was well known in the 
past that, in spite of the restrictions 
which government has placed upon 
Jews as a people, it has recognized 
the abler among them in an un- 
official way. Hatred of the Jews, 
for instance, has not prevented the 
Czar from calling out a Jewish physi- 
cian from Berlin to attend his sickly 
heir, the Czarevitch. It is well 
known, too, that the editors of some 
of the most reactionary papers in 
Russia privately seek the advice of 



Jewish scholars and students of af- 
fairs — Russian affairs — just as the 
Russian government privately turns 
to Jewish bankers abroad for finan- 
cial favors. 

Apparently official Russia is grow- 
ing tired of this ridiculous policy 
toward five million of its subjects. 
Permitting Jews to become army and 
navy officers is not yet granting all 
the Jews of Russia political and eco- 
nomic freedom. But it is a strong 
move in that direction. Not only 
Jews, but all fair minded people will 
hope that Russia will profit from its 
alliance with England* and France, 
at least, to the extent of adopting 
a humanitarian attitude toward a 
people it has outraged and oppressed 
for centuries. 



RUSSIA'S DECLARATION OF 

liOVE FOR THE JEW 

AND POLISH. 



*Does "The Chicago Tribune" in- 
clude itself among "all fair minded 
people, who will hope that Russia 
will profit from its alliance with Eng- 
land" to the benefit of the outraged 
and oppressed Jews? "But it is a 
strong move in that direction," says 
"The Tribune." We suppose it ar- 
rives at this conclusion because "the 
Czar called out a Jewish physician 
from Berlin to attend his sickly heir, 
the Czarevitch." It is remarkable 
what "profound" arguments are 
brought forward by a vast number of 
Anglo-American newspapers in thoir 
efforts to whitewash England's new 
comrade — Russia, in order to make 
their readers believe that such com- 
panionship will have the beneficial in- 
fluence of forcing Russia to keep her 
promises to the Jews. We cannot 
share this present cheerful view of 
the Anglo-American press which, 
only shortly before the war, could 
not find terms hard enough to de- 
nounce Russia in its attitude towards 
the Jews. "Apparently official Rus- 
sia is growing tired of this ridicu- 
lous policy toward five million of its 
subjects," says "The Tribune," in 
trying to find some further proof that 
the Jews in Russia will from now on 
be treated somewhat like human be- 
ings. It strikes us as somewhat pe- 
culiar that the editorial writer of 
"The World's Greatest Newspaper" 
should use the adjective "ridiculous" 
in referring to a long series of blood- 
shedding cruelties and outrages, trials 
of ritual murder and the restriction 
of the possibilities of making a liv- 
ing. The reports that are being re- 
ceived of the treatment the invading 
Cossacks are giving to the Jews in 
Galicia should tend to open the eyes 
of the editorial writer in "The Trib- 
une," who seems to he but one of 
many who have been hoodwinked by 
the Czar's promises to his "beloved" 
Jews. It should make him realize 
that if Russia wins the lot of the 
Jews in Russia will be the same as 
before, if not worse; in other words, 
that it will be a repetition as car- 
tooned in the first and third of the 
pictures illustrating "The Czar and 
His Beloved Jews." We also refer 
our readers to "The Jewish Year 
Book" and "An Open Letter to Israel 
Zangwill;" for the latter consult the 
Index. — The Editor. 



Translation, Editorial, Illinois Staats- 
Zeitung, Chicago. 

The present war brings strange 
things to maturity and makes strange 
bed-fellows. England walks arm in 
arm with Russia, pretending to fight 
for liberty and right, and the same 
England calls at the same time upon 
Eastern Japan against Western civil- 
ization. 

Animated by the noble example 
set by England, Russia entered also 
the road of humanity and tries to 
prove how serious and sincere her 
fight for freedom is. Russia has 
rendered already the first evidence. 
The Jews were promised religious 
freedom and the Polish home rule. 

Necessity teaches even Russia to 
pray. Russian self-consciousness, 
Russian belief in victory stands on 
lame legs if the almighty Czar 
thought it advisable to enter into ne- 
gotiations with the despised Jews and 
with the fettered Polish to arouse 
sympathies in them in favor of Rus- 
sia. 

The sudden human inclination of 
Russia, even though it presents itself 
In the form of a Russian promise 
only, that Inclination as well as the 
tears of the London Times, shed the 
other day, arouse the suspicion that 
the recent French and Russian vic- 
tories do not look exactly as the cable 
dispatches from London, Paris and 
St. Petersburg would have them look. 

It is more than suspicious to see 
Russia make love to the Jew and 
to the Polish. Great troubles seem 
to have confounded Russia's mind, 
which has never been altogether 
sound. The Czar and his advisers, 
if clear-minded, would never have as- 
sumed that a mere promise given to 
the Jews would extirpate from their 
souls the memory of the bloody po- 
groms, the trials of ritual murders, 
the restriction of the possibilities of 
making a living. 

And a clear-minded Czar would 
not allow himself to think for one 
moment of the possibility of a mere 
promise converting the Polish to Rus- 
sian patriots and induce them to shed 
their blood for the hangman of their 
national existence. 

Since the overthrow of the resur- 
rection led by Kosciousco and the 
third and final division of Poland in 
the year 1791, the Polish, who can- 
not and never will forget the glori- 
ous history of their country, nowhere 
else except in Russia met with the 
hardest and most brutal persecution. 

The honeyed bread of the prom- 
ise of home rule will hardly sweeten 
the bitter memories. The Polish in 
Russia will never warm up to the 
Russian that seized 200 Polish, part 
of whom were beheaded and part 
of whom were deported to Siberia 
thirty years ago. 

The Polish in Russia will never 
forget that the Russians confiscated 
their church goods in 1865 and sub- 
jected them to the fanatics in St. 



130 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



Petersburg. The Polish in Russia 
will never forget the brutal force 
which brought about their Russifica- 
tion. 

And this Russia has the audacity 
to talk about the liberation of the 
Slavs. When had the Slav national- 
ities in Austria and Hungary to en- 
dure similar oppressions? When did 
Austrian or Hungarian authorities 
confiscate church goods of the adher- 
ents of the orthodox church? 

And still the claim is that the 
oppression of the Slavs in Austria 
and Hungary was the primary cause 
of the present war. And England 
sings the same song and joined Rus- 
sia to liberate the Slavs — outside of 
Russia — and glorify the orthodox 
church. And England calls this a 
fight for liberty and for civilization! 
If that word in the lips of England 
does not mean a simple phrase, if 
constitutional and democratic Eng- 
land is actually striving for the lib- 
eration of others, it should start with 
the subjects of its Russian ally. It 
should induce Russia to grant at 
least Finland and the Baltic prov- 
inces some liberty of speech and of 
religion. 

As long as England does not even 
try to accomplish that her protesta- 
tion of trying to further the cause 
of civilization should be reduced to 
the value of the Russian promise to 
the Polish and the Jew. 



AS WAS EXPECTED. 



Editorial from the "Milwaukee Free 
Press," October 3, 1914. 

Skepticism anent Russia's good 
faith in promising relief to Jews and 
Poles appears to have been well jus- 
tified. 

The Russian embassy in London 
informs the press that it knows of 
no new privileges given to Jews in 
Russia, and intimations are being 
made that the promises to the Poles 
have been "withdrawn," on the 
ground that some natives of Austria 
and Prussian Poland have been fight- 
ing against the czar. 

Since such an event was inevitable, 
its assignment as a reason must be 
regarded as a pitiable pretext — ^proof 
that the formal promises made to the 
Poles by Russia were meant to be 
broken from the first as soon as they 
had served their purpose. 

With respect to the Jews, the Rus- 
sian government does not see fit to 
manufacture so much as a pretext 
for its breach of faith. 

It will be remembered that another 
of the czar's promises related to the 
forgiveness of political exiles provid- 
ed they returned to fight for Russia. 
This appears to have been a similarly 
base subterfuge, since we are told 
that Bourtzen, the revolutionist, who 
went back to join the colors upon 
the strength of this assurance, was 
arrested in Finland and shipped to 
Siberia. 

So Kipling's old warning seems 
still to hold: "Make ye no truce 
with Adamzad, the bear that walks 
like a man!" 



The Brooklyn Eagle in seeking to 
explain this shocking duplicity of the 
Russian government says: 

"We suppose the explanation Is 
that the powerful state church influ- 
ence has been exerting itself in Pe- 
trograd. Politically reactionary, it 
has no mercy for liberal thinkers on 
governmental problems. It is against 
the Jews as Jews; against the Poles 
as Roman Catholics. Perhaps it is 
seeking to stultify the czar without 
the czar's consent. In that case the 
autocrat's personal strength of char- 
acter will be subjected, or is being 
subjected, to a severe test." 

That is only half the truth. To 
say that the church "has been ex- 
erting itself at Petrograd" is to im- 
ply that it is not always in the saddle, 
riding hand in glove with the grand- 
ducal clique. The present czar has 
been a pawn in the hands of these 
ruthless reactionaries from the be- 
ginning of his reign; he was its tool 
in covering up the Russian prepara- 
tions for war just as he was when 
he put his name to promises that 
were never intended to be kept. 

His "strength of character" is un- 
dergoing no severer test today than 
it has for years past. Whatever that 
strength amounts to it is as helpless 
as a babe's before the real rulers 
of Russia. 

Until these and their government 
are overthrown, there can be no hope 
for the oppressed races, the oppressed 
masses of the Muscovite realm. 



ZANGWILL ASKS JEWS IN XJ. S. 
SUPPORT THE AIjIilES. 



Reprinted from the "Chicago Amer- 
ican," September 10, 1914. 

London, Sept. 10. — Israel Zang- 
will has sent to the "Standard" an 
appeal to Jews of neutral countries, 
especially those in America, to sup- 
port the allies against Germany. He 
writes: 

"Though the most monstrous war 
in human history was 'made in Ger- 
many' and although Germany's be- 
havior in war is as barbarous as her 
temper in peace, I note with regret 
that certain sections of Jewry in 
America and other neutral countries 
seem to withhold sympathy from 
Britain and her allies. 

"In so far as these Jews ar« Ger- 
man born their feeling for Germany 
is as intelligent as is mine for Eng- 
land, but in so far as they are 
swayed by consideration of the in- 
terests of Russian Jews, to whom 
Germany and Austria are offering 
equal rights, let me tell them that it 
would be better for the Jewish mi- 
nority to continue to suffer and that 
I would far sooner lose my own right 
as an English citizen than that the 
great interests of civilization should 
be submerged by the triumph of 
Prussian militarism. 

Explains Black Army. 

"And in saying this I speak not as 
a British patriot, but as a world pa- 
triot, dismayed and disgusted by the 
inhuman ideal of the Gothic super- 
man. 



"I am well aware Germany's press 
agent paints Germany as the guard- 
ian of civilization, an angel fighting 
desperately against hordes of sav- 
ages imported from Africa and Asia, 
but if we are using black forces it is 
for a white purpose. She is using 
white forces for black purposes. 

"But it is not even certain the 
Jews of Russia would continue to 
suffer once England was relieved 
from this Teutonic nightmare. I 
have been privileged to obtain from 
Sir Edward Grey the assurance that 
he will neglect no opportunity of en- 
couraging the emancipation of Rus- 
sian Jews. 

Trusts in England. 

"This marks the turning point in 
their history, replacing as it does 
windy Russian rumors by solid polit- 
ical bases of hope. Nor is this the 
mere utterance of a politician in a 
crisis. I am in a position to state 
that I represent the attitude of all 
that is best in English thought. 

"It is with confidence, therefore, 
that I appeal to American and other 
'neutral' Jews not to let the shadow 
of Russia alienate their sympathies 
from the indomitable island, which 
now, as not seldom before, is fight- 
ing for mankind and which may yet 
civilize Russia and Germany.'"* 



*See Dr. Meyer L. Seff's reply to 
Zangwill, the leading article of this 
section. — Editor. 



"MY BELOVED JEWS. 



From "The American Jew." 

The Czar of Russia seems to real- 
ize that his Jewish subjects are, after 
all, — Men. Now, when the physical 
strength of the Russian Empire is 
put to the test, the barriers of relig- 
ious prejudice and hatred fall, and 
in the gigantic chess game across 
the seas counts only the strength of 
arm, the clearness of vision, the 
bravery of heart. The Russian Jew 
is no coward. It takes strength, su- 
perhuman courage, to endure what 
has been meted out to our poor breth- 
ren in Russia. They who faced death 
a thousand times, death in its most 
barbarous form, — ^who welcomed the 
reaper's touch when Russian fiends 
desecrated their homes and tortured 
their loved ones, — know how to wage 
a loyal fight. It will take more than 
war to liberate the Russian Jew, 
more than mere words, spoken in the 
hour of need, to establish our faith 
in the Czar's promises. 



THE CZAR'S UKASE. 



From "The Fatherland," New York, 
September 30, 1914. 

Apropos of the Czar's message to 
the Jews in Russia, the "Censor" in 
its last issue terms it "about as sar- 
donic a bit of jesting as has come 
out of Russia in a long time," writes 
"The American Jew." "If the prom- 
ise were meant to be kept," says the 
editorial, "it would still be a joke in 
its method of address, for as the 
world knows the Russian autocracy 
has always been in the habit of testi- 
fying its 'love' for the Jews by re- 



FREEDOM FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE 



131 



morseless proscriptions, imprisoning 
them in gliettoes, and once and again 
promoting a 'pogrom' tliat slaugtit- 
ered them without discrimination, for 
no other reason than that they were 
'Jews'." Our esteemed contempo- 
rary cannot, therefore, agree with us 
when we commend the Russian Jew's 
loyalty to his country. The Czar's 
Ulcase is sheer hypocrisy. He does 
not love the Jew. He does not mean 
to respect the Jew's rights. And the 
Jew knows it. Knows that he is the 
cast-off, despised plaything of Rus- 
sian brutality — the social underling 
of Russian autocracy. 



REVOIiUTIONARy MOVEMENTS 
IN RUSSIA. 

A Sofia paper writes that a Bulgari- 
an wholesale house received a report 
from its St. Petersburg representa- 
tive, relative to the increase to the 
revolutionary movement in Russia. 
The police of the secret service caused 
many hundreds of arrests during the 
last weeks. In St. Petersburg only 
the arrest of Social Democratic repre- 
sentatives to the Duma have been pub- 
lished. Reports have been spread re- 
garding a plot against the Czar, in 
which Representatives Jekaterinoslaw 



and Petronski were entangled. In Lu- 
pansk wholesale arrests took place. 

The calling in of the troops does not 
go on quite smoothly. In some dis- 
tricts, scarcely half of those liable to 
military service put in an appearance 
— the peasants have to be gathered by 
force. — "Hamburger Fremdenblatt," 
Hamburg, Germany. 



The Czar's promises to treat the 
Jews just as he treats his other sub- 
jects are calculated to send a shiver 
of apprehension throughout Israel. — 
From the "Boston Transcript." 



Great Britain's and Russia's Part in the World War 



ENGLISH PERFIDY AND RUSSIAN 
ATROCITIES. 



The Vital Issue, New York. 

Editor's Note: 

Below we publish one of the most re- 
markable articles ever printed in an Amer- 
ican journal. It is very unusual that 
newspaper reprints have ever appeared in 
an American newspaper. Usually, the or- 
dinary newspaper does not publish such 
telling material as we give below, but it Is 
only right and fair that the great Ameri- 
can public should be told. They want to 
know facts from both sides. 

Here follows a letter written by one of 
the best known college professors in Eng- 
land to "Egypt" of August, 1912. Please 
remember that the letter was written two 
years ago and that it has therefore no 
reference to the present European Crisis. 
For this reason the manuscript is remark- 
able and not influenced by sentiments 
caused by the present European Crisis. 
Our English correspondent condemns bit- 
terly the Russian government and its 
agents. We quote his own words : "Our 
'Friends,' as the London 'Times' and its 
congeners persist in calliing the Russians." 
Remember that this was written two years 
ago by an English college professor, and 
it is true today. The pictures which we 
reprint herewith are reproductions from 
actual photographs, and show the most 
gruesome and abominable deeds of Rus- 
sian governmental agents. These pictures 
show Russian methods in their despicable 
rdle. It is these Russians who precipitated 
the present European war. Similar meth- 
ods were employed by them through the 
Revolution in the Baltic provinces a few 
years ago. It is these dreadful Russians 
who have now set out to destroy German 
Culture, German Ideals and German 
Thought. 

The picture is mute evidence of the ac- 
tual behavior of the Russians, and the ar- 
ticle describes the sentiments and the atti- 
tude of a certain British clique. Their 
envy of Germany was rapacious and their 
commercial greed insatiable. Russia 
fvonld never have attacked Germany if 
before the outbreak of the Tvar E^n^land 
had not quietly enconragred Russia. 
Such underhand support is hard to 
prove, but now we see that this same 
British clique openly joins hands with 
despotic Russia to destroy German Cul- 
ture and German Freedom. The Brit- 
ish even ask the help of the Yellow 
Men and transported peaceful Hindus 
to Europe to help them in their devil- 
ish plans. What fearful responsibil- 
ity must fall upon the shoulders of a 
band of men of such a low and perfidious 
character. May Heaven punish them!* 



*I did not have the heart to give you 
more than the word-picture of these bar- 
barities : out of charity toward the de- 
fenders I refuse to show the ghastly pho- 
tographic reproductions of the incidents 
described. However, I emphasize the 
sentence in small black, above, — Editor 
of War Echoes. 



By PROFESSOR ROBERT D. GREENE, 
of Oxford University, England. 

Sir. — Today's papers are full of 
reflection on the result of the elec- 
tion at North-West, Manchester, and 
while they differ according to their 
political tenets as to the interpreta- 
tion of the results, they all notice 
the significant fact that the success 
of the Unionist candidate was due 
less to any remarkable enthusiasm 
for the principles which he advocated 
than to a very conspicuous lack of 
enthusiasm on the part of Liberal 
voters, some 1,200 of whom appear 
to have abstained from voting. 

This lack of enthusiasm is vari- 
ously ascribed to dislike of the In- 
surance Bill, or of Home Rule, or of 
Welsh Disestablishment; but I have 
not seen it suggested that a pro- 
found mistrust and dislike of the 
foreign policy of the present govern- 
ment had anything to do with It. I 
think, however, that there is good 
ground for believing that this is the 
case. Liberalism, as a power capable 
of generating enthusiasm, is not a 
mere name or label, but an idea, or 
set of ideas, often denounced by its 
opponents as "sentimentalism," but 
at least inspired by a deep-seated be- 
lief in abstract justice and truth; a 
desire for and belief in moral ad- 
vance; sympathy for the weak, and 
hatred of oppression; and a profound 
conviction that a nation cannot, any 
more than an individual, ignore 
righteousness, surround itself with 
an atmosphere of falsehood, or defy 
expediency with impunity. 

Illiberal Foreign Policy. 

Now I venture to say that seldom, 
if ever, in the history of this conn- 
try has a foreign policy been pur- 
sued at once so illiberal, so immoral, 
.so contemptible, and so perilous as 
that pursued by the present Govern- 
ment. 

Illiberal, because, contemptuously 
regardless of the claims to our sym- 
pathy of small nations "rightly 
struggling to be free," it has shown 
itself as ready to go to war for a 
bad cause ( such as the enslavement 
of Morocco to France), as it was un- 
ready to make any effective effort to 
restrain its new "friend," Russia, 



from acts of brutal aggression in 
Persia. 

Immoral, because it has almost 
succeeded in muzzling our vaunted 
free press in all that concerns for- 
eign affairs, poisoning the very well 
of truth, and, partly by suppression, 
partly by suggestion, in so distorting 
facts that only to such as possess 
special sources of information on any 
particular question of foreign policy 
is it possible to see things as they 
really are. Contemptible, , because 
it has destroyed England's reputa- 
tion for truth, honor, and love of fair 
play. 

Perilous, because, in spite of con- 
stantly increasing expenditure on 
armaments. Lord Morley has to reply 
querulously to Lord Curzon's tren- 
chant criticisms of the insane project 
of an Indo-Russian railway that we 
cannot say "No," lest worse things 
befall us. 

The net result, then, is that, as the 
Persians say, we have neither this 
world nor the next, and that our ex- 
piring influence in Asia has been con- 
sistently used since this government 
came into power on the wrong side, 
the side of tyranny, reaction, and 
vandalism. 

The Situation in Persia. 

It is of Persia chiefly that I am 
thinking, and of an unusually odious 
leading article on Persia in today's 
"Times" (which, unhappily, too of- 
ten foreshadows the intentions of the 
Foreign Office), and of two sets of 
documents which lie before me: the 
last White Book, and a dozen of the 
most frightful photographs it has 
ever been my misfortune to see. The 
latter (which it would be well that 
all Englishmen should see, were they 
not too horrible for publication) rep- 
resent the way in which the Russian 
Government and its agents "Our 
friends," as the "Times" and its con- 
geners persist in calling them — 
understand Christian civilization in 
the twentieth century, and how they 
celebrated last New Year's Day in 
the unhappy city of Tabriz. 

The one "constructive" feature of 
their policy is the gallows, from 
which swing the poor, mortal re- 
mains of some of the bravest and 
most enlightened of the Nationalist 



132 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



leaders of Tabriz; the other features, 
which can scarcely be called "con- 
structive," include the closing of 
schools and printing presses, the 
dynamiting of ancient monuments 
and private houses, and the restora- 
tion of the worst elements of the 
old regime. 

Some of the photographs show the 
Russians at work in the way familiar 
to all who have followed their doings 
in the Caucasus, the Baltic Provinces 
and elsewhere; others (yet more re- 
pulsive) show the work of Samad 
Khan Shuja-ud-Dawla, ardent re- 
actionary and partisan of the ex- 
Shah, who followed them into the 
city he had so long failed to subdue, 
was recognized by them as de facto 
governor, and, with their sanction 
and approval, at once set to work to 
do such things as they could hardly 
do; to stab, mutilate, hang head 
downwards, cut men in two like 
sheep, and hang the pieces in the 
shop. 

All this, appalling as it is, is only 
what anyone who had read history 
wonld have ejtpected, but what 
Bhocks us most is to find the British 
Consul at Tabriz recommending the 
recognition of Samad Khan as Gov- 
ernor of the town, thinking that he 
"will not be a bad Governor," and 
telegraphing to the British Minister 
at Teheran that it was "in every way 
desirable to recognize him as Gov- 
ernor-General, as he was popular ( ! ) 
and possessed influence among no- 
mads." 

I wish the photographs before me 
could have been reproduced as illus- 
trations to the White Book, so that 
all its readers might at once have 
seen (what the text omits to men- 
tion) the methods by which Samad 
Kahn Shuja-ud-WawIa commended 
himself to the then British Consul at 
Tabriz as "not a bad Governor," and 
obtained "popularity" and "Influ- 
ence"! 

I must not, however, pursue this 
topic further; but I enclose herewtlh 
some of the photographs to which I 
have referred, In order to convince 
you. Sir, that I do not speak too 
strongly, and, though I count myself 
a Liberal In the sense In which the 
word was used formerly, and though 
I have no assurance that a Unionist 
Foreign Minister would or could re- 
verse or ameliorate the lamentable 
foreign policy of Sir Edward Grey 
and his lieutenants, 1 think I would 
do what I could to put the matter 
to the test In the certain assurance 
that things could hardly be worse 
than they are now. How I should 
vote Is a matter of very little con- 
sequence, but I have reason to think 
that a very large number of Liberals 
are In the same position, and that a 
deep disgust of the present Govern- 
ment's foreign policy played, perhaps, 
a not Inconsiderable part In the Man- 
chester election, and is likely to play 
a still greater part in future elec- 
tions. _ 

ROBERT D. GREENE. 

Oxford, England, August 9, 1912. 

The above letter was written by 
an Englishman of International repu- 
tation, a historian and a student of 



politics. The letter gives proof of 
much knowledge. 

We have an absolute legal and 
moral right to publish it; in fact, 
the letter was printed and circulated 
within a small but select circle two 
years ago. But whether the profes- 
sor would like to see his name print- 
ed with his scorching letters at the 
present time is a question. Though 
not at fault, the British government 
(the humane and honorable mem- 
bers* who are his friends, have since 
resigned from the British Cabinet) 
might apply some drastic Russian 
punishment to the professor, so 
strong is his condemnation of the 
sneaking and Intriguing policy of 
Edward Grey. For this reason, and 
because of friendly and personal feel- 
ings toward the professor as an in- 
dividual, we have substituted another 
name, and we hope he will approve 
of our course. 

The bad policies and the mean 
methods of Grey are well under- 
stood and severely condemned by a 
large part of the English public. It 
is openly stated that never before 
had the Morale In high English cir- 
cles such a low standard. It has 
been hypocrisy. Intrigue and under- 
handed work throughout for years 
past. Any man who will look at a 
photograph of Mr. Grey (Sir Ed- 
ward) will see these words-f- * * * 
In this vein many British papers have 
written. But will any of our readers 
point out a single American news- 
paper in which Professor Greene's 
letter and the above plain statements 
have appeared? Pew, if any, papers 
will yoTi name. And yet this letter 
was published in London, England. 
Do you not find it rather strange that 
no (or few) American papers have re- 
printed such telling material? Boes 
this not cause you to think? What 
is the reason? The reason is very 
plain: American Newspapers receive 
almost all their foreign news from 
English correspondents, and with 
little thought (if any) print what the 
British give them. 



•Lord Morley and Hon. John Burns 
resigned their' portfolios rather than 
follow Sir Edward Grey in his war 
upon Germany. — Editor. 

tAprain out of charity towards the 
offenders the Editor of War Echoes 
omits even a portion of the "Word 
Picture.*' 



TAKES ISSUE ON RUSSIA. 



Reprinted by Courtesy of The New 
Republic, March 13, 1915. 

I/. N. Harper. 

Sir: My attention has been called 
to the article by H. N. Brailsford, 
"The Slavic Hope," in The New Re- 
public for January ninth. This arti- 
cle shows either complete ignorance 
of or simply failure to grasp most ele- 
mentary facts of Russian history and 
politics; it should not be allowed to 
pass unchallenged. 

Panslavism and Slavophilism are 
related but not interchangeable 
terms. Further, it has always been 
clear that there is no real tendency 
toward political unity in the Slav 
world. Political Panslavism bears 
the trade-mark "Made in Germany." 
As one writer says (Levine, Political 



Science Quarterly, December, 1914): 
"Political Panslavism is, for the Ger- 
man, a useful cover for the deeds and 
misdeeds of economic Pangerman- 
ism." And whatever Slavophilism 
may be, Pobedonostev was not a 
Slavophil, but a simple obscurantist; 
he himself harked back to earlier 
Slavophilism, but when he did so he 
represented a perversion of Slavo- 
philism. At the present moment a 
small unrepresentative group is call- 
ing up the teachings of the Slavophils, 
attempting to apply this theory to 
the present situation. To do this 
they must and do consider Germany 
and Europe as synonymous. This 
lack of respect for facts has been 
called to their attention. A Russian 
historian (Professor Kisevetter, in 
the Russkiya Vedomosti for January 
21, 1915), writes: "No, we are not 
fighting Europe, but Germany. Fur- 
thermore, it is in alliance with Eu- 
rope that we are fighting Germany, 
and we can do this only because we 
too are of Europe." 

Mr. Brailsford compares the aboli- 
tion of the government vodka monop- 
oly to the decree of Peter the Great 
prohibiting the wearing of beards; he 
sees here proof of further loss "in 
liberty by this return to the habit of 
autocratic legislation." Is the writer 
ignorant of the movement for temper- 
ance that has been going on in Russia 
for many years, of the protests com- 
ing from conservatives as well as lib- 
eral and radical circles, against Rus- 
sia's "drunken budget," to use an ex- 
pression so current in Russian poli- 
tics? Does Mr. Brailsford know of 
the debates on a local option law 
passed by the Duma and the Imperial 
Council just a year ago, and of the 
dismissal of a Minister of Finance on 
this very issue? And finally, did the 
writer take the trouble to read the 
Russian newspapers for the month of 
August last, the first month of the 
war? Had he done so, he must have 
seen how all parties worked to se- 
cure the permanent closing of the 
government vodka shops, which had 
been shut down originally only for 
the term of mobilization. 

The attitude taken by all parties 
and all classes toward the vodka 
question, and this at a moment when 
the public was occupied with the 
many questions relative to the begin- 
ning of hostilities, testified to the 
moral awakening of the Russian peo- 
ple of which so many of her friends 
are firmly convinced. And the per- 
manent closing of the vodka shops 
was a clear victory for the people as 
against the government policy and 
the bureaucracy. 

Mr. Brailsford represents an im- 
portant group of English thinkers. 
And it is interesting to note how now, 
as at other times, the views and state- 
ments of the English Radical with re- 
gard to Russian politics coincide most 
strangely with the views and state- 
ments of the Russian reactionary. As 
Russian newspapers are emphasizing, 
it is these two groups that are now 
evidencing, in their respective coun- 
tries, the same "Germanophil" ten- 
dencies. The "peace party" in Russia 
at the present moment is the old 
friend whom we always called the 
"German party." Their recent in- 
trigues have been exposed to the light 



GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN 



133' 



and thus rendered ineffective. They 
are led by Count Witte and Markov 
2nd, who have always been the frank 
opponents of liberty and progress in 
Russia. By the attitude they take 
toward Russia, are not the English 
Radicals playing into the hands of 
these intriguers? Mr. Brailsford 
may believe that the Liberals in Rus- 
sia are over-confident of the victory 
of their cause. But he should be 
more careful to collect his facts be- 
fore he draws his inferences and 
states his belief. 

There is another equally valuable 
article in War Echoes from T7ie New 
RepuhUe. The French View of German 
"Kultur." See: New Republic, or 
"Kultnr," in the Index. — Editor. 



WHERE OXJB SENTIMENTS 
SHOULD BE. 



Editorial from the "Irish Advocate" 

It is not true to say that Ameri- 
can sentiment is altogether with 
England, Prance and Russia in this 
war with Germany and Austria. 
There is enough German blood in 
this country alone to assure a large 
volume of German sentiment. Irish- 
American sentiment is more German 
than English or French, and this is 
only natural, considering that the 
Irish and German peoples have got 
along together in this country for 
two generations better than any other 
two nationalities. 



The daily papers of America, for 
reasons best known to themselves, 
have tried to fasten on the Kaiser 
all blame for bringing the war to 
a head, and, therefore, according to 
this theory, American sentiment 
must of necessity be with the Triple 
Entente. Deep down in American 
minds and feelings there Is no such 
sentiment. As for Irish-Americans 
they have every reason to feel in 
common with their German neigh- 
bors in this conflict. It may be very 
diplomatic for Mr. Redmond to ex- 
press the sentiments of England in 
England's House of Commons, but 
this declaration does not bind Irish- 
Americans to pledge their moral sen- 
timents in England's favor. 



Anglo- Japanese Machinations and American Safety 



JAPAN AND THE WAR. 

This is the sixth article of a series 
on THE EUROPEAN WAR, lohich ap- 
peared in the October Number of THE 
OPEN COURT, under the title "Japan," 
written iy the Editor, Dr. Paul Cams. 

Consult the INDEX for the complete 
series, and, in order to see where, in 
the various Chapters of the book, the 
different articles of this treatise may 
be found, look for EUROPEAN WAR 
(THE). In this way the reader' may 
read the entire series of articles in 
their original order, if he chooses to do 
so, while the present arrangement still 
gives him, the advantage of bringing the 
various articles under their proper, re- 
spective Chapter-headings of the book. 

This is a series of exceptionally fine 
articles on the subject in question, and 
they bear a unique and important rela- 
tion to each other. Be sure to read 
them alto in their- original order. — 
Editor, "War Echoes." 

Japan has joined the war. 

The action of Japan has been re- 
ceived in the United States with feel- 
ings of deep distrust. On the one 
hand it seems an indication that the 
English cause must be very weak if 
Japan's help is needed, and on the 
other hand it seems to open the 
possibility of drawing the United 
States into the war. We have sym- 
pathized with Japan during the Rus- 
so-Japanese war, but since then the 
Japanese have shown a strange an- 
tagonism towards the United States 
in the Philippines, in Honolulu, in 
Mexico, and now they manifest an 
ambition to take possession of Ger- 
man China as well as of the German 
islands in the Pacific. Their assur- 
ance that they do not enter the war 
for the sake of self-aggrandizement 
has been officially believed by Presi- 
dent Wilson and Secretary Bryan, but 
finds little credence among the peo- 
ple. 

Here are some sentences quoted 
from the "Chicago American" show- 
ing William Randolph Hearst's re- 
flections on this subject, views which 
have found an echo all over the 
United States: 

"The intrusion of Japan into the 
European war is a matter to excite 
the especial interest and attention of 
the American public. Japan has no 
quarrel whatever with Germany or 
Austria, no reason, so far as surface 



indications are concerned, for in- 
jecting herself into the European 
situation. What, then, was the secret 
or subterranean reason for Japan's 
action? 

"Great Britain has often assured 
the government and the people of the 
United States that no such intimate 
alliance with Japan existed, but the 
plain facts and Japan's frank ac- 
knowledgment are incontrovertible. 
The action of Japan is wholly in- 
explicable upon any other assump- 
tion. 

"Never before in the history of the 
country has the far-seeing wisdom 
of George Washington in enjoining 
our government to keep free from 
entangling alliances with foreign 
powers been more apparent. 

"But if, in order to keep free from 
conflicts like that now raging in 
Europe, we must not enter into any 
alliance with any other nation, then 
must we all the more depend on our 
own resources and have resources 
sufficient to depend upon. 

"But we should have a great navy. 

"Furthermore, we should have a 
Panama Canal owned by the United 
States, controlled by the United 
States, fortifled by the United States 
and in time of war at the service of 
the United States alone. 

"If the people of our nation im- 
agine that the reason we are not 
involved in this war is because of 
any special diplomatic inspiration of 
our government, or because of any 
impregnable situation of our coun- 
try, they are as absurd in their as- 
sumption as the ostrich, who thinks 
if he hides his head in the sand he 
will not be hit by the hunter. 

"We always are and always will 
be anxious to avoid war, but in the 
light of recent events it is evident 
that no country can tell when it will 
be compelled to defend itself. A 
great navy is our best protection and 
all far-seeing citizens of the United 
States hope that the party now in 
power at Washington will end its 
foolish and dangerous "no navy" pol- 
icy and proceed promptly to give our 
country the protection it needs and 
demands." 

The attitude of Japan and her pro- 
cedure against Germany is a warn- 
ing. Might we not over night have 
a war on hand on account of the 



secret treaties between Japan, Eng- 
land, and Russia, in which Mexico 
and the South American republics 
would join just for the fun? 



Japan. 

And here is Mr. Jourdain's reply to 
the Editor's discussion of this subject.^- 
Bditor of War Echoes. 

The action of Japan has been so cor- 
rect that no reasonable American paper 
shows a trace of Mr. Randolph William 
Hearst's notorious scare on this sub- 
ject^ in the "Chicago American." The 
conclusion is so grotesque that it needs 
no comment or refutation. "The atti- 
tude of Japan and her procedure 
against Germany is a warning. Might 
we (i. e., America) not overnight have 
a war on hand on account of the secret 
treaties between Japan, England and 
Russia in which Mexico and the South 
American republics would join just for 
the fun?" 



2 "Ibid.," pp. 61S-619. 

By consulting the Index the reader 
can find the connection of the Foot 
Notes. To describe the possible align- 
ment in any such a future difficulty as 
"crotesque" is not refuting its possi- 
bility. Mr. Jourdain; don't you think 
that plenty of men and women would 
have described the present European 
alignment as "crotesque" only ten 
years ago? — Editor War Echoes. 



JAPAN AND KIAUTSCHAU. 



Translation of Editorial Which Ap- 
peared in German in the "Illi- 
nois Staats-Zeitung," Chicago. 

When Japan addressed its note of 
extortion to Berlin and turned up as 
the eighth foe of Germany, we knew 
that the black-white-red colors flying 
at Tsingtau were doomed to descend. 
The small band at this forlorn Ger- 
man outpost could not hope that its 
heroic resistance would save the 
colony for Germany: but it defended 
the honor of German arms to the 
last and threw away their lives for 
the ethical and moral treasures 
which the white race must protect 
against the covetousness of the yel- 
low people, but which England be- 
trayed for the sake of a shopkeepers' 
profit of five thousand men probably 
a few hundred had gathered within 
the walls of the Tsingtau forts at 
the call of the Kaiser. Three divi- 
sions of full strength crossed the sea 



134 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



to take possession of this defiant 
burg. Althougli only a small force, 
the spirit that prevailed among the 
defenders of Kiautschau from the 
governor down to the rawest recruit, 
more than made up for the disparity 
In numbers. "We will fulfil our 
duty to the last," Meyer-Waldeck 
wired to Berlin when informed of 
the Japanese ultimatum and the Ger- 
man heroes in the far east stuck to 
their post until buried under the 
ruins of walls and ramparts. 

The defense of Kiautschau will be 
mentioned first among the glorious 
German and Austrian feats of arms. 
Fortresses, which were considered 
impregnable, owing to their great 
steel sides and immense concrete 
walls and that were defended by tens 
of thousands and even hundreds of 
thousands fell after as many days as 
it took weeks to capture Kiautschau. 
We are pained that the inevitable 
regarding the fortress has come to 
pass; but we are consoled by the 
thought that owing to the dispro- 
portion in the strength of the oppos- 
ing forces — ten against one — it can- 
not be said that the Japs covered 
themselves with glory. 

As already stated, the honor of 
the German arms was preserved at 
Tsingtau. The harbor of Kiautschau 
would have furnished a fine base of 
operations against a British squad- 
ron in Asiatic seas and this it had 
been intended for. For that reason 
this territory was not in charge of a 
civil governor as is the case in all 
German colonies, but a naval oflScer 
in active service. The British-Jap 
alliance was badly disappointed in its 
hope of destroying the German- 
Chinese squadron when it took 
Kiautschau, for the Gneisenau and 
Scharnhorst, after making wrecks of 
two British cruisers prior to Japan's 
participatioil in the war had reached 
the high seas and shown, that with- 
out having a base of operations, they 
could become a terror to the enemy. 
At all events the only result of the 
fall of Kiautschau to be deplored 
is, that the squadron heretofore 
blockading the harbor can now be 
used in operations against German 
cruisers. 

The tremendous losses suffered by 
the Japs in their struggle with the 
heroic band of German defenders 
makes Kiautschau a very costly ac- 
quisition: nevertheless their title will 
only be a temporary one: the fate 
of the German colonies will be de- 
cided on the battlefields of Europe, 
no matter what the outcome of the 
struggle on their own soil may be. 
If, at the conclusion of the war, ne- 
gotiations regarding Kiautschau will 
be carried on with China, the second 
party will not be Japan, but Ger- 
many. Defeated England may then 
be given the task of regaining the 
German possessions in the Yellow 
and South seas from her Japanese 
ally, which she had incited. Honor 
the heroic sons of Germany, who in 
the far east fought for the glory of 
their country: their loss will be 
charged to England's account and 
Germany's mailed fist will rest heav- 
ily on the island kingdom until all 
accounts, among which will be Kiaut- 
schau, have been settled without a 
, remainder. 



THE CRYSXAIililZATION OF 

THE ANGLO-JAPANESE 

ALLIANCE. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 
New York. 

Herman Ridder. 

A tragedy that will live as long as 
heroism is remembered is being 
staged today in a small outpost of 
western civilization on the coast of 
China. The spectacle of the 4,000 
Germans in Tsingtao defying the 
Japanese nation is not one to be 
lightly regarded. There is more to 
it than the mere fact of a gallant 
defense — more to it than the fact 
that since Leonidas tried to hold 
Thermopylae against the East of his 
day, no greater example of deter- 
mined gallantry and patriotism has 
been given to the world. There is 
a deeper meaning in the defence of 
Kiaochow, significant to all the West 
and peculiarly significant to Amer- 
ica. It marks the beginning of the 
end of the West in the Bast. 

The pretext which Japan advanced 
to cover her intrusion into the war 



AMERICA AND JAPAN. 

An American who has recently re- 
turned from Japan after a prolonged 
residence in that country states that 
in military, naval and official circles 
there is no longer any attempt to dis- 
guise the feeling that an approaching 
conflict with the United States is in- 
evitable. In the event of a defeat of 
Germany in the present war it is be- 
lieved in the Mikado's empire that 
England will fulfil her obligations 
as ally, and come to her aid against 
Uncle Sam. In view of the ready re- 
sponse on the part of Japan to Eng- 
land's demand upon her to attack 
Tsingtao, the Tokio government seems 
assured that it can rely upon Eng- 
land's fleet a-'d army in the event of 
war with tb United States. 

The AmeiiCan declared that Japan 
has been carefully preparing for a long 
time for such a contingency. He said 
that every Japanese subject in Amer- 
ica has an alloted task assigned to 
him by the secret service and that 
every Japanese in America is in reality 
a governmental spy. The bridges, tun- 
nels, and railroad connections will be 
immediately destroyed by these Jap- 
anese, before Uncle Sam has time to 
collect his faculties, in order to pre- 
vent the transfer of troops and war 
material from the East to West. 

The American military authorities 
are sadly negligent in guarding against 
such unexpected possibilities and be- 
fore proper precautions are taken, 
there is no doubt that the gravest 
damage could be done to the lines of 
communication. 

It cannot be too strongly urged on 
the American War Department to 
exercise control over all Japanese in 
the United States, that specific and 
definite instruction be given to all po- 
lice authorities to keep watch over 
and report their movements and imme- 
diately confine them, if the situation 
became critical. — The "Continental 
Times," Berlin. 



was as transparent and as easily dis- 
posed of as was England's. The ex- 
cuse advanced for her by her apolo- 
gists that she harbors a feeling of 
enemity toward Germany on account 
of the latter's protest against the 
occupation of southern Fengtien by 
Japan in 1895, is true but not com- 
prehensive. For France and Russia, 
who are now Japan's allies against 
Germany, were joined in this pro- 
test and Russia, who subsequently 
inherited the leasehold of Port Ar- 
thur, was its instigator. Japan threw 
in her lot with the Allies on account 
of her enmity for Germany; but the 
roots of that enmity were fed in 
far deeper soil than that of the Liao- 
tung Peninsula. 

A few years ago a great deal more 
was heard of the "Yellow Peril" 
than we hear today. Our interests 
in the Pacific have brought us into 
fighting distance of Japan and the 
phrase has consequently been forced, 
in this country at least, into the class 
of taboo. We scarcely longer dare 
discuss the internal administration of 
the Philippines for fear that we may 
give the jingoes of Tokyo cause for 
agitation. But not so Germany. The 
Asiatic "peril" was first enunciated 
by her thinkers and she has never 
ceased to realize and discuss its im- 
port. With perhaps no greater ap- 
preciation of its dangers than we have 
had, but certainly with a greater de- 
gree of fearlessness in discussion, 
she has never lost an opportunity to 
point out the significance and mean- 
ing of the coming struggle between 
the Occident and the Orient. Japan 
could not fail to remark this. And it 
is just this which underlies the in- 
tense and lasting hostility of Japan 
to Germany. 

The aspirations of Japan to the 
pre-eminent position in Asia and in 
the Pacific are well known. Her lead- 
ing men have taken but small pains 
to conceal them. In times of ex- 
citement they are a theme for her 
demagogues from Tokyo to Nagasaki. 
One nation, especially, stands in the 
way of their realization — the United 
States, whose shores, like those of 
Japan, are washed by the Pacific, and 
another nation, Germany, has stood 
by ever ready to assist the United 
States in the defense of its claims. 
On all the Continent of Europe Ger- 
many alone has stood out clearly and 
irrevocably for the West as against 
the East. England has long been an 
ally of Japan and today Prance and 
Russia are fighting under the same 
standard. On the other hand, Ger- 
many has never once retreated from 
her position as champion of the civ- 
ilization of Europe and America. 
When it came to a choice between 
two evils she chose in 1904 the lesser 
and supported Russia against Japan. 
For all this Japan cannot and will 
not forgive her. 

But it is not so much the Germany 
of Europe, which can never hope for 
predominency in the Pacific, that ran- 
cors Japan, but Germany the silent 
ally of the United States. Until the 
advent of the present war the efficacy 
of the Anglo-Japanese alliance in 
case of war between ourselves and 
Japan admitted of a certain amount 
of doubt. Japan may still think that 



SERBIA'S CAUSE AND CONDUCT IN THE WAR 



135 



this condition continues to exist, 
though England's conduct has re- 
moved any such impression from the 
minds of the American people. In 
any event, her logic ran, the hour 
had struck for putting Germany out 
of the class of dangerous enemies. 
When she had been disposed of the 
one and only ally to whom the 
United States could look would no 
longer exist. To deal then with the 
United States would be a much sim- 
pler task. When, further, she ar- 
gued, by warring on Germany she 
could put herself in possession of 
points in the Pacific particularly 
helpful in the coming conflict, the 
case of Japan was complete. 

The possession of Kiaochow can- 
not be regarded as other than a sec- 
ondary consideration with Japan. 
With half of Manchuria to develop 
in, she does not need it. The great 
things for which Japan is fighting 
are the destruction of Germany, the 
crystallization of the Anglo-Japanese 
alliance and the occupation ot terri- 
tories in the Pacific strategically im- 
portant in the struggle which she 
knows is doomed to come with this 
country. All three of these motives 
bear directly on that struggle.* 

It is for this reason that the Amer- 
ican people should not forget the 
significance of the fight that is be- 
ing put up by the handful of Ger- 
mans in Tsingtao. It is impossible 
that this fight can go on much long- 



er. The odds are too frightfully 
great. It will probably end in 
slaughter — and when it ends there 
will be great rejoicing in Japan. The 
last stronghold of Germany in the 
East will be in the hands of the 
enemy and the first and last ally of 
the United States in the Pacific will 
have been humbled. The victory it- 
self will not have been great in ma- 
terial things but it will symbolize the 
racial aspirations of the Japanese. 

The twenty-four centuries which 
divide the Spartan defence of Ther- 
mopylae against Xerxes and the 
hordes of Persia, from the battle to 
hold Tsingtao against the East, re- 
veal nothing so significant in the con- 
flict of races. 



*J. I. F. C. Have you any reason to 
state that the Japanese desire more 
than the recovery of Kiaochow to 
return it to China? Has she ever 
given reason to believe that she is 
working only for the peace of the 
Far East? 

It is the opinion of those who know 
the Far East tolerably well that Ja- 
pan will never return Kiaochow to 
China. As to your further question 
I quote from the Nokington of Tok- 
yo of 1905, while the war with Rus- 
sia was still on, as follows: 

"There is something utterly ridic- 
ulous in the idea which our diplo- 
mats made the European powers be- 
lieve in, that we are only fighting 



to insure peace in the East. They 
will soon know better when their 
turn to take the medicine we are now 
giving to Russia comes. 

"Unless we had something of im- 
portance to gain for ourselves why 
should we have undertaken this war 
which has cost us so much valiant 
blood and so much treasure? We 
have a purpose and will keep that 
before our eyes until it is accom- 
plished; that is when the foreigners 
have been shown the way back to the 
countries from which they came to 
swoop down like vultures on what 
they thought was a dead body. They 
probably see that they have made a 
mistake now for even if China is 
dead and unable to defend herself, 
Japan is very much alive. 

"We will never allow the Far East- 
ern question to be settled by the 
Europeans and Americans, who have 
invaded this part of the world with- 
out a shadow of right, and who will 
always be aliens to us. The Far 
Eastern question must be settled by 
an empire which has risen in the Far 
East — Japan. The peace of the Ori- 
ental Far East requires that by a 
union of all Orientals in the Far 
East, under the transforming influ- 
ence of Japan, a great empire be 
formed on the Far Eastern shores 
of the Asiatic continent."- — From the 
"Questions and Answers" column in 
the "New Yorker Staats-Zeitung," 
October 28, 1914. — Editor. 



Serbia's Cause, Position and Her Part in the World War 



SERVIA'S DREAM OF EXPANSION. 



The Literary Digest, New York. 

The tragedy of Serajevo has not only 
acted like an earthquake whose shock 
has passed through Europe and the 
world, but, like an earthquake, it has 
laid bare things below the surface of 
which the world did not dream, and 
threatens to end in international catas- 
trophe. It has not yet been shown that 
the death of Prince Francis Ferdinand 
is to be attributed definitely to any poli- 
tical party at Belgrade, but Servia's re- 
ply to Austria's ultimatum did not deny 
the possibility that Servian ofiicers may 
have been involved in the intrigues 
against Austria. The deadlock that 
brought on the war lay in Servia's re- 
fusal to let Austrian oflicials have a 
hand in finding and punishing the 
guilty. And the Berlin Vossische Zei- 
tung, in a long article, traces the trag- 
edy to certain "revolutionary anarch- 
ists" who claimed to be patriots because 
they were striving to bring under the 
direct control of Belgrade the very out- 
lying Slav provinces which Francis 
Ferdinand was laboring to unite under 
the crown of Austria-Hungary. Servia's 
culpability is thus indicated: 

"The bloody crime of Serajevo was 
only one link in the long train of assas- 
sination and horror by which the revo- 
lutionary propagandists in Belgrade 
were working to promote the oflScial 
policy of Servia. As early as the coro- 
nation of King Peter the Servian Minis- 
ter of Foreign Affairs published the 




Peter I. King of Servia. 



following- program of the movement: 
Servia was to form an alliance with 
Montenegro and to enter into some 
agreement with Bulgaria regarding 
Macedonia. Belgrade was to give sup- 
port to the Servian-Croatian opposition 
party in Croatia. Servia Was to be 
emancipated from the trammels of 



trade with Austria. A revolution was 
to be stirred up in Bosnia, and the Aus- 
trian authorities there were to be dis- 
credited; the Adriatic question was to 
be settled with Italy, and a traveling 
committee was to be formed for the 
carrying out of these projects, as it was 
impossible for Servia to act oflicially in 
the matter." 

This writer goes on to say that the 
program was directed to the end of 
uniting all the Slav inhabitants of the 
South Slavic countries. It was ap- 
proved by King Peter in 1906, and his 
Minister of the Interior, Stojan Pro- 
titseh, spoke of it as "a torpedo which 
Servia is now in the act of hurling for 
the purpose of blowing up the Austro- 
Hungarian monarchy and the whole 
Triple Alliance." This history of 
Servian intrigues, brought up to date, 
describes the methods by which the 
revolutionary propaganda was spread in 
the schools of the various Slavic pop- 
ulations : 

"Since 1909, there has existed out- 
side the governmental circles of Bel- 
grade a band of revolutionary na- 
tionalists whose members were close- 
ly connected with the South Slavic 
youths of Austria-Hungary, so that 
in 1910 the nationalistic anarchistic 
propaganda reached a crisis and se- 
cret societies were formed in the 
grammar schools, the preparatory and 
other schools. The center of the move- 
ment, as hitherto, still remained in 
Belgrade. Measures were taken that 
the yoimg men from the South Slavic 
countries of the monarchy in ever-in- 



136 



THE ENTENTE AND OTHER ALLIES 



creasing numbers should flock to Bel- 
grade. These youths were received 
with open arms, and on the recom- 
mendation of certain politicians were 
permitted to domicile there as trust- 
worthy. They were employed at a 
wage of from ten to fourteen dollars 
a month on light clerical work for the 
office of the Skupshtina, which only 
required of them from two to three 
hours' work daily. From these lads, on 
their return home, were recruited the 
agitators of the Greater Servia prop- 
aganda. Among them mingled degener- 
ates who adopted the ideal of Servian 
expansion as the last anchor of deliver- 
ance for their almost shipwrecked lives. 
From people of this type sprang the 
man of violence, Savro Princip, the 
murderer of the heir to the crown, 
Grand Duke Francis Ferdinand. He 
was just such a beggar student. In 
the Belgrade free coffee-stands, where 
a meal for five cents goes with the 
coffee, some dozens of these fellows 
were lounging ready at any time to 
commit violence, indulging their morbid 
vanity in order to be feted as national 
heroes." 

The hatred of Servia for Austria- 
Hungary and the exultation felt over 
the fate of the Heir Apparent are re- 
flected in the utterances of the Bel- 
grade press. The Pravada is a lib- 
eral and progressive organ and remarks 
sarcastically : 

"The public mourning for Archduke 
Francis Ferdinand made small excite- 
ment in Austria-Hungary. The only 



genuine tears shed for the Heir Appar- 
ent were those of his children. All 
others were crocodile tears." 

Austria has more than twenty million 
Slavs in her population ; inevitably 
they will, early or late, side with their 
compatriots. One of the English jour- 
nals said yesterday, 'Whoever in East- 
ern Europe lifts his head against Russia 
or the Slavs will in due time share the 
fate of the Austrian Crown Prince. So 
it would have been with Prince Alex- 
ander of Bulgaria if he had not abdi- 
cated. The Bulgarian leader Stam- 
bouloff was killed because he was an 
enemy of Russia. Had not Russia a 
finger in the assassination of King 
Alexander of Servia? Had not the 
taking off of Austria's Crown Prince 
the same cause?' This finding the end 
of the cord that forced these assas- 
sinations in Russia is correct, we know, 
but while the Crown Prince was polit- 
ically opposed to Russia, he was 
friendly to the Slavs ; and was not the 
Princess, so ruthlessly murdered, her- 
self a Slav? 

"National rivalries were in evidence 
in the last century in every part of 
Europe, but those principal nations, the 
Germans and Italians, for example, ob- 
served reasonable limits in their am- 
bitions. The Slavs are of an earlier 
race and have not been able to shake 
off the barbarities of their origin, 
bloodthirsty still even in their most 
sacred aspirations. Here is, in our 
opinion, Europe's most troublesome 
problem in the Balkans. 



The Balkan regions (Belgrade) 
had formerly among its chief con- 
tributors the noted anarchist Cioe- 
varics, who contributes an article on 
the assassination, in which he re- 
marks: 

"It is not the Heir Apparent as an 
individual that ought to be mourned 
over, but only his worth to the country, 
which was practically nil." 

In Germany the Servian threats and 
muttered complaints against Austria- 
Hungary were considered to be mere 
"sound and fury signifying nothing." 
The Lokal Anzeiger (Berlin), which 
is considered to echo the opinions of 
the military authorities and the court, 
said, in an article on "Europe's soli- 
darity against the great Servian agita- 
tion," that "Austria-Hungary will take 
no steps against Servia," an idea which 
subseqtuent events have belied. A fur- 
ther quotation is interesting as show- 
ing how unexpected the Austrian 
thunderclap was to even this well-in- 
formed court organ : 

"This self-restrained attitude of the 
Danube monarchy is more intelligible 
when we consider that no decided re- 
sult of the inquiry into the responsibil- 
ity for the Serajevo assassination has 
yet been arrived at. . . . But we 
believe that we are not mistaken when 
we declare that to men in other states 
where moral order reigns this attitude 
of the Danube monarchy is incon- 
trovertlbly correct." 



THE "TRIPLE" ALLIANCE 
GERMANY, AUSTRIA, AND OTHER ALLIES 

Germany, Austria, Italy; Turkey 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND 

The Underlying Causes of the Great War; The Part Germany Had In Its Advent 

INTRODUCTION 

AN ADDRESS BY REV. ALFRED E. MEYER 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND. 



Mass Meeting of German- Americans. 
Auditorium, Chicago. 



Address by Rev. Alfred E. Meyer. 

(Translation from the German, 
published by the "Abendpost," Chi- 
cago, in its issue of August 12, 
1914.) 

The die is cast. The dark war 
clouds that have gathered over 
Europe for years have burst. The 
tempest, dreadful, devastating, mur- 
derous, has broken out. In the bolt- 
hole of the Balkans it arose, hurling 
its first flash jvhen the bullet of the 
conspirator hit Austria's heir to the 
throne. From the black Ural Moun- 
tains" it reverberated dismally, awak- 
ing shrieking echoes, like fiendish 
laughter, in the distant Vosges and 
over the English Channel. And in 
the path of the storm the peaceful 
realms of our dear old Fatherland! 
We stand shocked, frightened, hor- 
rified, aghast! For a tornado it 
threatens to become, such as the 
■world has never seen before. And 
in its path our dear old Fatherland! 
War, w,ar! Horrible word! Terror 
of man! Uttermost abomination! 
And such a war, in the heart of civ- 
ilization, with the murderous wea- 
pons of modern times! Have mercy 
upon us, O Lord God! And in the 
midst of that war, in the battle to- 
wards East and West and North our 
beloved Fatherland! 

Was it not possible otherwise? 
Did it have to come? Could not the 
strong man in the heart of Europe 
avert the world-calamity, William II., 
the strong pillar of peace? 

Ask, good friend, for an answer 
the Anglo-Saxon press of our country 
and the larger part of it replies with 
a loud, embittered Yea! It was in 
his power to avoid the war, but he 
did not want to. It is he who with 
mailed fist extinguishes the light of 
civilization, who alone has the re- 
sponsibility for the greatest dis- 
aster that ever befell Europe. Did 
he not declare war to Russia? Did 
he not have his army invade peaceful 



France?- He it is and Germany 
who are accountable for the dreadful 
European conflagration. 

Terrible accusation! If it be well 
founded, what a guilt! What pros- 
pects for Germany before the al- 
mighty, righteous God, "who dis- 
penses a strict and rigid judgment?" 

But What About That Accusation? 

We German-American citizens do 
not believe it. We know that it is 
unjust and unfair in the highest de- 
gree. Therefore we protest. There- 
fore we demand that the other side, 
too, be heard and discussed in the 
Anglo-American press. We demand 
no favors, no privileges, only justice, 
fairness and truth, no more. But 
that much we German-Americans as 
a strong and Integral part of the 
American nation, have a right to ex- 
pect, a right, by the rivers of German 
blood shed for this country in the 
battles for its independence, from 
England and for the preservation of 
the Union; a right by the German 
labor and toil without which America 
would never have been what it is to- 
day; a right by the German culture 
and -mental accomplishments which 
we and hosts of other Americans 
have gathered in Germany and 
brought to the land of our choice; a 
right by all the laws of justice to- 
wards a nation which has always 
lived in peace with the United States, 
whose independence, among all 
rulers of Europe, a Hohenzollern 
first recognized, Frederick the Great 
of Prussia; a right by the sacred- 
ness of truth which to serve, espe- 
cially in crises like the present, is an 
imperative duty of those who would 
be leaders of public opinion. 

We know that Germany did not 
want war, that it declared it because 
it was compelled to do so; that it 
does not bear the responsibility for^ 
the European conflagration. We 
have good reasons to believe the 
German "White Book," which shows 
clearly that the declaration of war 
was an act of defense, an act neces- 
sary to preserve the existence of a 
people whose destruction for a long 
time had been decided in the coun- 
cils of jealous and envious peoples. 



We believe the "White Book," be-' 
cause we know from history that 
German oflicial declarations may be 
trusted, which of some other nations' 
official publications and bulletins 
cannot always be said. But we have 
other reasons besides the "White 
Book." 

Should a people which alone of all 
the leading nations of Europe has 
preserved peace for over forty years 
and has become what It Is by its 
marvelous works of peace, throw it 
away by sheer eagerness for war 
which It has never known? For 
centuries the despised battlefield of 
Europe, without natural protection 
at its frontiers, spurned, assaulted 
and sat upon by ruthless enemies on 
all sides until it was welded together 
in the /'blood and iron" of a great 
time, its very national hymn a true 
mirror of its soul, a song not of 
aggression, but defense, not vainglo- 
rious challenge, hut watchful love of 
home and Fatherland, The Watch 
o'er the Rhine. 

The present war, too, is a war of 
defense; more than that — a war for 
Germany's existence! Whosoever 
knows the A. B. C. of the premises 
of the present war cannot deny that. 
What are the premises? Not a sud- 
den eruption of passions, not an un- 
expected clash of interests, but a 
political situation that had taken 
ever more the form of a plot to de- 
stroy Germany, resting on three fac- 
tors which we may well call the 
A B C of the present situation! 

A, The Implacable hatred of 
France; B, The insatiable greed of 
expansion of Russia with the ideal of 
Panslavism; C, The spiteful jealousy 
of England. 

France's Hatred 
About the A we do not need to say 
much, for every schoolboy with Ger- 
man blood in his veins knows 
France's slogan and bloody cynosure 
since 1S70; Revenge! Revenge on 
Germany because it had dealt a se- 
vere blow to the vanity of "La 
grande nation;" revenge, because 
she had taken back Alsace-Lorraine 
which France had stolen from Ger- 
many some centuries ago. Therefore 



138 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 




THE DUCHESS OF BRUNSWICK, THE KAISER'S ONLY DAUGHTER 

(To the Reader's Left) 

THE GERMAN CROWN PRINCESS 

(To the Right) 

Wearing the Uniforms of their respective Regiments 

(By Courtesy of the "Open Court") 



the feverish exertion of a nation 
which has condemned Itself to slow 
extinction by race suicide. Therefore 
the unbearable revolutionary activ- 
ity in the German frontier provinces. 
Therefore the introduction, as a last 
measure of war preparation, of the 
three year military service which 
meant to all who had open eyes im- 
minent war. For that burden France 
for physical as well as political rea- 
son could not bear long. 

The B of the political situation lead- 
ing to the war is Russia's insatiable 
greed for expansion with the strong ad- 
mixture of Panslavism as a political 
ideal. Not content with its immense 
European and Asiatic possessions whose 
inner administration has not yet over- 
come the conditions of semi-barbarism 
it has always sought expansion on the 
way of least resistance. A friend of 
Germany at Bismarck's time with 
whom it bad a temporary protective 
agreement, it changed its position when 
that agreement was suspended by the 
successor of the great chancellor. 
French gold and flattery brought about 
the alliance with France which 
strengthened immensely the latter's 
hope for revenge. But it was no help 
to Russia in the Par East, for England, 
then Russia's enemy, with characteris- 
tic political shrewdness, bad made Ja- 
pan its police officer to lick Russia 
without any harm to John Bull. Weak- 
ened and reconciled by some concessions 
in Persia, Russia was drawn into the 
Triple Entente which on France's and 
England's side was mainly directed 
against Germany while Russia looked 
for compensation in Turkey or the 
Balkans respectively, thereby becom- 
ing a constant menace to Austria whose 
very existence it threatened by its pan- 
slavistic agitation. But right there on 
the Balkans one mistake showed which 
Edward VII, in his "encircling policy" 



had made. The physic which he had 
Japan administer to Russia had been 
a little too strong for the welfare 
of the Triple Entente, and when. Aus- 
tria, to prevent further panslavistic 
agitation laid her hands on Bosnia 
and Herzegovina, and Germany, faith- 
ful to her ally, stood by her, Russia 
felt too weak to strike the desired 
blow. Growling she retired with hate 
in her heart against Germany never 
known before in that intensity and 
preparing for war against her with 
such energy and insistance that the 
law had to be passed in the old fath- 
erland augmenting the standing army 
to be prepared for any emergency. 

England's Jealonsy 

The third factor which led to the 
present war is England's spiteful jeal- 
ousy of Germany which found its prin- 
cipal political expression in the policy 
of Edward VII, whose evil seeds have 
now borne fruit. It is a well known 
fact that the cause of this jealousy 
is the unparalleled development of 
German commerce and the German 
navy. England, the proud mistress of 
the seas, the first commercial power 
of the world, was rapidly caught up 
with in what, in characteristic British 
impudence, it considered its personal 
privilege, and that by a power to whom 
yet in 1861 Lord Palmerstone had com- 
municated by his press that the Ger- 
man might be good enough at plowing 
hi^ field, sailing with the clouds and 
building air castles, but not at sailing in 
Zeppelins. But never had he had the 
genius of navigating the oceans or even 
the smaller seas. 

Some statistics: From a commer- 
cial power which, as an absolutely 
negligible quantity to England, already 
in 1892 Germany had risen to a com- 
mercial position where the volume of 



its trade, both exports and imports, 
exceeded half of the British: Eight 
billion marks against England's fifteen 
billions. In 1900 it was eleven billion 
against England's eighteen and in 1907 
seventeen billions against England's 
twenty-three and a half. Looking back- 
ward statistics show that for every two 
steps that England took forward in Its 
commerce Germany took three, so 
that with the past relative growth, 
without an interruption like the pres- 
ent war, within about fifteen years 
England's volume of trade would have 
been reached by Germany. 

A large commercial fleet like Ger- 
many's scattered all over the world, 
needs for its protection a navy, and 
the German navy could have been more 
than two-thirds as strong as 'fifngland's 
without being disproportioned to the 
commerce it had to protect, at least if 
it took England's proportion for an 
example. It was therefore mere hyp- 
ocrisy when England said of the Ger- 
man navy which was and is so much 
smaller numerically than England's, 
that it constituted a menace to Eng- 
land. If compelled to fight, however, 
as it is now, it may prove more formid- 
able than England expects. 

The real thoughts of England, not 
only regarding the German navy but 
also German trade were revealed by 
such voices as that famous article of 
the "Saturday Review" of September, 
1897, which clearly brought out the idea 
that England could only prosper if 
Germany were destroyed. England, it 
said in this article must meet the 
severest competition of Germany in 
every corner of the globe. A million 
of small frictions are making for the 
greatest war which the world has ever 
seen. If Germany would be de- 
stroyed to-morrow there would be 
no Englishman in the world who 
would not be so much richer for it 
the day after to-morrow. 

Can there be a more selfish, ruth- 
less, brutal incitation of war than in 
these words? 

Further the article says : The growth 
. of the German navy will only add to 
the severity of the blow which will be 
struck at Germany. Her ships would 
soon be at the bottom of the sea or be 
captured. When England's work were 
done she could without difficulty say 
to France and Russia : Get your com- 
pensations. Take of Germany what 
you want, you may have it. "(ierman- 
iam esse delendam." "Germany must 
be destroyed!" so this article is con- 
cluded. 

In the same sense, only that his 
words were still weightier because he 
was an active member of the govern- 
ment, spoke Arthur Lee, civil Lord 
of the Admirality in a public address 
on February 3rd, 1905. The balance 
of naval power, he stated, had changed 
within recent years. England would 
in the future have to direct its at- 
tention to the North Sea. If a war 
should break out the English navy 
could strike the first blow before the 
other party would find time to read In 
the papers that war had been declared. 
Referring to this speech the "Daily 
Chronicle," one of the widest circu- 
lated and most influential papers of 
England said: "If the German navy 
had been destroyed in October, 1904, 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND 



139 



(referring to the Incident with the 
Russian navy), we would have had 
peace in Europe for sixty years. 
Therefore I consider the declaration 
of Mr. Lee as a wise and peaceful 
declaration of the unchangeable de- 
termination of the mistress of the 
seas. 

This, then, was the wise ( ! ) and 
peaceful ( ! ) unchangeable determi- 
nation of England: her "Ceterum 
censeo: Germaniam esse delendam," 
Germany must be destroyed! This 
was the aim of the policy of Edward 
VII, which gave new and strong im- 
petus to France's and Russia's ag- 
gressive attitude, won Japan as Eng- 
land's ally, befriended Spain through 
a marriage, while Portugal became 
practically a dependency of England, 
and tried to sow the seed of discord 
in Italy, in short, created the condi- 
tions which at the given moment had 
to lead to the European conflagra- 
tion, so coolly and cynically predicted 
by the "Saturday Review." What 
flagrant hypocrisy for a people and 
government that has with evil dili- 



gence for years planted the mines 
with which to destroy a neighboring 
nation, and has repeatedly and open- 
ly declared this intention in brutal 
words, to pose, when the fuse burns, 
as a lover of peace! Albion, we know 
thy bloody, faithless, cruel history! 

Be Fair 

Friends, does that look as if that 
part of the press were right which 
so emphatically says: The blame 
for the war is Germany's? If a peo- 
ple knows that its destruction is in- 
tended and planned, that its very 
existence is at stake, has it a right 
to draw the sword in self-defense, or 
should it wait until the others bad 
gotten ready to strangle it? 

Therefore we as German-American 
citizens ask with just Indignation 
those of the Anglo-Saxon press who 
judge and condemn Germany without 
thinking of giving it a fair trial: Why 
do you forget that justice and fair- 
ness which is such a great trait of 
the American character, when Ger- 
many is concerned? Why those in- 
sulting cartoons, those misleading 



headlines, those inimical editorials of 
your press? Give us justice, give us 
equity, be fair! 

"Germania Delenda" 

Germany, our dear old Fatherland, 
with its ally fighting against tre- 
mendous odds, fighting for its very 
existence! What can we German- 
American citizens do for her? 

This is our first duty: Try to heal 
the wounds which the terrible war 
is striking at this very minute, heal, 
relieve, assuage under the sign of the 
Red Cross. A special appeal to you 
for this purpose will be made. Fol- 
low it. You who wear on your breast 
the "iron cross" of Germany's great- 
est time, you who look up to the 
cross as the sign and symbol of your 
faith and love, you all on whom 
presses the blood-red cross of a 
world's dire distress. 

And Thou, Germany, with the ally 
Austria marching in the same step, 
battling for thy existence, for thy all 
— land of our fathers, land of our 
brothers — God with Thee! 



The German Government and the German People 



THE GERMAN POSITION. 



Dr. Dumberg's Statement. 

New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 

New York. 

Herman Ridder. 

I reprint below the statement of 
Dr. Bernhard Dernburg in connection 
with the charge which has been made 
so frequently in American papers of 
late, that the German Emperor alone 
was responsible for the declaration of 
war against Russia and that the Ger- 
man people had no voice in the mat- 
ter. This statement first appeared in 
the New York "Sun" and was later 
copied by the New York "Times" and 
by the latter made the subject of 
editorial comment. The "Times" 
leader is also reprinted. 

DR. DERNBURG' S STATEMENT. 

When I arrived in New York a fort- 
night ago, I was greatly surprised on 
reading in the papers big headlines such 
as "The Kaiser's War," "The Kaiser's 
Army," "The Kaiser Beaten," etc. I 
thought at first that this was only a 
sort of abbreviation and that the "Kais- 
er's" name stood as a symbol for the 
whole of Germany in this war forced 
upon our nation. I soon had to see, 
however, that something quite different 
was meant and that a large portion of 
the American people were of the opin- 
ion that the Emperor was more or less 
responsible for the breaking out of the 
war, and that the German people, 
whom they all knew to be good and 
peaceable, had been dragged into it in 
consequence of autocratic institutions 
peculiar to Germany, and as a sequel 
to militarism rampant in Germany. 

I consider it, therefore, of interest to 
explain here the constitutional basis on 
which our institutions rest. The Ger- 
man Empire is a Union composed of all 
the States which formerly belonged to 



the German Federation, with the ex- 
ception of Austria-Hungary. The 
Eleventh Article of the German Consti- 
tution says : "The Union shall be pre- 
sided over by the King of Prussia, 
whose title is to be 'Deutscher Kaiser.' " 
There is a great similarity with the 
Constitution of the United States, 
which is also a Union of a number of 
independent States, who have given 
part of their sovereignity in favor of 
the Union. While the Kaiser repre- 
sents the empire in its foreign relations, 
he may not declare war in the name of 
the empire without the consent of the 
Bundesrat, representing these single 
States forming the empire, except when 
German territory is attacked. In this 
Bundesrat of fifty-four equal votes the 
Emperor in his capacity of King of 
Prussia has only seventeen votes. It 
follows that the Emperor could not, 
and, as a matter of fact, has not, de- 
clared war on his own account, but that 
he had to have, and in fact, had the 
consent of his allies, represented by 
the Federal Council. This consent 
was unanimous. This is a much 
greater check than the control placed by 
the Constitution of the United States 
on the President, who of all great rulers 
of the earth concentrates in himself the 
greatest power. The German Kaiser 
can no more than the President of the 
United States, make war at pleasure. 

Neither is the Emperor what is called 
here "The War Lord." He has not the 
disposal, that is, the absolute command, 
of the forces of the entire German 
Army. Article 66 of our Constitution 
says that the German Princes, more es- 
pecially the Kings of Bavaria, Wurttem- 
berg, and Saxony, are the chiefs of the 
troops belonging to their territory (six 
army corps of twenty-four) ; they nom- 
inate the officers for these troops, they 
have the right to inspect these troops, 
etc. Consequently the absolute disposi- 
tion of the German Army passes on to 
the Kaiser only in the moment when 



the consent of his allies, viz., the States 
who with Prussia, form the empire, has 
been obtained for the declaration of a 
war. But there is a further and much 
heavier check on the Emperor's doings. 
All measures providing ways and means 
for conducting war must be passed by 
the Reichstag. The Reichstag is a body 
elected on the most liberal ballot law 
that exists anywhere, more liberal even 
than the ballot law of the United States 
for the election of a President. The 
German law, ever since 1867, has been 
a one man, one vote, universal, secret 
and direct ballot law. The German peo- 
ple are represented as directly and dem- 
ocratically in the Government as the 
American people are in theirs. The 
right to vote does not depend either on 
a census or on any educational test. 
Any German being twenty-five years 
and over may vote. The Reichstag con- 
sists of 397 members. The conserva- 
tives, the so-called "War Party," from 
which most of the officers are being re- 
cruited, is in a hopeless minority, about 
55. There are 110 Social Democrats 
and about 1(X) Liberals, so that in fact 
there is a Liberal majority in the Ger- 
man Reichstag. Notwithstanding this 
composition, this Reichstag has voted 
unanimously the necessary laws and 
credits for conducting the present war, 
and although the Social Democrats re- 
ject war on principle in their program, 
they have indorsed unanimously the pol- 
icy of the empire as speeiflcally an- 
nounced by the Emperor's Chancellor. 

I say this to prove that this war is 
not "a Kaiser's war," because he can- 
not make a war, but it is the "German 
people's war." A modern war, accord- 
ing to Prince Bismarck's great speech in 
1887, with its enormous armies compris- 
ing whole peoples, cannot be undertaken 
with safety nor carried through with 
success except by the full consent and 
enthusiastic assistance of the whole na- 
tion. Americans returning from Ger- 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 




ALSO A VOLUNTEER 

A new klud of Peanuts for the famous Hagenbeck Park Elephant to handle 

(By Courtesy of the "Chicag-o Abendpost") 



many will tell you that this consent and 
enthusiasm are there in the highest de- 
gree and that there has never been such 
a unity of the German people, between 
Princes and people, between parties and 
creeds as there is in these trying times, 
where no less than seven nations have 
joined hands to down our people. 



(From the "Times.") 

DR. DERNBURG'S ARGUMENT. 

Far and away the ablest and the 
most subtle presentation yet made of 
Germany's case is that from the pen of 
Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, which in this 
issue of The Times we reprint from The 
Sun of yesterday. Having been a part 
of the German Government, a Secretary 
of State for the Colonies, Dr. Dernburg 
knows his subject, he knows precisely 
the impression he wishes to produce, 
and he has surpassing skill in marshal- 
ing his argument to produce just that 
impression. His method is so exceed- 
ingly adroit that if he be not read 
with constant wariness of mind the 
reader may find himself granting one 
assumption after another until he 
is swept helplessly along to a conclus- 
ion that Germany has been the most 
peaceful nation on earth, that the 
Kaiser is merely the humble servant 
of his people, and that the war was 
imposed upon Europe by a higher 
fate quite beyond human control. 

There are three leading conten- 
tions in Dr. Dernburg's argument. 
The first is that the German Emperor 



is no more a man of war than our 
President and has less power to make 
war. 

Dr. Dernburg points out that ex- 
cept when German territory is at- 
tacked the Emperor may not declare 
war without the consent of the Bun- 
desrat, and that this is "a much 
greater check than the control placed 
by the Constitution of the United 
States on the President." But our 
President cannot declare war at all. 
Congress alone has that power. Dr. 
Dernburg assorts that the Emperor 
"must have, and in fact had, the con- 
sent of his allies, represented by the 
Federal Council," and that the con- 
sent was unanimous. We do not ques- 
tion the statement, but we recall no 
report of a meeting of the Federal 
Council. The declaration of war was 
contained in a telegram of the Im- 
perial Chancellor to the Ambassador 
in St. Petersburg, declaring that "his 
Majesty, the Emperor, my August 
Sovereign, in the name of the Em- 
pire, takes up the defiance and con- 
siders himself in a state of war 
against Russia." Dr. Dernburg in- 
sists that Wilhelm II. has been a man 
of peace. In his aversion to war he 
is put on a level with President Wil- 
son. If the comparison is just, then 
we must assume that in the Emper- 
or's place Woodrow Wilson would 
have given Austria a "free hand," 
would have warned all civilized na- 
tions that they must not interfere be- 
tween Austria and Servia, and would 
In the crisis of the affair have gone 



to war with Russia, France and Eng- 
land. Do we believe that? Does 
Dr. Dernburg expect us to believe 
that the firm mind and hand that 
kept us out of war with Mexico would 
have plunged all "Europe into a 
bloody strife in support of Austria's 
unbearable attitude toward Servia? 
The difference is not merely in the 
men, the training and environment 
count for everything, and what they 
are in the case of the Kaiser one may 
learn from the book of von Bern- 
hardt, one of the chiefs of the war 
party, in which war is lauded as "the 
greatest factor in the furtherance of 
culture and power." 

It will be observed that in its com- 
ment on Dr. Dernburg's argument the 
"Times" pursues no less adroit a 
method of securing the good will of 
its readers than that which it ascribes 
to the gentleman whose assertions it 
wishes to rebut. It opens with an at- 
tempt to poison the reader's mind by 
the insinuation that Dr. Dernburg's 
points are established rather by ef- 
fects of style than by their intrinsic 
verity. When one has read the feeble 
defense opposed by the "Times" to 
the logic of its self-chosen adversary, 
the necessity for this method Is read- 
ily seen. 

The first statement of Dr. Dern- 
burg to which the "Times" takes ex- 
ception Is that "the Emperor may not 
declare war without the consent of 
the Bundesrat, and that this is 'a 
much greater check than the control 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND 



14t 



placed by the Constitution of the 
United States on the President.' " 

The "Times" replies: "But our 
President cannot declare war at all. 
Congress alone has that power." 

We need not read so very far back 
in American history to find the quib- 
ble. The "Times" has expressed a 
theory, but the facts have differed 
widely from it In recent years. When 
President Wilson went before Con- 
gress and asked its approval of his 
conduct in Mexico he had already de- 
clared war on that country. It was 
to our purpose at the time to pro- 
claim that "a state of hostilities ex- 
isted in Mexico," but no war, and that 
we "got away" with it was due solely 
to the fact that the Mexican Govern- 
ment was impotent to protect itself 
against that most incontrovertible 
declaration of war — the infringe- 
ment of a nation's sovereignty by the 
seizure of its territory. If we go 
back to 1898 we find a still more co- 
gent refutation of the "Times" posi- 
tion. On April 25th of that year. 
Congress passed a joint resolution 
"That war be, and the same is here- 
by declared to exist, and that war has 



existed since the twenty-first day 
of April, anno Domini eighteen hun- 
dred and ninety-eight, including said 
day, between the United States of 
America and the Kingdom of Spain." 
In other words, four days after a 
state of war had existed with Spain 
and then only at a suggestion from 
President McKinley, contained in his 
special message of April 25th, Con- 
gress came through with that formal 
declaration of war on which the 
"Times" places so much importance. 
Was it, in this instance. Congress or 
the President, who first made war 
on Spain? 

The second point on which the 
"Times" bases its contention is the 
language in which the Chancellor's 
telegram to St. Petersburg was 
couched. Without denying that a 
meeting of the Bundesrat was held 
and the declaration of war decided 
upon by that body, and overlooking 
the fact that it was made by the Em- 
peror "in the name of the Empire," 
the "Times" attempts to read into the 
form in which it was presented to 
Russia something autocratic and un- 
American. The truth is that the 



Bundesrat was convened and is still 
in session, and that it voted the war. 
The Chancellor was but its spokes- 
man in conveying the sense of its ac- 
tion to St. Petersburg. The essentials 
are not contained in the words of the 
Imperial Chancellor, but in the action 
of the Bundesrat itself. 

The object of the "Times" is appar- 
ently to blind its readers to the fact 
of the Constitution on which is based 
the whole structure of German unity 
and which in essentials differs from 
our own only in the method of con- 
stituting courts and the tenure of the 
Executive. As a matter of fact, there 
is less dissimilarity between these 
two constitutions than there is be- 
tween the Constitution of the United 
States and that of any other country 
of Europe. There is no evidence at 
hand to show that the German Em- 
peror on any one point has exceeded 
his legal rights under the supreme 
law of the land. 

The question of Emperor vs. Presi- 
dent as a candidate for the Nobel 
Prize is one on which every American 
will form his own opinion. The fact 
is that Austria, and her ally, put up 




THE GERMAN ARMY IN BELGIUM 

The advance Troops are ever on the alert, and seek the most advantageous screens to watch the movements of the 
Allies. Notice the Soldiers in front, wearing the Iron Cross. No doubt they are going to have Chicken Dinner. But 

Order and Seriousness mark every Scene 
(Photograph by the International News Service) 



142 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



for years with conditions on her bor- 
ders that would have made General 
Weyler blush at his own moderation. 
When out of those conditions came 
open and flagrant murder not even 
"the firm mind and hand" of Presi- 
dent Wilson would have availed to re- 
strain the righteous indignation of 
the sufferers thereby. The spirit of 
1898, that drove Spain from Cuba, 
was not one whit more justifiable 
than that which prompted Austria to 
demand redress for her wrongs and 
her ally to support her in that de- 
mand. 



IT IS NECESSARY TO FIGHT WITH 

THE WEAPONS OF THE 

ADVERSARY. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitimg, 

New York. 

Herman Ridder. 

Among the many able friends of Ger- 
many in the United States who have de- 
fended their convictions by pen and 
voice, Dr. Bernhard Dernburg ranks 
with the first. The second article from 
Dr. Demburg's pen, which appeared in 
The Sun of the 27th inst, leaves little 
to be desired from the iwints of view 
of logic, comprehensiveness and lucid- 
ity. I agree with The Sun when it 
says of Dr. Dernburg that "both in 
temper and in method of presentation 
he is by far the most effective of all 
the advocates now writing or speaking 
in behalf of Germany's cause. . . . 
Dr. Dernburg's arguments are all legi- 
timate, and the tone of his expression 
is so moderate and his line of reason- 
ing so plausible that it is not impossible 
he may lead many American minds into 
that very attitude of biased unneutral- 
ity which he warns us against (if the 
sympathy be for England) as incapaci- 
tating the United States for a media- 
tory r61e." 

The Sun continues, however: 
"We shall therefore content ourselves 
with saying that if Dr. Dernburg's 
spirit and skill and tact had directed 
the unfortunate efforts of some of the 
organized and volunteer and individual 
propagandists who have undertaken to 
create in this country a public opinion 
favorable to Germany, the sentiment 
here might be quite different from that 
of which they complain." 

This implied criticism of the efforts 
of other and less fortunately situated 
friends of Germany to counteract the 
designs of her enemies needs little an- 
swer or explanation. It is necessary to 
fight with the weapons of the adver- 
sary. I can sympathize with the point 
of view of those who have been taunt- 
ed into possible hyperbole or violence 
of expression by the evident bias of the 
Anglophile press. Would that it might 
be given to us all to maintain an atti- 
tude of calm logic and friendly good na- 
ture under the extreme provocation of 
seeing what we respect and admire 
trampled ruthlessly under foot. Too 
often, however, the human hand is di- 
rected by the impulse of a superheated 
collar. Too often we respond to the 
sting of some glaring injustice, and 
our pen runs riot. The human element 
grips us strongly and we react to the 
beat of our hearts. It is not, however, 
for those who laid the train to such ex- 
plosions to criticize the result. 



Germany — the German Emperor and 
the German people — is making a mag- 
nificent fight for existence. One may 
differ from her in opinion, but we can- 
not withhold the admiration that Is 
due a determined nation fighting for 
all it holds nearest and dearest in life. 
Surrounded by enemies actuated by the 
most divergent motives and one only 
in the desire to crush Germany, over- 
whelmed by numbers, she, with her 
single ally, is showing the world an 
example of patriotism, of united effort 
and determination, for which history 
cannot fail to give her full credit. 

The German papers in this country 
have shown a united front in preach- 
ing the cause of Germany. I do not 
refer, of course, to other than bona fide 
German papers, and certainly not to 
Mr. Hearst's German editions, in which 
the word is the word of the German, 
but the thought the thought of a 
Hearst. In this connection we quote 
"Collier's Weekly" as follows : 

"The war shows again the brazen 
effrontery with which Hearst dishes up 
the stuff he publishes. One day last 
month the so-called "American" (New 
York) had a cut with the line: 'This 
is the type of English soldier who Is 
doing such tremendous work on the 
battle front in France.' On the same 
day the German edition had the same 
cut, but gave it this title : 'British 
troops who are able to sprint so fast 
that the German soldiers cannot catch 
up with them.' If you want to be bun- 
coed, just read the Hearst papers. Wil- 
liam Randolph will do the rest — and 
you." 

There is no stronger defender of the 
German side of the war than the Ger- 
man Herold of Mr. O. B. Wolffram. In 
the columns of this paper Mr. Wolffram 
has, in a quiet, careful, unobtrusive 
manner conducted an able campaign for 
the advancement of German thought 
and the presentation of German argu- 
ments. 

The times have given rise, also, to a 
weekly publication, The Fatherland, 
which is no less inspired by patriotic 
motives in its attempt to represent the 
spirit of fair play. In its issue of the 
30th inst, The Fatherland puts the fol- 
lowing questions: 

"To the fair-minded American citi- 
zen, who can't be fooled all the time, 
even by the newspapers, the following 
questions are offered for consideration : 

"First — Why is Zabern cited, but 
Kishineff forgotten? 

"Second — Why is it a crime against 
humanity for Germany to maintain the 
biggest army in the world, but a mere 
means of defense, just, natural, and 
proper, for Great Britain to maintain 
the biggest navy in the world? 

"Third — Why is it hysterical or hypo- 
critical for Germany to speak of 'the 
Slavic peril,' but wise, foresighted, and 
righteous, all this last decade, for Eng- 
land in every possible way to fill the 
minds of her people with the idea of 
'the Germanic peril?' 

"Fourth — Why was it outrageous of 
Austria to question the sincerity of 
Servia's acceptance of seven of the eight 
conditions of the ultimatum, but mere 
statesmanly foresight on the part of 
Sir Edward Grey to question the sin- 



cerity of Germany's efforts to keep the 
peace? 

"Fifth — Why was it disgraceful of 
Germany to keep faith with her ally, 
Austria, but noble and heroic of Eng- 
land to keep faith with her ally, 
France? 

"Sixth — ^Why is Germany's Invasion 
of neutral (?) * Belgium an outrage, but 
Japan's invasion of neutral China a 
negligible matter? 

"Seventh — Why is every Belgian, 
French and English account of Ger- 
man outrage to be swallowed, hook, 
line and sinker, while German accounts 
of Belgian and Russian outrages are 
to be sneered at as mere fakes? 

"Eighth — Why is it improper and a 
breach of neutrality for Americans of 
German descent to express their sym- 
pathy with Germany, but proper and 
commendable for Americans of Eng- 
lish descent to express their sympathy 
with England and her allies? 

"Ninth — Why is it fanatical and bar- 
baric of the Germans to believe in the 
destiny of Germany, but right and nat- 
ural of the Englishman to believe in the 
Heaven-appointed destiny of England to 
rule the earth?" 

I have attempted in my own small 
way to offset as much of the hostile 
and unfounded criticism levelled at 
Germany as possible, by presenting the 
readers of the Staats-Zeitung with the 
other side of the shield. There is a 
certain amount of right, of logic and 
of pure, unquestionable faith in the 
justice of its own cause to be found 
in each of the armed camps of Europe- 
Only when the attempt is made to con- 
vince the American people that this is 
not true of Germany I object — and I 
object not as a German but as an 
American, not more because of the di- 
rect injustice done thereby to a friendly 
nation than because the American peo- 
ple are being educated in error. I have 
been assailed both in the press and by 
those anonymous letter writers whose 
views are not worth their signatures. 
For every letter of that sort which I 
have received, however, I have had ten 
from intelligent and sympathetic 
friends of Germany and fair play. 



♦Read the following articles printed 
elsewhere in this book. (The index 
gives their exact location) : "Bel- 
gian Neutrality," "Has Germany Vio- 
lated Belgian Neutrality?," "Bern- 
hard Shaw Points Out England's Factor 
of Responsibility for Europe's War," 
"Belgium's Change of Policy," "More 
English Faithlessness," and in "Ger- 
many and the Great War," the para- 
graph headed "What is the justification 
for the violation of the Belgian neu- 
trality to which Germany was a 
party?"; also "An Authority on Neu- 
trality," "War or Vandalism," and "An 
Excuse for a Minister's Mistakes." 



THE ALLIES. 



Sir John French: Through my 
glasses I see distinctly, mon Gfingral, 
that the retreating columns are 
French. 

General Joffre: Take my glasses, 
sir, and you will see that they are 
English. 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND 



GERMAN WAR SUBSCRIPTION. 



Military -Fund o( $1,125,000,000 

Quickly Raised by 

Public. 



The Daily News, Chicago. 

[By The Associated Press.] 
Berlin, Germany, Sept. 28 (via 
London, 2:50 p. m.). — The response 
of the German public to the efforts 
of the government to raise a war 
fund of .=^,000,000,000 marks ($1,- 
250,000,000) has, it is asserted here, 
removed all anxiety the nation may 
have had regarding its ability to meet 
financial obligations due to the war. 
Already 4,500,000,000 marks has 
been subscribed by the public without 
straining seriously the financial re- 
sources of the empire. 

Had $125,000,000 at Start. 

According to military authorities, 
the war is costing Germany about 
20,000,000 marks ($5,000,000) a 
day, inclusive of the money spent on 
behalf of those who have been de- 
prived of their bread winners. 



The means of the government at 
the beginning of the war, not includ- 
ing the permanent war treasure, 
but including the reserve funds of 
the reichsbank, amounted to about 
500,000,000 marks ($125,000,000), 
which, however, has been consider- 
ably increased through the issue of 
notes. 

It is thought, therefore, that the 
money available for the purposes of 
the campaign can be increased, if 
necessary, by several billion marks. 

Count on $2,000,000,000. 

The amount which the government 
could borrow from the reichsbank is 
unknown, but it is estimated at 
about 3,000,000,000 marks, making a 
total of about 8,000,000,000 marks 
($2,000,000,000). At the rate of 
20,000,000 marks ($5,000,000) a 
day, this sum would permit Germany 
to carry on the war for more than 
a year. 

It is said here that these esti- 
mates concerning Germany's finan- 
cial resources are low rather than 
high. 



GERMAN ASSOCIATIONS RE- 
PORTED FAVORING PEACE. 



Story of Petition of Economic Bodies 

Believed to Have Been Censored 

by Teutonic Authorities. 



From "Chicago Daily News," Feb., 
1915. 

Berlin, March 13, 3 a. m. — The 
Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, in 
an editorial, referring to yesterday's 
petition by economic organizations, 
reasserts the inadvisability of discuss- 
ing peace terms at this juncture. 

The paper says that such a discus- 
sion might weaken the impression 
abroad of complete German unanim- 
ity in the determination to persevere 
to the utmost. 

It would be better, says the edi- 
torial, to gain a definite victory be- 
fore talking about the reward for all 
the sacrifices made and the shape a 
peace treaty should take. The po- 
lemical attitude of the associations 
against the decision of the highest 
military and civil authorities is in- 
opportune and will not hasten vic- 
tory in the field, asserts the paper. 



Attacking and Defending Germany in the Crisis 



CONGRESSMAN BARTHOLDT'S 
PLEA FOR GERMANY. 



The Fatherland, New York. 

(On September 27, before a packed 
house in Terrace Garden, Representa- 
tive Bartholdt, of St. I/ouis, made one 
of the strongest addresses yet made 
on the war here. Because it boldly 
upheld the Teuton cause the speech 
was denied that prominence it de- 
serves. We are glad to publish in 
substance the entire address.) 

"Germany wants peace, as her his- 
tory shows. For forty-three years 
she has consistently maintained it, 
in spite of many irritations as well as 
numerous opportunities to make 
gains by aggression. The sole pur- 
pose of the triple alliance was for 
defense and for the preservation of 
the peace of Europe. German mili- 
tarism was purely for defense, and 
Germany would never disturb the 
peace if let alone by her neigh- 
bors. The efficiency, thrift and cul- 
ture of the German people would 
easily make them the master nation 
of Europe if only they were permitted 
to enjoy permanently the blessings of 
peace. 

Calls Press Unfair. 

"The hostile attitude of a large 
part of the American press toward 
Germany is the most bitter disap- 
pointment of my life. While on Ger- 
man Day we usually point with justi- 
fiable satisfaction to the proud his- 
tory of the American Germans, today 
we are obliged to ask the humiliating 
questions whether our diligent co- 
operation in the upbuilding of this 
country has ever been noticed by our 
non-German contemporaries. 

"If it had, we could at least have 
cherished the hope that our Anglo- 
American fellow-citizens might have 



gained a more favorable conception 
of the country from which we hail, 
of its culture and its institutions, 
than we now find expressed in the 
newspapers, a conception which we 
thought might have prevented the 
American press from printing the 
many absurd and outrageous stories 
which emanate from London and 
Paris to poison public opinion in our 
neutral country against Germany. 
We believed that the complete iden- 
tification of the Germans with Ameri- 
can institutions, their unswerving 
loyalty to the stars and stripes and 
their diligent and intelligent efforts 
in all fields of American activity had 
earned for them at least just con- 
sideration and fair treatment, but we 
must now reluctantly admit that in 
this we are sorely disappointed. 

Germans Entitled to Sympathy. 

"The German nation, owing to its 
traditional friendship for the United 
States, is even entitled to the out- 
spoken sympathy of the American 
people. Or have we forgotten that 
Frederick the Great sent us Baron 
von Steuben, whose achievements as 
the drillmaster of the revolutionary 
army made possible the final triumph 
of the colonies? Have we forgotten 
that in the civil war Germany was our 
only friend, while England, in open 
sympathy with the South, destroyed 
our commerce and refused any and 
all aid to the Union.* 

"In the hour of his greatest dis- 
tress Abraham Lincoln sent three em- 
issaries to Europe to fioat Union 
bonds. These envoys were shown 
the door in both London and Paris, 
and Gladstone declared openly that 



*Nor is it an accident in Prussian 
History and Character that Frederick 
the Great was among the first of the 
rulers to recognize the independence of 
the United States of America. — Editor. 



the English hoped for Confederate 
success. But when Lincoln's emis- 
saries came to Germany they were 
received with open arms, and Bis- 
marck, then promoter of Prussia, told 
the Berlin and Frankfort bankers to 
advance to the Union all the money 
they could spare. The purchase of 
these Union bonds by Germany made 
it possible for President Lincoln to 
continue the war and carry it to a 
successful conclusion. 

"Have we not a right to remind 
our fellow-citizens of this historical 
fact just at this time and does this 
not furnish at least one valid reason 
why in the present war drama, when 
Germany's very life is at stake, Amer- 
ican sympathies should go out to our 
arch-friend rather than our arch- 
enemy? 

Japan to Demand Pay. 

"England's summons to the black 
men, the brown men and the yellow 
men to fight her battles against a 
white and highly cultured nation will 
not be the end of it. Japan will de- 
mand her pound of flesh, which is 
bound to be cut out of the skin of one 
Uncle Sam. Even now supremacy in 
the Pacific may have been promised 
the yellow man in return for his pres- 
ent aid and for the protection by Ja- 
pan of India. Who, I ask you, would 
be America's natural ally, when that 
time comes? Under her treaty ob- 
ligations England will be bound to 
back up the Mikado, hence Germany 
again will be our only stand-by, as 
she was when, some years ago, John 
Hay looked around for support for 
his policy of the open door and Chi- 
nese neutrality. 

"England and France came in only 
after Germany had demonstratively 
joined hands with our great Secretary 
of State. For this very act, Japan 
asserts, the Germans are to be pun- 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 




ished now, because it frustrated some 
fine Japanese plans. This being so, 
will not the Mikado have it in for the 
United States for the same reason? 

Militarism Protest Insincere. 

"If the protest against German 
militarism were sincere, I would re- 
joice in it, but alas, it is not, for the 
same papers which are objecting to 
Germany's militarism are loudest In 
their support of American militarism. 
England's navy is the climax of mili- 
tarism and Prance's army, too, pro- 
portionately larger than Germany's. 

"Even the peace advocates, of 
whom I am one, admit that as long 
as the world remains an armed camp 
Germany has more justification in 
keeping up an efficient army than al- 
most any other country. When di- 
vided she was the spittoon of Europe, 
the battles of all nations having been 
fought on her soil. It was to protect 
the Fatherland against being every- 
body's battle ground that she built up 
a strong army as soon as her unity 
had been achieved as a result of the 
Franco-German war, but it was an 
army, as her history shows, merely 
for her defense and not for aggres- 
sion." 

The Peace Programme. 

In conclusion, Mr. Bartholdt ven- 
tured a prophesy by saying: 

"A defeat or dismemberment of 
the German Empire will mean eternal 
war; because the Teutonic race will 
never accept such a result. A vic- 
tory of the two German nations, how- 
ever, will signify permanent peace. 
Both Germany and Austria-Hungary 
cherish peace, and their two rulers 
wish for their people the blessings of 



VON HINBENBURG AND HIS STAFF 
(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 

fruitful civilization, the growth of 
industry and trade and the highest 
development of the arts and sciences, 
and the condition 'sine quo non' of 
such progress and the healing of the 
wounds caused by this horrible war 
is a secure and permanent peace an- 
chored upon an international agree- 
ment providing for disarmament and 
for a high court of nations which will 
adjust all the peoples' differences, 
and whole decisions will be backed by 
an international police force. 

"This is the programme to which 
for many years I have devoted my 
humble efforts, and the realization of 
which will, let us hope, be in the near 
future." 



BRITONS IN PROTEST. 



Milwaukee Free Press. 

F. Hugh O'Donnell, formerly for- 
eign editor on the "Morning Post," 
the "Spectator" and other leading 
London journals, writes as follows to 
the New York "Evening Post": 

"Every man who has had a connec- 
tion with the honorable British jour- 
nalism of the past ought to thank 
you for your just and moderate re- 
buke of the pretended censorship 
which has passed off such a moun- 
tain of falsehoods on the public of 
both hemispheres. I suppose I am 
the Doyen of the foreign editors of 
London, and well I know that under 
Gladstone and Beaconsfield it would 
h&,ve been impossible to find either 
writers or censors for the abominable 
fictions which have been spread in 
order to infiame the British masses 
against their German opponents. The 



tales of German ofiicers filling their 
pockets with the severed feet and 
hands of Belgian babies, and German 
Catholic regiments deliberately de- 
stroying French Catholic cathedrals, 
would decidedly not have been ac- 
cepted by any editors of the "Times" 
or "Morning Post" in the days of 
Queen Victoria. 

"The worst part bf these infamous 
Inventions has been that they have 
stirred up the blind fury of the Eng- 
lish populace against tens of thou- 
sands of inoffensive and useful for- 
eigners who have done nothing but 
good in a hundred honest profes- 
sions, and who are now, in the midst 
of savage threats and insults, torn 
from their industrious homes and 
thrust into bleak and miserable pris- 
ons without a single comfort on the 
brink of the wintry season. The 
spectacle is a hideous one and the 
military censorship which has spread 
the exciting calumnies has gained no 
enviable place in truthful history." 



Mr. O'Donnell is certainly a noble 
exception to the prevailing spirit in 
England in the crisis. Nor is he 
without company, as we have become 
familiar with such names as Treve- 
lyan, McDonald, Burns, Morley and 
many others. — Editor. 



This goes to show that not all 
Englishmen are by any means in 
sympathy with the manner in which 
the British press, aided and abetted 
by the government censor, is poison- 
ing and perverting the news; to many 
indeed it appeals as a sad reflection 
on the deterioration of British char- 
acter. 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND 



When a retired army officer like 
Major Redway can declare, as he did, 
in the London "Globe," that "we 
must learn to look upon the manu- 
facture of mendacities during the 
war as a heroic attempt to keep us 
going in the absence of truth," he 
makes a serious charge against his 
countrymen that ill comports with 
England's ancient reputation for 
manliness and square dealing. 

For our part we incline to the 
opinion that the great majority of the 
public wants the truth, wants fair 
play for its opponents. And we fur- 
ther believe that as this public 
gradually awakes to the double deal- 
ing of the government which in- 
volved Great Britain in this war and 
to the cowardly and dishonorable 
character of its censorship, there will 
come about a revulsion of feeling 
against the responsible Liberal min- 
istry that will overthrow it at the 
first opportunity the war permits. 

With enlistments lagging, with 
colonial rebellion spreading and with 
the voice of criticism becoming more 
emphatic this event may be much 
nearer than any one anticipates. 



ENGLAND'S CASE. 



By Viscount Bryce in The Times, 
New York. 



Commented Upon by Herman 

Kidder, New Yorker Staats- 

Zeitung, New York. 

The consignments of spoon food 
received from England during the last 
two months have glutted the market. 
We are tired and sick of it all. The 
"sabre-rattling" and "jack-boots" of 
Sir Arthur have had" their run. We 
want novelty in this country and 
nothing could pall more upon us than 
the repeated dinning into our ears 
by every English organ from "The 
Times" up or down, of the few catch 
phrases, copied by that master 
of English word-cinematography. I 
have read Sir Arthur's effusions, 
along with those of H. G. Wells, 
Anthony Hope, Rudyard Kipling, 
Israel Zangwill and the rest of the 
war-mad English penmen, and for 
the life of me I am unable to come 
to any other conclusion than that 
their readings on Germany have 
been confined to Bernhadi and 
Treitschke, those two German 
writers who were never a part of 
German intellectual life and were 
both disowned by the German peo- 
ple. It would be easy to point out 
writers in England who have advo- 
cated theories far more radical than 
either Treitschke or Bernhardi, who 
have had their little day and passed 
into their little grave "unwept, un- 
honored and unsung." It would 
serve no useful purpose, however, to 
do so, for Englishmen are notorious- 
ly fond of making a mountain out 
of a mole-hill. Even Lord Roberts 
was not above ■warning England 
three years ago that her immediate 
opponent was Germany, but her 
eventual enemy was the United 
States. 

It is a relief, therefore, to happen 
upon a writer for England who is 



above the level, intellectually and as 
a novelist, of the crowd of literary 
freebooters who have attempted so 
zealously to force Bernhardi down 
our throats. Such a writer is James 
Bryce, whose contribution to "The 
Times" of Sunday last will do much 
to raise England's case from the 
mire out of which the poets, dra- 
matists and fiction writers of the 
country have tried in vain to drag 
it. It matters little whether it is 
"Mr." Bryce or "Viscount" Bryce 
who writes. Whatever the name of 
James Bryce is subscribed to Amer- 
icans will always read with pleasure 
and seldom without conviction. He 
has been "among us" and we know 
him, not simply as a profound and 
elegant scholar, but as a great, gen- 
erous, lovable soul. The fact that he 
is the author of "The Holy Roman 
Empire" and "The American Com- 
monwealth" is scarcely the basis of 
our affection for Viscount Bryce. It 
is rather the fact that as British Am- 
bassador to Washington he showed 
himself big enough to serve his own 
country without losing the good will 
of ours. 

I know of no one better qualified 
to present England's case to the 
American people than he — surely no 
one in the motley throng that 
rushed into the first breach with no 
other equipment than their quiver- 
ing goosequills. Their mighty ef- 
forts are adumbrated by his quiet 
logic and the faith which we have 
in his knowledge of his subject. 

I have no more sympathy for 
Bernhardi than any other free-born, 
liberty-loving American has — no 
more than the quiet, industrious Ger- 
man has, who looks upon militarism 
as the Englishman regards navalism, 
as a national necessity and a nation- 
al evil — and therefore I can welcome 
these words of Viscount Bryce: 
"What are these doctrines? I do 
not for a moment attribute them to 
the learned class in Germany, for 
whom I have profound respect, recog- 
nizing their immense services to 
science and learning; nor to the bulk 
of the civil administration, a body 
whose capacity and unrightness are 
known to all the world, and least of 
all to the German people generally. 
That the latter holds no such views 
appears from Bernhardi's own words, 
for he repeatedly complains of and 
deplores the pacific tendencies of his 
fellow-countrymen." 

As a matter of fact Bernhardi is 
not even read in Germany. Of his 
works, published by Cotta, only 800 
copies have been given to the pub- 
lic to date! And that to a public 
of 65,000,000! The writings of 
Treitschke, as a historian, are re- 
garded by Germans as brilliant, but 
Treitschke is remembered by them 
as a man of intense party feeling, 
who labored under the spirit of 1870 
and was incapable of true sympathy 
with their racial aspirations. If 
Americans are in search for a Ger- 
man historian whose ideals are one 
with those of his people and whose 
work will live when that of Treitsch- 
ke, Bernhardi and the rest of their 
ilk has long been forgotten, I would 
suggest Professor Lamprecht, of 
Leipsic. 



So logically and truly deduced are 
the conclusions of Viscount Bryce 
that Bernhardi was in but not of 
Germany that it is diificult to recon- 
cile with them his assertion that it 
was the teachings of Bernhardi that 
moved Germany to war and controls 
her present conduct of it. This con- 
demnation of Germany, however, 
vis-a-vis of England, cannot be ef- 
fected by the statement that her pol- 
icy was dictated by a military caste 
of which Bernhardi was the spokes- 
man. England has had her own war 
party, which for years has urged 
upon her the crushing of Germany 
and to which Sir Edward Grey has 
shown himself to have been no in- 
significant adherent. In the circum- 
stance of the actual confiict "the Ger- 
man people generally," to whom 
least of all Viscount Bryce would 
attribute any acceptance of Bern- 
hardi's principles, have shown them- 
selves far more in sympathy with 
the decision of their Government 
than have the British. 

It might almost be suspected that 
Viscount Bryce has said so much of 
Bernhardi, simply to hang on a text 
chosen from "Germany and the Next 
War," a sermon to the German na- 
tion on the duty of greater to lesser 
states. If Bernhardi is followed, 
says Bryce: "They (the smaller and 
weaker nations) will be absolutely at 
the mercy of the stronger, even if 
protected by treaties guaranteeing 
their neutrality and independence. 
They will not be safe, for treaty ob- 
ligations are worthless, 'when they do 
not correspond to facts,' i. e., when 
the strong power finds that they stand 
in its way its interests are par- 
amount." 

As the learned writer of these 
lines has repudiated Bernhardi as a 
spokesman for Germany, it cannot be 
assumed that he looks to Germany to 
work upon any such principles. It 
may be assumed, however, that they 
were penned to offset some of the 
suspicions which the history of the 
last century 'has cast upon England's 
attitude toward her smaller and 
weaker neighbors. 

"If a state hold valuable min- 
erals," continued Viscount Bryce, "as 
Sweden has iron, and Belgium coal, 
and Roumania oil, or if it has abund- 
ance of water power, like Norway, 
Sweden and Switzerland; or if it 
holds the mouth of a navigable river, 
the upper course of which belongs to 
another nation, a great state may 
conquer and annex that small state 
as soon as it finds it needs minerals 
or water power or river mouth." 

Precisely. The inference, however, 
which we are asked to make is that 
Germany will reach out for Belgium, 
Roumania, Norway, Sweden and 
Switzerland as soon as it finds it 
needs minerals or water power or 
river mouth. 

I do not wish to question Viscount 
Bryce on the history of the distant 
past. The author of "The Holy Ro- 
man Empire" is a much more learned 
man in such things than I. I wish 
only to mention a few facts and to 
ask a few questions having to do 
with those years which both he and 
I can claim as our own. 



146 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



When, then, during the last sixty 
years has Germany shown herself un- 
generous to her smaller neighbors or 
covetous of their resources? During 
what one of those same years has 
England not been guilty of the very 
conduct which Viscount Bryce pic- 
tures as so reprehensible? Was it 
not England who attempted to break 
the Union that she might rule all 
America? Was it not the "aurifer- 
ous nature" of the soil and the 
mouth of the Orinoco that led her to 
expand her Venezuelan claim in two 
years from 76,000 to 109,000 square 
miles? Was it not the diamond 
mines of the Transvaal that led her 
to wipe out the Boer republic? It 
is not necessary to point out the mo- 
tive which has actuated England to 
the very last to maintain the yoke 
of Indian opium about the neck of 
the Chinese people, nor am I going 
to add to the list of England's 
crimes against smaller and weaker 
nations. They are too many and too 
well known. The British Empire is 
founded on them. 

We are asked to deal with theories 
and possibilities. We should deal 
rather with facts; not with what 
Germany might do, but with what 
England has done and is continuing 
to do. The whole history of Ger- 
many's relations with the smaller 
nations of the world points to her 
continued generous treatment of 
them. Will the history of England 
bear the same test? 



THE STOCK COMPANY OF KITCH- 
ENER, ASQUITH, CHURCHILL, 
AND BALFOUR AT THE 
GUILDHALL. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 
New York. 

Herman Ridder. 

Monday night's Guildhall meeting 
in London served the two-fold pur- 
pose of installing a new Lord-Mayor 
of London, and of furnishing the 
well-known stock company of Kitch- 
ener, Asquith, Churchill and Balfour 
an opportunity for a display of their 
histrionic abilities. This quartet 
has been touring the country preach- 
ing patriotism, lecturing, and when 
necessary, playing the role of recruit- 
ing sergeant. Mostly it has been 
necessary. 

They have divided their work each 
according to his temperament and 
ability. Kitchener, blunt old soldier, 
representing the martial spirit called 
the present armageddon "a struggle 
for the existence of the Empire"; 
Asquith, fine tempered statesman! 
representing the British conscience, 
devoted himself with less flight of 
Imagination but with subtle British 
hypocrisy to proving that it was a 
struggle "to place upon an unassail- 
able foundation the right of smaller 
nations"; Balfour, Silver tongued 
spell-binder, representing the pop- 
ular voice, appealed to both military 
and political prejudices and delivered 
himself of the shop worn phrase that 
the war was a fight "against reckless 
and brutal militarism"; and finally 
Churchill, the Pied piper of London 
town, representing the English spirit 



of prophecy, dilated upon the re- 
markable efficiency and preparedness 
of the British navy, flatly contradict- 
ing thereby the previous remarks of 
Kitchener to the general effect that 
England did not want war because 
she was unprepared for it. Nobody 
apparently noticed the discrepancy 
as the spirit of patriotism ran high. 
On the whole Lord Kitchener was 
nearest to the truth. For England 
the present war is a life and death 
struggle, more so than any other 
war which she has ever been engaged 
in. Britain has a great stake at 
issue, the loss of which would mean 
disaster beyond repair. South Africa, 
Egypt and India once severed from 
the Empire would never return. 

The Food problem in England is 
a most serious one. Denmark, Hol- 
land and Belgium, always England's 
active suppliers of fresh food pro- 
ducts, have practically ceased to be 
such. But worse, the modern weapon 
of mine-laying will soon so endanger 
the approach to all British harbors, 
that few merchantmen will be will- 
ing to take the risk, insurance or no 
insurance. 

No fleet, however powerful, will 
prevent daring German mine-layers 
from creating more and more danger 
zones around the British Isles, such' 
as are said to have kept the giant 
Olympic from proceeding. Further- 
more, Kitchener realizes, that mere 
territorial forces, mere defence with- 
in the borders of the islands, would 
be wholly insufficient, and that the 
enemy rnust be attacked on the Con- 
tinent, to deliver England from dis- 
aster. It is a curiously incongruous 
remark by the straightforward ruth- 
less soldier Kitchener, that England's 
military unpreparedness proves her 
pacific intentions, while the German 
thoroughness of organization clearly 
proves the contrary. When Pied 
piper Churchill paid a glowing 
tribute to the preparedness of the 
British Navy, he carefully refrained 
from drawing any such rash con- 
clusions about pacific or war-like in- 
tentions. Churchill, incidentally, 
tried to gloss over the fact, that the 
"rats" have succeeded in pretty well 
"rattling" the British navy. Kitch- 
ener's speech was hardly one to en- 
courage the belief in the efficiency of 
the new English army of 1,250,000 
soldiers. He made it very clear, that 
such preparations were required by 
modern warfare, that a long time 
would, of necessity, have to pass, 
before an efficient army could be 
created. He might, had his speech 
been less carefully revised, readily 
have pointed to the half-baked 
soldiery which had been sent by 
order of the autocratic Pied piper 
Churchill to hapless Antwerp. 

Mr. Asquith's traditional and 
cheaply popular manner of cloaking 
English with moral pretenses was, on 
this occasion, chiefly applied to the 
rights of small nations. This sham 
is thrown into a strong light by the 
recent organization in England of 
"The Union of Democratic Control." 
Its members include such men as 
Ramsay McDonald and Charles Tre- 
velyan, who, with Mr. Morley and 
Mr. Burns, withdrew from the British 
Cabinet rather than be a party to a 



plan of allowing England to be 
forced into this war through secret 
treaties, negotiated by a few English 
autocrats like Grey and Churchill. 
"Democratic Control" is the Society's 
chief object. Its formation in the 
midst of a titanic struggle, one which 
is inspiring in Germany and France 
the strongest bonds of national unity, 
is highly significant as showing Eng- 
land less united, and confirming 
Kitchener's plaintive remark "With- 
out a great national impulse we can 
do but little." The "Democratic 
Control" Society protested against 
those English foreign policies of the 
last decade, which the German people 
have been complaining about 
namely, secret treaties, secret alli- 
ances, and secret "balance of power" 
arrangements. To cap the climax 
this organization states as its object 
"to prevent the sudden conclusion of 
a peace arranged secretly by the 
diplomatists, who made the war in- 
evitable." So much for the fine 
moral pretense of true democracy by 
Mr. Asquith. 

It is a pity, that Mr. Balfour's ad- 
dress about militarism was not fol- 
lowed by some words from Great 
Britain's new Sea-Lord, Lord Fisher. 
As a British delegate to the 1899 
Hague Convention he startled every- 
body by his ruthless views about the 
conduct of war. No German or 
Frenchman of either military or 
naval prominence has, thank good- 
ness, ever approached the brutality 
of this "purely English" mind, for 
let us not forget, that this quality 
made Fisher the successor of the 
Prince of Battenberg, who was ac- 
cused of the lack of such a "purely 
English" mind. This is what Mr. 
Fisher had to say when the Hague 
Conference tried to establish more 
humane methods of warfare. "War 
should be made as hellish as pos- 
sible. When you have to wring a 
chicken's neck, you don't give the 
chicken intervals for rest and re- 
freshment." When the treatment of 
captured sub-marine crews was being 
discussed. Lord Fisher, this "pure" 
Britisher, shocked the assembly by 
barking "Sub-marines? If I catch 
any in time of war, I will string 
their crews up to my yard-arm." 
This is the "navalism," which placed 
captured German sailors into the 
bow of the "Amphion," while she 
was searching for mines, so that they 
might surely be killed, should any- 
thing happen. What a contrast to 
German navalism, which thinks of 
the safety of the prisoners first, be- 
fore putting up a last fight, as, for 
instance, the auxiliary cruiser 
"Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse," did in 
African waters. She first trans- 
ferred her captured enemies, then 
she went, fighting, to her certain 
doom. What a contrast between the 
brutal words of Lord Fisher and the 
generous action of the German com- 
mander of the "Kaiser Wilhelm der 
Grosse." 



"MADE IN GERMANY." 

This war was not made in Ger- 
many, but "Made in Germany" caused 
the war. — Prom the Charleston 
"Deutsche Zeitung." 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND 



147 




"RIDING INFANTRY" 

Modern "Barbarians" seem to have a wholesome Sense of Humor 
(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 



A PASSIONATE DEFENSE OF 
GERMANY. 



Editorial, The Chicago Evening Post. 

The indefatigable, we may even say 
the inevitable, Hugo Muensterberg has 
come to the rescue of the fatherland. 
"The War and America" has reached us 
from the publishers, D. Appleton & Co., 
and is announced on the cover jacket as 
"the first authoritative worli on the 
great European war," showing "the true 
inside of the war, its real motives and 
Issues and their important meaning for 
our country." 

The claim is rather too big for the 
book. Professor Muensterberg's hastily 



and passionately compiled work will 
not help much to a real undei'standing 
or a fair valuation of facts.^ It may be 
read with interest as a product of pa- 
triotism, admirable, indeed, in any man, 
but not conducing to impartial weigh- 
ing of evidence or calm judgment on is- 
sues. 

"Audi alteram partem" is a Latin 
proverb to be commended to all open- 
minded people, and for this reason we 
commend the reading of "The War and 
America" to those who regard the 
kaiser and the German military system 
as the aggressors in the strife that has 
shaken civilization. Professor Muenster- 
berg argues earnestly against this view. 
It is his belief that Germany is the un- 
happy and unwilling victim of jealous 



nations whose swords have long been 
whetted to cut her throat. 

It is early yet to write history, but 
Professor Muensterberg might have 
been more convincing had he made 
greater use of the official documents 
now available in the white papers of 
the governments involved.^ We have 
much of his opinion, and little of au- 
thentic material to support it. 

We are told that Belgrade was will- 
ing to concede everything to the Aus- 
trian demand until a cipher telegram 
arrived from St. Petersburg. "A few 
hours later a refusal was sent to- 
Vienna which could mean nothing but 
war," are the words in which the his- 
torian describes the Belgrade reply. By 
such unfairness' Professor Muenster- 



'Read Mr. Herman Ridder's comment 
on this book, reprinted elsewhere in 
"War Echoes," under the title "The War 
and America." Then read Professor 
Muensterberg's book and you will be 
able to judge for yourself whether or 
not "The Chicago Evening Post" is cor- 
rect in stating that his "work, hastily 
and passionately compiled, will not help 
much to a real understanding or a fair 
valuation of facts." — The Editor. 

'Our readers will find extracts from 
"The White Books" of Great Britain 
and Germany, "The Orange Book" of 



Russia and "The Grey Book" of Bel- 
gium, and comments on them reprinted 
on other pages. The index gives their 
exact location. The British White 
Paper and the German White Book 
have been published by the New York 
"Times" in one pamphlet for which 
ten cents is charged. They also have 
been printed in very convenient form as 
one of the monthly issues of the Amer- 
ican Society of International Concilia- 
tion, 407 West One Hundred and Sev- 
enteenth Street, New York. Therefore 
we are not reprinting these documents 



as it would add unnecessarily to the 
size of our book. — The Editor. 

'After reading the sixth paragraph 
commencing "The oft-repeated assertion 
that the Czar did his best to preserve 
the peace of Europe . . ." in the ar- 
ticle entitled "The Russian Orange Pa- 
per," reprinted elsewhere in this book, 
we leave it to the fair-minded reader 
to judge for himself as to whether "The 
Chicago Evening Post" is right or 
wrong in asserting that "By such un- 
fairness Professor Muensterberg dis- 
counts much of his plea." — Editor. 



148" 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



berg discounts mucli of his plea. We 
know the answer of Servia was in all 
but one particular* a concession to Aus- 
trian demands, and that particular a 
detail the granting of which meant the 
utter humbling of national self-respect. 

Whatever may be said as to the prov- 
ocation offered by Russia in the persis- 
tent mobilization of troops after pro- 
test from the kaiser — and there is room 
for argument on this point which may 
turn to the justification of Germany — 
we think unbiased opinion is pretty 
well satisfied that Austria's ultimatum 
was couched with bellicose purpose, and 
that Servia's answer, had not a desire 
for war existed on the part of the dual 
monarchy, would have satisfied Ger- 
many's ally.' 

It is a pity that Professor Munster- 
berg has spoiled' his plea for fair play 
by this show of bias in his opening 
chapter. With his assertion that 
"America ought to be no more anti- 
German than anti-French or anti-Eng- 
lish" we heartily concur. We deplore 
the tendency in some quarters to deride 
and denounce Germany and German in- 
stitutions, and to believe every story of 
barbaric behavior that a hostile cable 
feeds to American newspapers. We ad- 
mire the spirit of Lord Roberts of Eng- 
land, who urges his fellow countrymen 
to be charitable in their judgment of 
their foes. Let us all be charitable. Let 
us reserve the fiinal verdict, not until we 
have read the professor's book, as his 
publisher advises, but until peace has 
afforded us the perspective and mental 
disposition in which to consider all the 
facts and reach sound conclusions. 



VIOIiENX OUTBURSTS OF THE 
ENGLISH PRESS. 



*"It is believed by many people in 
the United States that Servia accept- 
ed all, or nearly all, of Austria's de- 
mands. In reality she did not accept 
the most important one, namely, that 
of issuing to the officers of the Serv- 
ian army an official condemnation of 
Pan-Slavic propaganda and of the as- 
sassination of the Crown Prince. Now 
it has been proved that the assassina- 
tion of the Crown Prince was prepared 
and arranged by Servian officers. He 
was shot with a Servian army re- 
volver." — Count J. H. von Bernstorff, 
the Imperial German Embassador in 
"Germany and the Great War" reprint- 
ed in full on another page. — Editor. 

'As to "The Chicago Evening Post's" 
assertion that "unbiased opinion Is 
pretty well satisfied that Austria's ulti- 
matum was couched with bellicose pur- 
pose, and that Servia's answer would 
have satisfied her, had not a desire for 
war existed on the part of the dual 
monarchy," we believe that REALLY 
UNBIASED readers, after reading 
Mr. Herman Ridder's article entitled 
"The Russian 'Orange Paper,' " and a 
mass of other authentic evidence re- 
printed elsewhere in this book, will 
not agree with "The Chicago Even- 
ing Post," and that therefore: Pro- 
fessor Muensterberg has NOT spoiled 
his plea for fair play. — Editor. 



This war is one thing that England 
wishes to see labeled "Made in Ger- 
many." — Prom "The Daily News, 
Chicago, August 7, 1914. 



The Fatherland, New York. 

According to press reports from 
England, Lord Roberts has made a 
dignified attempt, through the me- 
dium of the "Hibbard Journal," to 
denounce "the unsportsmanlike prac- 
tice of abusing one's enemies," re- 
minding the British public of the 
"gross charges absolutely untrue, 
which were brought against our 
brave soldiers fighting in South 
Africa." 

It seems, however, rather doubtful 
that the veteran ofQcer's voice will 
be heard in the tumult of violent 
anti-German outbursts, which has 
been raging in England for the last 
two months, with only too ready 
echoes on this side of the Atlantic. 

As a specimen of the present jour- 
nalistic standard of the majority of 
English newspapers, a leader of the 
London "Financial News" of Septem- 
ber 16, deserves to be quoted. It 
bristles with intemperate language, 
rarely to be found in an English 
paper of standing. 

Under the headline, "No Compunc- 
tion Now!" the said journal assails 
"The Economist" for expressing the 
view that no such harsh peace terms 
ought to be imposed upon Germany 
"as no proud nation could possibly 
accept, except as a last extremity." 
To this the Financial News replies: 

"A proud nation which destroys 
Louvain from sheer lust of destruc- 
tion, which pitches babies on bay- 
onet points, cuts off the hands o^ 
nurses and soldiers, outrages women, . 
slices old men, gouges out the eyes 
of the wounded, tears off women's 
breasts, trains its soldiers in the art 
of rape, rejoices in a multitude of 
obscenities too frightful to be re- 
corded in cold type, and does it all 
deliberately, exultingly and of set 
purpose, by order of the Kaiser, is 
simply a horde of brigands and mur- 
derers, and deserves precisely the 
mercy which should be meted out to 
that class of people. Britain exists 
to humble such 'pride' as that."* 

What mercy, the "Financial News" 
asks, sliouM he shown such "barbari- 
ans" and lohat could prove to us-\ that 
the German people are not in sym- 
pathy with the royal ruffian, who has 
so recently scuttled out of France just 
on the eve of what he hoped would 
be his triumphal entry into the cap- 
ital of the Republic which he so 
wantonly attacked. They just love 
his cowardly deviltries. There has 
been no foul act during this cam- 
paign, no shooting of a helpless 
mother. No dismembering of a ter- 
rified child, that has not received the 
whole-hearted Indorsement of the 
German nation, from the blood- 
thirsty Professor Harnack down to 
the humblest Dienstmann at the rail- 
way station. It follows that the Ger- 
man nation, having made their bed, 
must lie on it. Our mission is to see 
that the last pfennig of the allied 
doctor's bill has been well and truly 
paid. Devils need expensive medi- 
cine, and they must pay for it." 

As a matter of fact, the "Financial 
News" lays down already — a trifle 
early^what it calls "the elementary 



principles of the post-bellum settle- 
ment." Here they follow: 

"The HohenzoUerns must go, bag 
and baggage. If the Kaiser should 
survive defeat, nothing but banish- 
ment to a lonely island will be a safe 
finish to his career. St. Helena is 
not the place for him, with his mem- 
ories of who, with all his faults, was 
a man and not a ghoul. Tristan 
I'Acuncha would be more suitable. 
Next, there must be the largest war 
indemnity that Germany can pay 
without absolute bankruptcy. A ten- 
tative figure of 1,000,000,000 pounds 
sterling will serve for present con- 
templation. In the third place, the 
present German Empire must be 
broken up into its constituent parts, 
and to some extent redistributed, as 
has meted out to Germany can be 
guessed from the following passage: 
"Let us steel ourselves in advance to 
crush the last drop of lifeblood out 
of German militarism ; and all this 
Mr. Churchill has already suggested, 
in accordance with racial consider- 
ations. The Krupp works must be 
leveled to the ground, so that not 
one stone is left upon another, the 
German fleet must be handed over to 
its conquerors and all the fortifica- 
tions of the Heligoland Bight utterly 
dismantled. The Kiel Canal must be 
internationalized. Finally, all these 
terms must be imposed by the allied 
armies encamped at Berlin." 

The best augury for the carrying 
out of this programme, however, the 
paper sees in "the quiet, restraint 
temper of the whole nation." 

Evidently, the "Financial News," 
with the proverbial lack of humor of 
the English, does not realize what an 
exquisite exposition of "quiet, re- 
strained temper" it has furnished to 
the reading public by its intemper- 
ate language. 

*Emphasized in bold type by the 
Editor. 

fltalicised word^ are my own. — 
Editor. 



APPEAL TO THE CIVILIZED 
WORLD. 



By Many Noted German Representa- 
tive Men. 

As representatives of German 
Science and Art, we hereby protest 
to the civilized world, against the 
lies and calumnies with which our 
enemies are endeavoring to stain the 
honor of Germany in her hard strug- 
gle for existence — in a struggle 
which has been forced upon her. 

The iron mouth of events has 
proved the untruth of the fictitious 
German defeats, consequently mis- 
representation and calumny are all 
the more eagerly at work. As her- 
alds of truth we raise our voices 
against these. 

It is not true that Germany is 
guilty of having caused this war. 
Neither the people, the government, 
nor the "Kaiser" wanted war. Ger- 
many did her utmost to prevent it; 
for this assertion the world has 
documental proof. Often enough 
during the 26 years of his reign has 
Wilhelm II shown himself to be the 
upholder of peace, and often enough 
has this fact been acknowledged by 
our opponents. Nay, even the 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND 



"Kaiser," they now dare to call an 
Attila, has been ridiculed by them 
for years, because of his steadfast 
endeavors to maintain universal 
peace. Not till a numerical su- 
periority which had been lying in 
wait on the frontiers, assailed us, did 
the whole nation rise to a man. 

It is not true that we trespassed 
in neutral Belgium. It has been 
proved that France and England had 
resolved on such a trespass, and it 
has likewise been proved that Bel- 
gium had agreed upon their doing 
so. It would have been suicide on 
our part not to have headed them off 
at their own game if possible. 

It is not true that the life and 
property of a single Belgian citizen 
was injured by our soldiers without 
the ' bitterest self-defense having 
made it necessary; for again and 
again, notwithstanding repeated 
threats, the citizens lay in ambush, 
shooting at the troops out of the 
houses, mutilating the wounded, and 
murdering in cold blood the medical 
men while they were doing their 
Samaritan work. There can be no 
baser abuse than the suppression of 
the report of these crimes with the 
view of letting the Germans appear 
to be criminals, only for having 
justly punished these assassins for 
their wicked deeds. 

It is not true that our troops 
treated Louvain brutally. Furious 
inhabitants having treacherously 
fallen upon them in their quarters, 
our troops with aching hearts, were 
obliged to fire a part of the town, as 
a punishment. The greatest part of 
Louvian has been preserved. The 
famous Town Hall stands quite in- 
tact; for at great self-sacrifice our 
soldiers saved it from destruction by 
the flames. Every German would, 
of course, greatly regret, if in the 
course of this terrible war any works 
of art should already have been de- 
stroyed or be destroyed at some 
future time, but inasmuch as in our 
love for art we cannot be surpassed 
by any other nation, in the same de- 
gree we must decidedly refuse to 
buy a German defeat at the cost of 
saving a work of art. 

It is not true that our warfare 
pays no respect to international 
laws. It knows no undisciplined 
cruelty. But in the east, the earth 
is saturated with the blood of 
women and children unmercifully 
butchered by the wild Russian 
troops; and in the west, Dum-Dum 
Bullets mutilate the breasts of our 
soldiers. Those who have allied 
themselves with Russian and Serv- 
ians, and present such a shameful 
scene to the world as that of incit- 
ing Mongolians and Negroes against 
the white race, have no right what- 
ever to call themselves upholders of 
civilization. 

It is not true that the combat 
against our so-called militarism is 
not a combat against our civiliza- 
tion, as our enemies hypocritically 
pretend it is. Were it not for Ger- 
man militarism, German civilization 
would long since have been extir- 
pated. For its protection it arose In 
a land which for centuries had been 
plagued by bands of robbers, as no 
other land had been. The German 
army and the German people are 



one, and today, this consciousness 
fraternizes 70 millions of Germans, 
all ranks, positions and parties being 
one. 

We cannot wrest the poisonous 
weapon — the lie — out of the hands 
of our enemies. All we can do is 
to proclaim to all the world, that 
our enemies are giving false witness 
against us. You, who know us, who 
with us have protected the most holy 
possessions of man, we call to you: 

Have faith in us! Believe, that 
we shall carry on this war to the 
end as a civilized nation, to whom 
the legacy of a Goethe, a Beethoven 
and a Kant, is just as sacred as its 
own hearths and homes. 

For this we pledge you our names 
and our honor: 

Adolf von Baeyer, Prof, of Chem- 
istry, Munich. 

Wilhelm von Bode, General Di- 
rector of the Royal Museums, Berlin. 

Alois Brandl, Professor, President 
of the Shakespeare Society, Berlin. 

Prof. J. Brinkmann, Museum Di- 
rector, Hamburg. 

Prof. Peter Behrens, Berlin. 

Emil von Behring, Professor of 
Medicine, Marburg. 

Luju Brentano, Professor of Na- 
tional Economy, Munich. 

Johannes Conrad, Professor of 
National Economy, Halle. 

Franz von Defregger, Munich. 

Adolf Deissmann, Professor of 
Theology, Berlin. 

Priedrich von Duhn, Professor of 
Archseology, Heidelburg. 

Albert Ehrhard, Professor of R. 
Catholic Theology, Strassburg. 

Gerhard Esser, Professor of R. 
Catholic Theology, Bonn. 

Herbert Eulenberg, Kaiserswerth. 

Emil Fischer, Professor of Chem- 
istry, Berlin. 

J. J. de Groot, Professor of 
Ethnography, Berlin. 

Ernst Haeckel, Professor of Zool- 
ogy, Jena. 

Prof. A. von Harnack, General 
Director of the Royal Library, Ber- 
lin. 

Karl Hauptmann, Schreiberhau. 

Wilhelm Herrmann, Professor of 
Protestant Theology, Marburg. 

Richard Dehmel, Hamburg. 

Prof. William Dorpfeld, Berlin. 

Prof. Paul Ehrlich, Frankfort on 
the Main. 

Karl Bngler, Professor of Chem- 
istry, Karlsruhe. 

Rudolf Eucken, Professor of Phil- 
osophy, Jena. 

Heinrich Finke, Professor of His- 
tory, Freiburg. 

Wilhelm Foerster, Professor of 
Astronomy, Berlin. 

Eduard von Gebhardt, Dusseldorf. 

Fritz Haber, Professor of Chem- 
istry, Berlin. 

Max Halbe, Munich. 

Gerhart Haupmann, Agnetendorf. 

Gustav Hellmann, Professor of 
Meterology, Berlin. 

Andreas Heusler, Professor of 
Northern Philology, Berlin. 

Ludwig Hoffmann, City Architect, 
Berlin. 

Leopold Graf Kalckreuth, Presi- 
dent of the German Confederation 
of Artists, Eddelsen. 

Arthur Kamnf, Berlin. 

Theodor Kinn. Professor of Juris- 
prudence, Berlin. 



Anton Koch, Professor of R. Cath- 
olic Theology, Munster. 

Karl Lamprecht, Professor of His- 
tory, Leipsic. 

Maximilian Lenz, Professor of 
History, Hamburg. 

Franz von Liszt, Professor of Jur- 
isprudence, Berlin. 

Josef Mausbach, Professor of R. 
Catholic Theology, Munster. 
Fritz Schaper, Berlin. 
August Schmidlin, Professor of 
Sacred History, Munster. 

Reinhold Seeberg, Professor of 
Protestant Theology, Berlin. 
Franz von Stuck, Munich. 
Hans Thoma, Karlsruhe. 
Karl Volmoller, Stuttgart. 
Karl Vossler, Professor of Roman 
Philology, Munich. 

Wilhelm Waldeyer, Professor of 
Anatomy, Berlin. 

Felix von Weingartner. 
Wilhelm Wien, Professor of 
Physics, Wurzburg. 

Richard Willstatter, Professor of 
Chemistry, Berlin. 

Max Rubner, Professor of Medi- 
cine, Berlin. 

Adolf von Schlatter, Professor of 
Protestant Theology, Tuebingen. 

Gustav von Schmoller, Professor 
of National Economy, Berlin. 

Martin Spain, Professor of His- 
tory, Strassburg. 

Hermann Sudermann, Berlin. 
August von Wassermann, Profes- 
sor of Medicine, Berlin. 

Theodore Wiegard, Museum Di- 
rector, Berlin. 

Ulrich von Wilamowitzmoellen- 
dorff. Professor of Philology, Berlin. 
Wilhelm Windelband, Professor 
of Philosophy, Heidelberg. 

Wilhelm Wundt, Professor of 
Philosophy, Leipsic. 

Sebastian Merkle, Professor of R. 
Catholic Theology, Wurzburg. 

Heinrich Morf, Professor of Ro- 
man Philology, Berlin. 

Albert Neisser, Professor of Medi- 
cine, Breslau. 

Wilhelm Ostwald, Professor of 
Chemistry, Leipsic. 

Max Planck, Professor of Physics, 
Berlin. 

Georg Reicke, Berlin. 
Alois Riehl, Professor of Philos- 
ophy, Berlin. 

Fritz Ang. von Kaulbach, Munich. 
Felix Klein, Professor of Mathe- 
matics, Goettingen. 

Alois Knoepfler, Professor of His- 
tory of Art, Munich. 

Paul Laband, Professor of Juris- 
prudence, Strassburg. 

Philipp Lenard, Professor of 
Physics, Heidelberg. 

Max Liebermann, Berlin. 
Ludwig Manzel, President of the 
Academy of Arts, Berlin. 

Eduard Meyer, Professor of His- 
tory, Berlin. 

Priedrich Naumann, Berlin. 
Walter Nernst, Professor of 
Physics, Berlin. 

Bruno Paul, Professor of School 
for Applied Arts, Berlin. 

Albert Plehn, Professor of Medi- 
cine, Berlin. 

Prof. Max Reinhardt, Director of 
German Theater, Berlin. 

Karl Robert, Professor of Arch- 
Eeology, Halle. 

Wilhelm Rontgen, Professor of 
Physics, Munich. 



150 THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 

German Character and the German Cause in the War 



Daterlanl)! 




WITH GOD FOR OUR FATHERLAND 

Six Emperor's Sons now take the Field as brilliant examples to the World; 
God grant that our Emperor's Sons Crown a noble, manly Victory ! 



THINKS GERMANY WAS FORCED 
INTO THE WAR. 



Special Correspondent Analyses Mi- 
nutely Causes of Conflict. Peace 
Sought by Kaiser. Attitude of 
Both Russia and London De- 
clared to Have been Favor- 
able to Outbreak. 



The Chicago Daily News. 
Raymond E. Swing. 

Berlin, Germany, Aug. 13. — The 
fabric of life is today torn to shreds. 
Coherence, cool thinking, objectivity. 
Beam Impossible. The great Euro- 
pean war is well under way. The 
terrors, the m.iseries, the horrors 
which men have always known to 
attend war are again present. Hatred 
and lying are rampant. But in 
spite of it all it is of great impor- 
tance that clear statements of the 
events of the last few weeks be made, 
and that thinking men and women 
read such statements, digest them, 
and prepare for the moment when 
they can decide deliberately what the 
great forces were which precipitated 
this Immeasurable chaos. 

It Is not my intention to attempt 
even the beginning of a history of the 
last few weeks. That can be done only 
after time has revealed more sources 
of information than are now available. 
It is not my intention to pass final 
judgment on any nation or race. Such 
an attempt would show colossal stupid- 
ity in view of my ignorance of many 
of the essential facts. But I shall 
try to put down what facts I have 
learned, and through them make it 
possible for any reader of these lines 
to reconstruct with some degree of 
accuracy the spirit — the very thrilling 
spirit — which we of Berlin have known 
In these extraordinary times. 



Must Go Back to Murder. 

To understand this war it is neces- 
sary to go back to the murder of the 
Austrian crown prince and his wife. 
Every American knows that these two 
were victims of bombs thrown by Ser- 
vians on June 28, 1914. Immediately 
following this murder, there was con- 
siderable talk from Austrians of com- 
plicity with the assassins of Servian 
patriotic societies with the membership 
embracing the highest oflBcialdom in 
Belgrade. No definite charges were 
made publicly to my knowledge, but 
the understanding was that men very 
high in the goverment of Servia knew 
of the assassination plot and at least 
did not prevent it. 

Proofs In such matters, I should say, 
are difficult to obtain. I know that it 
was the conviction of Austrian oflicial- 
dom and of the official circles of Berlin 
that the Austrian assassinations were 
even more than the outgrowth of 
societies and that the men in some way 
responsible for the assassination were 
to be found in the very palace of Bel- 
grade, if not in official circles of St. 
Petersburg. That is a strong convic- 
tion and I give it not as a fact, but as 
a conviction, and before this war can 
be understood this conviction must be 
appreciated. 

Reason for the Tntimatnm. 

It was the consequence of this con- 
viction which led Austria to deliver her 
ultimatum to Servia. There has been 
considerable speculation as to whether 
Germany knew of this ultimatum be- 
fore it was delivered. Every twist of 
diplomatic language has been employed 
to make it appear as if Austria took 
her step without the knowledge of her 
allies, Italy and Germany. But such an 
effort, while it might have served an 
immediate purpose, is in the end use- 
less, and It Is as well to realize now 
that Germany did know of this ulti- 



matum, approved of it and joined in 
the profound wish that assassinations, 
particularly as the means of furthering 
tremendous political movements, should 
be punished severely. And Italy, I 
have reason to believe, after having dis- 
cussed with Austria certain Balkan 
differences, also gave her approval and 
her pledge to remain true to her alli- 
ance in event of war. These facts, I 
feel sure, will eventually be established. 
The text of Austria's ultimatum is 
already known In America. It might 
have seemed at the time as if some 
of Austria's demands were exagger- 
ated and that no nation could have 
submitted to them vrithout resigning 
her national sovereignty. Two clauses 
were particularly strong, the one de- 
manding that Austrian officials be al- 
lowed to participate in the investiga- 
tions of the assassinations, the other 
that Servia's submission to the ulti- 
matum be published in the official Ser- 
vian war bulletin. These two clauses 
Servia declined and Austria thereupon 
broke off diplomatic relations. 

Where the Kernel Lies. 

At the very beginning of the trouble 
we come to the kernel of the situation. 
Was Austria justified in making these 
two demands? The publication in the 
army bulletin seems a trivial matter, 
and one might easily believe that Aus- 
tria would have stricken this from the 
ultimatum if the other clause had been 
accepted. The first question to be an- 
swered, then, in understanding the 
causes of this war is : Did Austria 
have the right to demand the participa- 
tion of Austrian officials in the in- 
vestigation of the assassinations? 

The question at once oversteps the 
bounds of pure legality. If Austria had 
the conviction and a reasonable amount 
of proof that the Servian bomb throw- 
ers were not only assisted by high 
officers of the Servian goverment, but 
even personally encouraged by a resi- 
dent of the Belgrade palace with the 
support of certain official elements in 
Russia — and this certainly is the direc- 
tion of Austrian discoveries — then it 
would have seemed absurd to leave the 
punishment and the really responsible 
men to the Servians themselves. Such 
a resignation on the part of Austria 
would have meant her own downfall. 
The affair already in June took on the 
appearance of a grave international 
plot. And Austria surely believed that 
she not only had the right to make this 
demand, but that this demand above all 
others must be acceded to if war was 
to be avoided. And this belief I am 
sure, was shared in Berlin and Rome. 

All Hinges on One Point. 

About this one point hinges every- 
thing which later grew into the pres- 
ent war, and it is to be hoped that 
the Austrian government will soon 
make public the evidence in its pos- 
session at the time of the ultimatum. 
This point is vital, too, because upon 
It hinges the moral right of Germany 
to stand by her ally in the face of 
Europe. And about this point must 
play every argument which tries to lay 
upon the Germanic people or the Slavs 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND 



151 



the blame for having precipitated this 
war. 

Conceding for the time being that 
Austria, and conseciuently the triple 
alliance, was right, we shall proceed 
with a statement of subsequent events, 
with the hope of understanding what 
happened in Berlin. The most striking 
event on the day of Servia's reply to 
the Austrian ultimatum is the follow- 
ing: Russia took the initial steps for 
mobilization against Austria on that 
very day. My authority for the ex- 
traordinary and significant statement is 
a telegram of the czar of Russia to the 
German kaiser, as follows : 

"Peterhof, July 30, 1914, 1:20 p. m. 
—I thank you from the bottom of my 
heart for your speedy reply. I am 
sending TatishefC this evening with in- 
structions. The military preparations 
now in realization were decided upon 
five days ago, and as defense against 
the preparations of Austria. I hope 
from the bottom of my heart that these 
preparations will in no way influence 
your position as mediator, which I 
-'alue very highly. We need your 
strong pressure upon Austria to bring 
her to an understanding with us. 

"NICOLAUS." 

Was the Day of Servia's Answer. 

"Five days ago," said the czar, and 
five days before was the day of Servia's 
answer. And five days before Austria 
had not commenced mobilization, not 
even against Servia. And when Aus- 
tria did commence mobilization not 
one extra soldier was sent toward the _ 
Russian frontier and only a small army " 
was sent out to fight Servia. 

This telegram of the czar throws 
illuminating light on the situation, be- 
cause it shows with startling clarity 
that some one at the very start wanted 
war. I am inclined to believe that 
the czar himself may "nave been un- 
aware of what was happening around 
him, but it is certain that men in 
charge of the Russian army were not 
unconscious and at the very beginning, 
before the rest of Europe even dared 
whisper the word of general war, 
openly had taken the action most sure 
to precipitate it. 

Remembering that this step of Rus- 
sia's was taken on the day of Servia's 
answer, let us refer again to a state 
document. 

Sends Message July 29. 

Four days later, on July 29, the Ger- 
man military attache in St. Petersburg 
sent a message to his government, of 
which I quote the following: 

"The chief of the general staff has 
Just sent for me and informed me 
that he has just come from his majesty. 
He was emx>owered by the war min- 
ister to tell me that everything stands 
just as the war minister declared 
things to stand two days ago. He gave 
me a written statement and also his 
word of honor for it that no mobiliza- 
tion, i. e., the calling out of one reserve 
or one horse, had begun up to that 
very moment, 3 p. m. There are, how- 
ever, numerous dispatches reporting the 
calling in of reserves in various parts 
of the empire, including Warsaw and 
Wilna. I was forced, therefore, to tell 
the general that I could not look upon 
his statement as being less than a rid- 
dle. Hereupon he gave me his word of 
honor as an officer that my dispatches 



were untrue and were probably trace- 
able to false alarms. I must regard his 
statements as deliberate attempts to de- 
lude us about the steps already being 
taken, which are so amply proved 
through my sources of information." 

On July 29, in the very midst of 
the kaiser's efforts at mediation, a sig- 
nificant dispatch was published from 
Paris which quoted on excellent author- 
ity a conversation said to have been 
held between the Russian War Minister 
Suchomlinow with the German am- 
bassador at St. Petersburg, in which 
the German was at last told that 
Russia was taking precautionary steps 
against Austria, i. e., was mobilizing 
on the Austrian frontier, and adding 
that similar action would be taken 
against Germany as "a precaution, be- 
cause Russian mobilization lasts longer 
than in other countries." 

Why Take Precaution? 

But why this precaution? Had Ger- 
many once used the word war? Had 
Austria threatened the Russian em- 
pire? Was there any step being taken 
except by Austria to punish what she 
had reason to believe was an interna- 
tional plot to destroy her empire? With 
these facts before any intelligent man, 
it is hard for him to come to any con- 
clusion other than that infiuential Rus- 
sians wanted war, not only against 
Austria, but against Germany as well. 

In the meantime, in the midst of 
these military preparations in St. 
Petersburg, the kaiser was proceeding 
with his mediation efforts. What Is 
most astonishing, in the face of the 
information which he must have had, 
is that he could consent to undertake 
mediation at all. But It is an estab- 
lished fact that he did attempt to bring 
pressure to bear In Vienna. 

But in the midst of Russia's mili- 
tary preparations St. Petersburg be- 
gan to send out more peaceful state- 
ments. The hope that the general war 
might be averted grew brighter in 
Berlin. 

Dramatic Scene Played. 

And here at this time was played 
a dramatic scene of the most significant 
sort. Gen. Von Moltke, chief of the 
general staff, appeared at the palace 
of the German chancellor and laid be- 
fore Herr von 'Bethmann-Hollweg 
private dispatches which established 
beyond the shadow of a doubt that 
Russia was making every effort to mo- 
bilize her forces for war. 

We may never know what these two 
leaders said to each other in this in- 
terview, but I have been told that 
Von Moltke demanded German mobil- 
ization at once. In the face of his 
information he must have felt that he 
could submit to no other course. And 
the chancellor, I am told, opposed this 
radical step with all the vigor in his 
possession, and he begged that this 
fateful step be postponed, even at con- 
siderable cost to the German nation. 
Germany could not go to war until 
every means to bring peace had been 
exhausted. And Von Moltke, surely 
knowing that the kaiser stood with his 
chancellor, submitted. 

England Has Own Problem. 

In the meantime, England was ob- 
sessed with the Ulster problem. The 
government, the entire British press 



and the English public were unaware 
of the gravity of the situation on the 
continent. When it was already felt 
in Berlin that general war might be 
unavoidable, London editors, in some 
cases, were still cabling their Berlin 
correspondents to send the Servian 
situation only briefly. It might be in- 
terpolated that American editors in 
some cases were guilty of the same 
error in judgment. When England fin- 
ally did wake up. Sir Edward Grey, 
without sending out, as Is usually done, 
a "feeler" to the other powers, sug- 
gested his conference of diplomats. 
This conference was immediately re- 
fused by the kaiser, because Austria 
already had formally declared war 
against Servia, and, therefore, it was 
too late. 

This action by Germany and Aus- 
tria has, undoubtedly, been construed 
In many quarters as proving an avid 
desire for war. Certain it is that the 
French nationalist press placed this 
construction upon It, and the Matin 
went so far as to address a peace 
appeal to the kaiser, which left the 
general impression that the kaiser was 
in a position to prevent the Austrian 
war upon Servia. 

Motives Not Considered. 

This construction upon the action of 
Germany and Austria does not take 
into consideration the motives behind 
Austria's ultimatum. A conference of 
ambassadors would have meant giving 
Russia time, and Russia wanted only 
time to be ready to strike quickly. In 
fact, every diplomatic move of Russia's 
throughout the early period of the 
crisis was a play for time, and Ger- 
many knew how this time was being 
utilized. A conference of ambassadors 
also, could hardly be considered the 
proper court for trying a memher of 
the Servian royal house for complicity 
in assassination, nor for tracing his 
connection with Russian official circles. 
The action of Sir Edward Grey was 
regarded in Berlin as precipitate and 
unfortunate, showing, at least, a lack 
of understanding of what the forces 
at play had already grown to be. 

But the mediation was still not out 
of the question. Austria had re- 
peatedly given her pledge that Servia's 
territorial integrity should be main- 
tained, and the German emperor had 
vouched for the fulfillment of this 
pledge. The second proposal of Sir 
Edward Grey to the effect that Austria 
should dictate her terms after the in- 
vasion of Servia, with the intimation 
that Russia would be allowed to stand 
by and see that Servia's sovereign 
and territorial integrity was finally 
to be respected, was handed by Ber- 
lin to Vienna with the strong recom- 
mendation that It should be accepted. 
Austria was ready. There was every 
reason to hope that Russia would 
accept this solution. Her answer was 
general mobilization. 

Thinks Mediation Was Offered. 

I feel confident that a final revela- 
tion of all the facts will show that the 
form of mediation above outlined was 
offered, and that Germany felt that 
this gave Russia every opportunity 
honorably to avoid war if she really 
wished to avoid war. 

In the midst of an exchange of tele- 
grams between the kaiser and the czar. 



152 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



and in the midst of the mediation 
efforts being made by the kaiser on the 
direct appeal of the czar, the lightning 
struck. Russia announced the order for 
full naval and military mobilization. 
There could then be no doubt in any 
German mind that Russia wished war. 
At this point it is well to call at- 
tention to the one hopeful symptom 
in this otherwise hopeless situation. 
It must stand to the undying credit 
of the German kaiser that one radiant 
beacon of idealism shines through the 
darkness of these times of national 
selfishness and misery, and that this 
beacon is the kaiser's resolve to 
maintain peace at any honorable 
price so long as he could humanely 
do so.* It was four days before 
German mobilization that Von Moltke 
had gone to the chancellor with his 
demand for the fateful order. Von 
Moltke had been right, and the wait- 
ing had cost Germany much, for it 
must be remembered that Germany's 
whole military action centers around 
the one plan and the one plan alone, 
and that is to strike quickly. 

Four Days Had Been Iiost, 

Four days of striking had been lost, 
and, as every German knows, the loss 
of four days can mean decades of sor- 
row for the German nation. And this 
is the price that the kaiser paid for 
the cause of peace. This is the meas- 
ure of the progress of the last century. 
The pessimist may feel that this is 
small progress indeed, but the world is 
a very old world, and a hundred years 
is a very short time, indeed, to bring 
any great change in human nature. 
The spectacle of the kaiser holding 
off his forces at a national sacrifice 
until the last hope for peace had been 
dissipated is one which must win 
him a resplendent place in the an- 
nals of modem times.* 

The war between Germany and 
Austria on the one hand, against Rus- 
sian and Servia on the other having 
become unavoidable, the center of in- 
terest in Germany shifted to the atti- 
tude of France and England. It was, 
of course, to the interest of Germany 
that these two countries remain neu- 
tral, and one may rest assured that 
every fair means was employed to 
bring them to such a decision. No 
doubt great conferences on this point 
were held, and one is tempted to spec- 
ulate about the prices and the prop- 
ositions oflEered. Surely the map of the 
world could have been remade in these 
few days. 

France Sees Interest. 
But France saw it to her interest 
to make war, and I can hardly believe 
that any intelligent German foresaw 
any other decision. The French have 
not whetted their appetites for revenge 
these forty years not to be hungry for 
it today. France faced overwhelming 
financial losses in a defeated Russia, 
and her own financial system was 
already in ruins. To wait until later 
meant only to pay again this terrific 
price. And the day of reckoning had 
evidently come. I repeat that I can- 
not conceive of German intelligence 
expecting France to remain neutral 
under the circumstances of the moment 
and with 1870 still within memory. 



♦Emphasized by the Editor. 



The great question then became the 
attitude of England. On this point 
there Is much hard feeling in Germany, 
and from what we are allowed to know 
these hard feelings are to a great 
extent justified. It Is said In the best 
Informed circles in Berlin that not very 
long ago England's king solemnly 
pledged that England should remain 
neutral in event of a continental war. 
How much weight can be given to the 
promise of an English king? The Ger- 
man fleet and German business effi- 
ciency have for long ranked In the Eng- 
lish mind. The time to strike, from 
the standpoint of pure selfish interests, 
had come, and strike England did. 

England's Excuse Given. 

It was the violation of Belgian 
neutrality which England gave as 
her reason for breaking off diplo- 
matic relations. Shortly after the 
chancellor's speech in the reichstag, 
admitting the imminence of Ger- 
many's Invasion of Belgium, the 
British ambassador called at the for- 
eign office and asked for a pledge 
that Belgium neutrality would not be 
violated. He was informed that such 
a pledge could not be given. A few 
moments later he called again and 
demanded his passes. England had 
entered the fight. 

England may be able to Induce 
part of the world to believe that the 
violation of Belgian neutrality forced 
her into the war. Let us examine this 
position from the German standpoint. 
In violating Belgian neutrality Ger- 
many admittedly committed a 
breach of right. The chancellor in 
his speech in the reichstag expressed 
this opinion, but linked it with a 
solemn pledge before the world that 
Belgium should be repaid for dam- 
age inflicted upon her in any case, 
and, in event of English neutrality, 
should maintain her territorial integ- 
rity. Why was Germany willing to 
make this pledge and at the same 
moment enter Belgium? The reason 
is not far to seek. French troops 
already lined the Franco-Belgian 
frontier. W^ere these troops to be 
used against Belgium? The question 
is absurd. Germany was convinced, 
and reasonably so, that these troops 
were eventually to be used against 
Germany. 

France Had Made Pledge. 
France, to be sure, had pledged 
herself In Brussels to observe Bel- 
gian neutrality as long as Germany 
did so. But France could wait; in 
fact, every day of French waiting 
was a day gained. If Germany, how- 
ever, waited until French troops vio- 
lated Belgian neutrality, as French 
aeroplanes already had done, she 
would be at an immense disadvan- 
tage. With the war already begun, 
It at once became a war for national 
preservation and the matter of Bel- 
gium's lesser rights must, from the 
German standpoint, remain to receive 
justice later on rather than that Ger- 
many should risk her own defeat and 
annihilation. Belgium, It seems, is 
fated to be the world's battlefield, 
and the German army could hardly 
be asked to hold off while the foe en- 
tered first and Intrenched itself in 
the advantageous position. 

Germany cannot credit any state- 
ment that England was forced into 



this conflict. Certainly the presence 
of French troops In Belgium would 
not have forced England to intervene 
on behalf of Germany any more than 
the violation of Belgian and Dutch 
neutrality by French aeroplanes and 
French reconnoissance parties forced 
England to Intervene. 

Could Have Believed Kaiser. 

England could easily have taken 
Germany's solemnly pledged word, 
assured herself of Germany's sin- 
cerity in desiring to repay Belgium 
for whatever damage was inflicted 
upon her and then have stood ready 
with all the moral force of the world 
behind her to punish Germany if the 
promises were not carried out to the 
letter. But England did not show 
the shadow of a willingness to take 
this attitude, and consequently the 
German believes that England, too, 
wanted war. 

And so Germany found herself 
faced by a tremendous foe. In the 
twinkling of an eye the land of the 
deepest political hatred became one 
united people. There were many 
ironhearted men who wept like chil- 
dren in the imperial castle, where 
the Kaiser had called together his 
first united reichstag and shook by 
the hand every party leader. There 
were many who wept, too, in the 
later session when the social demo- 
crats declared their patriotism and 
for the first time In history cheered 
a chancellor's speech. 

Spirit of Women Noble. 
Nor were these sights more mov- 
ing than the spirit of the women and 
the children who tramped loyally to 
the vacated harvest fields to take up 
the work of the men, nor more than 
that of the men who bade their fami- 
lies farewell and went to the wars. 
Germany became one land, with one 
heart, one mind and one enthusiasm! 
And what a wonderful enthusiasm! 

There is only the one belief in 
Germany today. The nation is be- 
leaguered from all sides. She is at 
war for her existence and is fighting 
after making every honorable effort 
to keep the peace. This peace has 
been denied her by three great Eu- 
ropean powers, two of which cer- 
tainly will with difficulty escape the 
charge of duplicity. In Germany 
there is no division of opinion as 
to where the right lies. And her men 
are fighting the fight most dear to 
the human heart in all these cen- 
turies of war, the fight for justice 
and the fathe-land. 



i 



ROOSE- 



A QIIESTION FOR MR. 
VELT. 

Why does Mr. Roosevelt perpetu- 
ally cite the alleged violation of the 
neutrality of Belgium and Luxem- 
berg? What of the violation of the 
neutrality of China by Japan and the 
violation of the neutrality of Egypt 
by Great Britain and the violation 
of the neutrality of Morocco by 
France? Coming even nearer home, 
we might add, as a chapter of spe- 
cial interest to Mr. Roosevelt, the 
violation, justified, no doubt, but 
nevertheless glaring, of the small 
State of Colombia "WHEN I TOOK 
PANAMA." — Reprinted from "The 
Fatherland," 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND 



153 




THE GERMAN CAUSE AND THE 
WAR. 

This is the fourth article of a series 
on THE EUROPEAN WAR, tohich ap- 
peared in the October 'Number of THE 
OPEN COURT, under the title "The 
German Cause," written by the Editor, 
Dr. Paul Cams. 

Consult the INDEX fnr the complete 
series, end, in order to see where, in 
the various Chapters of the hook, the 
different articles of this treatise may 
be found, look for EUROPEAN WAR 
(THE). In this way the reader may 
read the entire series of articles in 
their original order, if he chooses to do 
so, while the present arrangement still 
gives him the advantage of bringing the 
various <irticles under their proper, re- 
spective Chapter-headings of the book. 

This is a series of exceptionally fine 
articles on the subject in question, and 
they bear a unique and important rela- 
tion to each other. Be sure to read 
them also in their original order. — 
Editor, "War Echoes." 

And what are the Germans fight- 
ing for? Our British author tells us 
that for the sake of securing these 
two hundred million pounds Germany 
must he exterminated. That appeals 
to the thoughtless, but what does it 
mean for the Germans? It implies 
that the Germans have to fight for 
their very lives, and the Germans 
know it. They feel that they fight 
for their civilization, for their right 
to labor and to earn a fair living, 
for progress and for the right to 
progress, for the right to do betted 
than others, for the right to play a 
prominent part in the development of 
humanity, for their homes, their 
hearths, their liberty, their manhood, 
their national existence, for "all they 
have and are." 



A BREATHING SPELL 

(By Courtesy of the "Illinois Staats-Zeitung") 

There have been so many lies in 
French and English papers, e. g., that 
Dr. Liebknecht, the Social Democrat, 
had been shot, that a revolution of 
the Social Democrats was impending, 
that the Kaiser's throne was totter- 
ing; but the reverse is true. The lib- 
erals, like all the political opponents 
of the government and of the aristo- 
cratic or conservative faction, stand 
by the Kaiser in their faithful devo- 
tion to the German fatherland, and 
the furor teutonicus comes unisono 
from all ranks. In glancing over 
journals of a recent date, we find a 
poem coming from the pen of G. 
Tschirn of Breslau, a freethinker 
whose political confession approaches 
more nearly that of a democrat than 
that of a monarchist, a man who is 
against militarism in any form, an 
advocate of the ideal of peace on 
earth; but he sees that Germany Is 
fighting for her existence and so he 
calls his poem "The Battle Wrath of 
the Friend of Peace," which ends 
thus: 

"Jetzt gilt es, Notwehr zu iiben 
In tapfer-tapferstem Strelt 
Fiir alles, was wir nur lleben, 
Was das Daseln zum Leben erst 
welht. 

"Drum auch durch Donner und Blitze 
Schreltet der Friedensheld, 
Dass er wahre, rette und schUtze 
TJnsere Zukunftswelt." 

[Onward with courage to battle 
Into the heart of the strife. 
Defending all that is dearest. 
All that will consecrate life. 

So afar, 'mid fire and slaughter 
The guardian of peace will raise 
His standard, defending, preserving 
Our homes for the oncoming days.] 



The Social Democrats are against 
militarism and Imperialism and op- 
pose war as a matter of principle, 
but in the present case, they have 
declared in support of the govern- 
ment, because they are opposed to 
the Czar and his friends. They do 
not believe that the Russians and 
their allies take up arms to bring 
them deliverance from the yoke of 
social injustice, and they propose to 
fight them, not to uphold the Kaiser 
but to defend their homes. 

Germany, faced by the danger 
which the Triple Entente has brought 
upon her, has risen in all her great- 
ness, and holy wrath has come over 
her. Germany is seized with the de- 
termination to meet her foes and die 
rather than yield, a spirit which is 
well expressed In the following lines: 

"For all we have and are. 
For all our children's fate. 
Stand up and meet the war — 
The Hun is at the gate. 

"Our world has passed away. 
In wantonness o'erthrown; 
There's nothing left today 
But steel and fire and stone. 

"Though all we know depart. 
The old commandments stand. 
In courage keep your heart. 
In strength lift up your hand. 

"Once more we hear the word 
That sickened earth of old: 
No law except the sword, 

Unsheathed and uncontrolled. 

"Once more it knits mankind. 
Once more the nations go 
To meet and break and bind 
A crazed and driven foe. 



154 

"Comfort, content, delight — 

The ages' slow-bought gain — 
They shriveled in a night. 
Only ourselves remain 

"To face the naked days 
In silent fortitude. 
Through perils and dismays, 
RenewOd and renewed. 

"Though all we made depart. 

The old commandments stand. 
In patience keep your heart. 
In strength lift up your hand. 

"No easy hopes or lies 

Shall bring us to our goal; 
But iron sacrifice 

Of body, will, and soul. 

"There's but one task for all. 
For each one life to give. 
Who stands if freedom fall? 
Who dies if freedom live?" 

These lines have been written by 
Rudyard Kipling, and are meant to 
stir English patriotism, yet so far 
they have not lured many volunteers 
to the British colors. In quoting 
them we have changed but one word 
in the last line, inserting "freedom" 
where the English poet writes "Eng- 
land." Otherwise the poem might 
serve the purpose of any nation that 
is ready to defend her highest ideals, 
her liberty and her very existence, 
but it does not fit the English. The 
hymn might have been sung by the 
Boers when attacked by the British 
army, it might inspire the Hindus 
when asserting their independence of 
the English yoke, it might express 
the patriotism of the many Irish who 
laid down their lives for Ireland; it 
might have been written by an Amer- 
ican minuteman when joining George 
Washington in his fight for independ- 
ence, but it seems out of place in 
the mouth of a British poet, who 
ought rather to have sung in the 
present case that they will fight 

"For the market which we want. 
For two hundred million pounds. 
For the ruin of other commerce — 
For this our bugle sounds." 

The war was not begun by England 
for the sake of protecting the Eng- 
lish nation, but for ruining the trade 
of brethren on the European conti- 
nent, and it was begun because vic- 
tory seemed easy. 

The English have gradually found 
out during the course of the war 
that the Germans are not so easily 
conquered and that the tables might 
be turned. The English wanted the 
Hun to appear at the gate of Ger- 
many, but suddenly the possibility 
rises that the German may knock at 
the gates of England, and now the 
German is called the Hun. 

Some time ago the right to hold 
slaves was declared "liberty" by the 
slave-holders of the United States, 
and the Romans called the suppres- 
sion of a country under the Roman 
yoke its pacification. When the Celts 
were conquered the Roman historian 
used the phrase Gallia pacata. In 
the same sense the English poet lau- 
reate speaks of England as "Thou 
peacemaker," and this variety of 
peace-making is called "glory" by the 
old French conquerer while in Eng- 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



land it is praised as "honor." The 
Germans having become ambitious to 
develop a nationality of their own, 
independent of England, are regarded 
as disturbers of the peace and are 
called "slaves of monarch Ambition." 
Here is the poem of Robert Bridges 
who complains that England is too 
pleasure-loving. Her monopoly is en- 
dangered and she will have to fight 
for the liberty of owning slaves. He 
says: 

"Thou careless, awake! 
Thou peacemaker, fight! 
Stand, England, for honor. 
And God guard the right. 

"Thy mirth lay aside. 
Thy cavil and play, 
The foe is upon thee 
And grave is the day. 

"The Monarch, Ambition, 

Has harnessed his slaves, 
But the folk of the ocean 
Are free as the waves. 

"For peace thou art armed. 
Thy freedom to hold, 
Thy courage as iron. 
Thy good faith as gold. 

"Through fire, air and water 
Thy trial must be. 
But they that love life best 
Die gladly for thee. 

"The love of their mothers 
Is strong to command; 
The fame of their fathers 
Is might to their hand. 

"Much suffering shall cleanse thee, 
But thou through the flood 
Shalt win to salvation 

To beauty through blood. 

"Up, careless, awake! 

Yea, peacemakers, fight! 
England stands for honor, 
God defend the right." 

We say "Amen! God guard the 
right and God defend the right." But 
we do not believe that in the present 
war the right is on the English side. 

It is difficult to say when the Eng- 
lish have waged a righteous war. 
Was the Opium War in China right- 
eous? And how shall we excuse 
General Gordon's suppression of 
Chinese Christianity, called the T'ai 
Ping movement? Was the Boer war 
undertaken for the protection of 
English homes, and English liberty? 
Was the treatment of Ireland fair? 
Was the subjection of India an enter- 
prise for English honor? And what 
shall we say of General Cornwallis's 
Hessian soldiers in the English col- 
onies of North America? 



such as the Opium war in China, and 
the Boer war of the Transvaal.'" All 
nations, unfortunately, have some blots 
In their accounts, but especially Prus- 
sia, from the day of Frederick the 
Great's brazen theft of Silesia to the 
cold-blooded quarrel with Austria in 
1S66 and the Franco-Prussian war of 
1S70 which was contrived by Bismarck 
down to its precipitation by the falsi- 
fied Ems telegram.'* 



The German Cause. 

And here is Mr. Jourdain's reply to 
the Editor's discussion of this subject. — 
Editor of War Echoes. 

There is very little to discuss in this 
section, in which patriotic poems are 
quoted. In the concluding paragraph, 
however, a list is given of indefensible 
and partly-defensible English wars," 



'" "Was the Boer War undertaken for 
the protection of English homes and Eng- 
lish liberty?" asks the Editor (p. 613). t 
Certainly it was, though the English lib- 
erty and English homes were in the Trans- 
vaal. The fact that it was a foreign gov- 
ernment that interfered with their rights 
did not minimize the responsibility of Eng- 
land. 

1 In October, 1892, Bismarck said to 
Harden : "It is so easy for one who has 
some practice, without falsification merely 
by omissions, to change the sense. As the 
Editor of the Ems dispatch .... I should 
know. The King sent it me with the or- 
der to publish it either completely, or in 
part. After I had summarized it by dele- 
tions, Moltke, who was with me, ex- 
claimed : "VorMii war's eine Chamade jetst 
tsf's eine Fanfare." "Zukunft," October 29, 
1892, p. 204; and December 3, 1892, p. 435. 

♦Tour veni, vidi, vici, Mr. Jourdain. may 
convince "The Street"^ (Italy) that has 
just declared war on Germany, but for 
people who know History, who are not 
misled by a pseudo-democracy, j'ou must 
adduce "Facts"! — Editor, War Echoes. 

tSee the number of the magazine of 
the "Open Court" of 1914, quoted at 
head of this discussion. — Editor, War 
Echoes. 



THE CASE FOB GERMANY. 



»"0. C," pp. 612-613.* ^ „ 

*See Jourdain in the Index for the full 

reference of this note 9. — Editor, War 

Eclioes. 



The Outlook, New York. 

W. G. Nasmith. 

It was at the special request of a 
representative of The Outlook that Mr. 
Nasmyth wrote the following article pre- 
senting the German point of view. Mr. 
Nasmyth was one of the delegates to the 
Church Peace Congress, which was to 
have held its sessions at Constance, Ger- 
many, during the week beginning August 
2. A member of The Outlook staff, Mr. 
Ernest Hamlin Abbott, was also a dele- 
gate to that Congress, but, as explained 
in his editorial correspondence, was un- 
able to reach Constance before the out- 
break of the war. Knowing that Mr. Na- 
smyth had spent several years in Ger- 
many, had learned during that time to 
know and appreciate the German people, 
was sympathetic with the German point 
of view, was an admirer of German 
achievements, and had grasped the feel- 
ings of Germans, particularly of the in- 
tellectual class of Germans, concerning 
this war, he asked Mr. Nasmyth to pre- 
sent this point of view in terms that would 
be plain to American readers. This re- 
quest was made in London within a day or 
two after the declaration of war between 
Germany and Great Britain ; but because 
of the delay in communication between 
England and the United States Mr, Na- 
smyth's article was received too late for 
publication in any issue before this. It 
seems to us to be the strongest and most 
persuasive statement of Germany's case 
that we have seen. Mr. Nasmyth has 
been enabled by his experience to under- 
stand the point of view of many nations. 
For some time he organized Cosmopolitan 
Clubs in foreign universities, and for a 
while was the head of the Association of 
Cosmopolitan Clubs in this country, which 
comprises clubs in many colleges and uni- 
versities composed of students of differ- 
ent nationalities. He is now director of 
the International Students' Bureau of the 
World's Peace Foundation. Inasmuch as 
. the Foundation is avoiding all appearance 
of partisanship, it should be distinctly un- 
der.stood that Mr. Nasmyth in this article 
is expressing his personal vieM' and un- 
derstanding of the German spirit and is 
not speaking officially for the Foundation. 
Most of the statements in defense of Ger- 
many have been written from the point 
of view of the militarists. The distinctive 
characteristic of this article is that it is 



DEFENDING THE FATHERLAND 



155 




GERMAN REGIMENT CROSSING PONTOON BRIDGE 

(Photograph by the International News Service) 



a defense of Germany written from the 
point of view of an anti-militarist and an 
active leader in the peace movement. — 
The Editor. 

It is clear that, if we are to form a 
just oi)inion of the issues involved in 
the European struggle, we must try to 
realize the point of view of both 
parties. It is possible that America 
will be called upon to play the role 
of mediator at the end of the conflict, 
and, if a permanent peace is to be 
established, it will be America's duty 
to see that no humiliating or crush- 
ing terms are imposed upon the side 
which suffers defeat. At present the 
people of the United States are getting 
practically all their news of the Eur- 
opean war through English sources. 
It seems worth while for us to make 
a special effort to realize the German 
point of view in the struggle, and I 
shall attempt to put the essential facts 
of the case as I gathered them from 
close association with leading Germans 
during three years of study In the 
German universities. It is unquestion- 
able that 67,000,000 German people sin- 
cerely believe that they are in the 
right in this matter, and if at the end 
of the war Germany should be crushed 
and the German people "stamped into 
the mud," as one of her historians ex- 
pressed the conditions of a hundred 
years ago, no real peace could be estab- 
lished, but only a breathing-spell until 
Europe could gather its forces for an- 
other Armageddon. 

The one factor which seems to be 
forgotten in the conflict is Russia, and 
this promises to be the most important 
of all. Long after England, France, 
and Germany are weary of the fruitless 
struggle, Russia will still be gathering 
lier forces and throwing millions of 



[leasants into the theater of war. An 
agricultural country, with almost no 
foreign commerce or highly organized 
industries to be destroyed, Russia can 
keep up the war for months after the 
highly organized nations of western 
Europe have been compelled to yield 
to the pressure of economic forces. 

"For Germany it is the struggle of 
Western civilization against Russian 
barbarism ; the conflict between en- 
lightened Europe and the half-Oriental 
Slavic powers of darkness was inevit- 
able," said Professor Rudolf Eucken at 
Jena University on the day that the 
Russian order for a general mobil- 
ization put an end to the Kaiser's 
efforts to maintain peace; and this is 
the keynote of the public opinion of 
educated Germany. The recent law 
for the re-organization of the Russian 
army and navy, the calling of 600,000 
additional soldiers to the Russian col- 
ors next fall, was considered through- 
out Germany as the preparation for 
the coming attack on Germany by 
Russia. Since the conflict was inevit- 
able, according to the German point 
of view, the German nation must pre- 
pare herself for the inevitable and in- 
stead of waiting with resignation for 
her fate, must gather together all her 
power and go out and meet the foe 
without giving it time to concentrate 
its overwhelming forces. 

The tragedy of the conflict, from the 
German point of view, is that Europe, 
Instead of realizing that Germany is 
fighting the battle of civilization 
against barbarism, is uniting to crush 
the last obstacle to the Slavic advance. 
But yesterday England was preaching 
that the standing menace of the West- 
ern World was Russia, with its 170,- 
000,000 of semi-barbaric people, of 



whom seven-eights cannot read or 
write, governed on absolute methods 
by a reactionary bureaucracy which 
Is frankly militaristic. Although a 
Russian soldier has never set foot upon 
English shores, England has fought one 
great war to stop the progress of this 
nation, to check her march towards 
English possessions. But it is not in 
a distinct possession that she threat- 
ens Germany ; it is on her own soil. 

"Allied with this Slavic power on 
our eastern frontier," says the edu- 
cated German, "we have an enemy 
on our west, from whom we have suf- 
fered as no other civilized people 
have suffered at the hands of enemies. 
You know the story of the wars of 
Napoleon, of the invasions of Louis 
XIV, who cut off with the sword Ger- 
man-speaking Alsace and Lorraine from 
the German body, of the Thirty Tears' 
War, and all the rest of them ; how our 
cities have been destroyed by the in- 
vader, mainly by the French and the 
Russian, or his hirelings and allies. 
You know how they ravaged our coun- 
try again and again, and actually, liter- 
ally, cut our population in half, 
stamped it into the mud. Try to get 
the perspective. Picture a score of 
your finest cities wiped out, not merely 
that the houses were destroyed, but 
that every man, woman and child 
within those places had perished, and 
this in not some distant past, but so 
near to you that your great-grand- 
father could have told you the story, 
having got it from the mouths of those 
who witnessed it. 

"Of course you cannot conceive, no 
man can conceive, what the destruc- 
tion of ten million human beings 
means. Yet by that number of beings 
was the population of Germany de- 



156 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



creased during these wars. A state as 
populous as England when Queen Vic- 
toria came to the throne was in one 
war reduced to the population of Hol- 
land. What has any civilized country 
to compare with this, to set beside it? 
When, indeed, has any civilized nation 
had to watch vast uncounted multi- 
tudes of its women and children driven 
forth homeless, their corpses massed in 
the country roads, with grass in their 
mouths, the only food the invader had 
left? And these same invaders, who 
have poured in devasting floods over 
our land today, boast that again they 
will invade us if and when they can. 
I say boast. Can you find me one 
French public man who will say that 
France should abandon the hope of at- 
tacking us? It is their declared, their 
overt policy. 

"So that is our situation : on our 
right and on our left enemies from 
whom we have suffered as no other 
civilized country has suffered in mod- 
ern times. The history of both is a 
history of conquest — in one case pas- 
sionate insatiable conquest — whose 
ambitions England and Germany have 
had to resist shoulder to shoulder 



in the past, and that Power which 
was the enemy of England for cen- 
turies makes no secret of its in- 
tention to renew the aggression upon 
us when it can. It Is in the creed 
and blood of Frenchmen that they 
will attack us at the first opportunity. 
Oh, yes, they are a military people. Do 
you wonder? But we have fought on 
our own soil, or returned to it as 
soon as the invader was repulsed." 

The facts In the history of the 
crisis leading to the present conflict 
which are given in the oificial docu- 
ments should be more widely known 
if the position of Germany is to be 
understood. The documents show that 
the German Emperor, by threatening 
to tear up the Treaty of Alliance with 
Austria, compelled Austria to reopen 
diplomatic relations with Russia after 
they had been broken off, and to adopt 
a more conciliatory attitude towards 
Russia's demands. The negotiations 
between Russia and Austria had prac- 
tically reached an agreement, on the 
basis that Servia should render satis- 
faction to Austria, without, however, 
sacrificing her autonomy or endanger- 
ing her independence. Then, like a 



bolt out of the blue sky, came the Rus- 
sian order for a general mobilization, 
producing such a panic in Germany 
that the Kaiser was compelled to surr 
render the control of affairs to the mil- 
itary leaders. And now Germany is 
fighting the battle for European civil- 
ization, not only against the oncoming 
Slavic tide, but against the other eoun,- 
tries of Europe, blindly allied with thp 
greatest peril. i 

The great issue of the conflict, whlcb 
will become clearer to the outside 
world as events proceed, is whether the 
civilization of western Europe shall 
continue to exist or whether Germany, 
the last obstacle to the Slav advance, 
is to be crushed and the German lead- 
ership in education, science, and social 
organization is to be replaced by the 
dominance in Europe of Russia, with 
its mediaeval social conditions, with 
its autocratic government at the head 
of 200,000,000 ignorant and superstl^ 
tious Slavs, with its Tartars and Cos- 
sacks. This is the choice which En- 
rope and the world must make, and 
this issue the great conflict will de- 
cide. 



German Ideals and German Character in Action 



GERMANY OF TODAY. 



Charles Tower. 

If the future of the German Em- 
pire lies, as the German Emperor 
maintained, upon the water, it would 
seem to be at least as certain that 
the past history of that part of Cen- 
tral Europe now included in the Em- 
pire has been largely influenced and 
in part perhaps determined by water: 
not indeed by the water of the Baltic 
or the North Sea, but by the water 
of the rivers, which now, as of old, 
are the natural and cheapest means 
of transport, and at times have also 
formed natural divisions. It is only 
necessary to recall such catchwords 
and phrases as "there must be no line 
of the Main" (that is to say, the par- 
ticularist or separatist tendencies of 
North and South Germany must be 
made to disappear), or "the Junkers 
East of Elbe" (that is, the land-own- 
ing and ultra-conservative squires of 
Eastern Prussia), or "the line of the 
Lippe" (which forms an almost com- 
plete division between the seats of 
the poorer Evangelical and wealthy 
Catholic landlords and nobles of 
Westphalia), to see that even today 
rivers play a great part not only in 
the unity of the Empire but also In 
its internal divisions and dissensions. 

The Germans, their ambitions, 
achievements, methods, men and 
manners are so continuously the 
topic of private conversation and 
public debate in English-speaking 
countries, that sometimes there is a 
tendency to forget the outlines of the 
map of the Germany of today. In 
fact, "you forget the map" is apt to 
be one of the complaints made by 
German newspaper-writers and even 
German statesmen when defending 
German military budgets against the 
charge of Jingoism. So it is well to 
begin with the map. 




AT HOME 

German Soldiers share meal with Bel- 
gian children. This rings true of the 
home-loving German as compared to 
what Germany's enemies try to make 
out concerning them 



Modern Germany consists, geo- 
graphically, of a territory drained by 
the four rivers, Rhine, Weser, Elbe 
and Oder, flowing northwards, to- 
gether with a southern section 
drained, it is true, by rivers flowing 
in the other direction, but finding its 
commercial connection northwards 
for political reasona. in the develop- 
ment of the modern Empire out of 
the mere congeries of petty States, 
formed in part by watershed divi- 
sions, it was geographically natural 



that the northern States should be 
the first to combine and it was also 
natural that a struggle should take 
place before the southern portion of 
the Empire, south of the Main, broke 
loose from its geographically more 
natural connection with Austria and 
found its outlet northwards. Hence 
one might expect to find sharply de- 
fined contrasts between the portions 
of the Empire north and south of the 
Main, and it becomes easy to bear in 
mind the fact that all German de- 
velopment has been and still is pro- 
foundly modified by the contrast, for 
example, between the Bavarian and 
Prussian character and their political, 
religious and economic tendencies. 
Even to the present day there is 
probably too little mutual give-and- 
take between North and South Ger- 
many: there is still a clearly defined 
"line of the Main." 

Leaving out of account for the 
moment certain accretions, such as 
Alsace-Lorraine, Schleswig-Holstein, 
and Prussian Poland, there is yet an- 
other marked division whereof po- 
litically too little notice is sometimes 
taken, the division marked roughly 
by the course of the Oder, to the 
west of which lies the industrial re- 
gion of Northern Germany, to the 
east the agricultural section. Quite 
frequently discussions in England re- 
garding "Germany" appear in reality 
to be discussions only about Prussia, 
and even about one part of Prussia, 
the old monarchy east of the Oder. 
It is possible that some of the an- 
tipathy sometimes displayed is felt 
instinctively not for the German Em- 
pire, but the old Prussian nucleus, 
whose character, manner of thought, 
and even political aspirations, are to 
quite a considerable extent deter- 
mined by geographical and geological 
conditions. 



GERMAN CHARACTER IN ACTION 



157 



West of the Oder is IndustriaL Ger- 
many, east of it Agricultural. West- 
phalia, the Rhineland, the valley of 
the Weser, these are the districts 
which developed Germany's foreign 
trade, and for whose protection in 
their infancy the high tariff-wall was 
partly destined: these are the coun- 
tries interested in the "open door," 
in the maintenance of the best pos- 
sible commercial relations with all 
foreign countries, and therefore also 
in the maintenance of good political 
relations throughout the world. It is 
after the traveller from London to 
Berlin has passed the Porta West- 
phalica, that picturesque gap in the 
semi-circle of the Teutoburg hills, 
that he enters the long and dreary 
stretch of flat country, which, at first 
pleasantly pastoral, interspersed with 
red-roofed villages, and sometimes 
timbered farm houses, gradually 
merges in the pine-forests and sand- 
dunes of Brandenburg, the ungener- 
ous soil from which the East Prus- 
sians gather a hard living. It is, per- 
haps, not too much to say that the 
predominance of Prussia in the part- 
nership of which the Empire consists 
has been brought about precisely by 
the difference of soil and climate here 
intimated. In East Prussia, for ex- 
ample, nearly one-quarter of all the 
land is naturally unproductive sand, 
fifty-two per cent is sand with a 
greater or less admixture of loam, 
and only sixteen per cent is good 
loam. In the province of Branden- 
burg nearly half (42 per cent) io 
sand and only ten per cent loam. 
Hannover has forty-one per cent 
sand. West Prussia forty per cent, 
Pomerania thirty-five per cent, and 
so forth. On the other hand West- 
phalia has sixty per cent good loam, 
Hesse-Nassau sixty-three per cent, 
and the Rhineland sixty-seven per 
cent. These figures are perhaps more 
strikingly characteristic than any 
amount of description. 

The northeastern part of Prussia 
knows conditions of climate, ex- 
tremes of heat and cold, almost as 
great as those of Central Russia. 
The farmer has no rich black soil to 
deal with, but largely sand; timber 
worth the cutting must be grown 
carefully; the husbandman cannot 
eat such things as "grow of them- 
selves," and he grows hard as his 
labour, ungenerous as the soil, stub- 
born as the effort which wins him his 
livelihood. But he also grows strong 
and wiry. The descent of a hardy 
mountain or steppe-folk into a soft 
country of luxuriant natural condi- 
tions, easy subsistence, and abundant 
reward of light labour has almost al- 
ways in history been followed by a 
slackening of the national muscles, a 
dimming of the national keenness of 
vision, and presently a relaxation of 
the national vigilance. That Prussia 
is today the predominant partner in 
the federation of States called the 
German Empire may well be due 
largely to the fact that she has al- 
ways had the hardest task to subsist 
at all. 

This, however, is the next point to 
which we must turn. The German 
Empire is neither the successor of 
the old Holy Roman Empire, nor is 
It itself a unity. It is a federation, a 
close political coalition for certain 



purposes, chief of which is that of de- 
fense. Bavaria, Saxony and Wfirt- 
temberg are independent kingdoms, 
Baden, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Weimar, 
Saxe-Altenburg, the Mecklenburgs, 
are independent Grand-Duchies, the 
two Reusses are independent Princi- 
palities — with their own legislatures, 
their own constitutions, and in the 
case of Bavaria and Saxony their own 
State railways, in the case of Bavaria 
alone her own coinage and postage- 
stamps. They levy taxes and excise 
independently both of Prussia and of 
the Empire, they maintain diplomatic 
representatives at each others' Courts 
and expect foreign countries to be 
independently represented at their 
Courts. But they combine for the 
purpose of national defense, and thus 
possess an imperial, that is, a federal 
army; they are comprised within 
one imperial Tariff-Union (the Zoll- 
verein), they contribute through their 
Individual exchequers to an Imperial 
Treasury conducted for imperial pur- 
poses, and they recognize as visible 
symbol of this federation, a federal 
chief, the German Emperor, who is 
also King of Prussia. 

The formation of the Zoll-verein 
or Customs Union was facilitated by 
the very differences of soil, climate, 
and natural resources which we have 
already noted. The west, rich in 
minerals, needed the assistance of 
the agricultural east; the little Duch- 
ies and States by the head-waters of 
the rivers needed unrestricted access 
to the sea along the water-ways, and 
the gradually developing industries 
needed an unchallenged market in 
the districts which are not industrial. 
The combination, which was not 
possessed by individuals, was pos- 
sessed by all together. But there 
was, at the time, a still weightier rea- 
son why the various German king- 
doms and principalities should com- 
bine in the form of a federation, 
however much their mutual antipa- 
thies and jealousies might and did 
stand in the way. This reason was 
that the individual States had for 
centuries been the cockpit of Euro- 
pean wars, the victims first of this 
fionquering army, then of that, the 
prize of victories in which they had 
no share, and the goal of ambitions 
in which they had no interest. The 
necessity for the foundation of the 
present Federal German Empire lay 
much less in the bickerings and quar- 
rels of the individual States now in- 
cluded in the Federation than in the 
quarrels and ambitions of the neigh- 
boring powers, the ambitions and 
rivalries of foreign princes and of 
foreign representatives of various 
creeds. Perhaps the most illuminat- 
ing illustration of the conditions of 
life in the German country which 
ultimately made the Empire a neces- 
sity is to be found in a book called 
"Simplicius Simplicissimus," retail- 
ing the adventures of a farmer's son 
In the period of the Thirty Years' 
War, and recently published in Eng- 
lish. The castles of western Ger- 
many have for the most part been 
blown up or burned, not by the 
troops of opposing political factions, 
Roundhead or Cavalier, White Rose 
or Red, but by foreign aggressors, 
r..»ir, rovpp'pri fioT-nisTiv from the 
Rhine to the Vistula, from the Baltic 



to the Giant mountains. That they 
might live at last in peace, might de- 
velop their own resources by mutual 
assistance, the States of modern Ger- 
many, led by iron-handed Prussia, 
came to found the modern Empire. 

It is thus geographically clear that 
the new German Empire might be 
expected to develop first out of a con- 
federation of the States north of the 
line of the Main. Politically this 
must involve a dispute between a 
northern and the chief southern Ger- 
manic State for the hegemony, in 
other words, between Prussia and the 
old hegemon of the Holy Roman Em- 
pire, Austria. Such a dispute in- 
volved the break-up of the loose al- 
liance vtthich had subsisted since the 
formal end of the Holy Roman Em- 
pire in 1806. It follows that, al- 
though actually the present Empire 
has been gradually developed since 
1806, there is a complete break of 
continuity marked by the foundation 
of the North German Confederation, 
the nucleus of the present Empire, 
by a majority vote of the delegates 
on April 16, 1867. It came into 
force on July 1 in the same year, 
which is therefore the birthday of 
the North German Confederation, 
and In reality of its later extension, 
the German Empire. What had hap- 
pened is most briefly expressed in 
the words of the Treaty of Prague 
after the short campaign between 
Prussia and Austria: "His Blajesty 
the Austrian Emperor hereby recog- 
nizes the dissolution of the existing 
confederacy of German States and 
will not oppose a new formation in 
which Austria shall have no part. 
Furthermore, the Emperor will rec- 
ognize the closer federation which the 
King of Prussia shall establish north 
of the Main • * * and will ad- 
mit of the formation of a federation 
of the. States south of the Main; the 
relations of the southern federation 
to the northern bund to be regulated 
later by mutual agreements between 
them." 

The northern federation consisted 
of twenty-two States, all the States 
north of the Main except the King- 
doms of Hanover and Saxony, and 
the Duchies of Kur-Hesse, Hesse- 
Darmstadt, and Luxemburg. 

Subsequently the two Mecklen- 
burgs, and Hesse, so far as it lay 
north of the Main (note the sharp 
river division), the elder Reuss, Saxe- 
Meiningen, and the Kingdom of Sax- 
ony came into the Bund, raising the 
number of States subscribing to the 
terms of April, 1867, to twenty-two. 
The next step was to bring the north- 
ern bund into relations with the 
States south of the Main. The south- 
ern confederation provided for in the 
Peace of Prague was never formed, 
but even before the formal publica- 
tion of the terms of the northern 
confederation, Prussia had made an 
offensive and defensive alliance with 
the southern States, providing for 
the placing of all the forces under the 
command of the King of Prussia In 
the event of war, and also providing 
that all forces should be trained on 
the Prussian model, thus ensuring 
uniformity. A military federation 
was thus virtually in existence before 
even the North German confedera- 
tion had been definitely announced. 



158 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



and that early military federation is 
in a closer form the basis of the pres- 
ent German army. 

We next turn to the commercial 
federation, the other great binding 
link in the Empire. A German cus- 
toms union had been formed as early 
as 1833, and it still existed in 1866, 
In July, 1867, the North German con- 
federation made a fresh tariff agree- 
ment with the southern States, to 
run for twelve years, and the affairs 
of the tariff were regulated by a 
Bundesrath or -Federal Council and a 



side as had been agreed, and the suc- 
cessful conclusion of the war made 
the closer union of the States not 
only rational but Inevitable. The 
southern States came to the conclu- 
sion that an international relation- 
ship was no longer suflBclent; a na- 
tional relationship must succeed it. 
The Kingdom of Bavaria notified the 
presidency of the northern bund in 
September, 1870, that it did not con- 
sider the international agreement 
any longer sufficient, and "thus it 
happened that in the latter half of 



form entries of the various States 
into the northern bund on condition 
of certain alterations of the federal 
constitution. It should be noted, too, 
that they were not agreements of all 
the German States severally, but 
agreements between the northern 
bund as a political unit and the 
southern States severally. The new 
bund, which was even formally only 
an extension of the old northern 
bund, was given a new title, the Ger- 
man Empire (not the Empire of Ger- 
many), and the president, who con- 



1 




THE GERMAN CKOWX I'lUNCE INSl'LCTING HI.S VICTORIOUS REGIMENT OF MASSIGES 
(By Courtesy of the "Illinois Staats-Zeitung" ) 



Tariff Diet. The Council consisted of 
the Federal Council of the North 
German Bund, together with South 
German representatives, and the Diet 
or Tariff Parliament consisted of the 
Diet of the northern bund together 
with eighty-five members elected by 
the south German States on the basis 
of manhood suffrage in a secret bal- 
lot. The Tariff Council was practi- 
cally identical with the present su- 
preme Federal Council of the Em- 
pire, and the combined Tariff Parlia- 
ment paved the way for the Parlia- 
ment of the Empire or Reichstag. It 
needed only an external impulse to 
develop these special agreements be- 
tween north and south into a definite 
agreement or complete federation. 
The northern bund provided for this 
future development by the terms of 
its constitution. Article 79 provided 
that "the entry of the south German 
States or any one of them into the 
federation may ensue upon the pro- 
posal of the presidency of the federa- 
tion and in the form of federal legis- 
lation." 

The agreement for united action in 
the event of war was soon put to the 
test. The outbreak of the war with 
France brought the northern and 
southern troops into the field side by 



October representatives of all the 
south German States assembled in 
Versailles to discuss the foundation 
of a German Federation" (speech of 
the Chancellor of the Federation, be- 
fore the Reichstag, December 5th, 
1870). It is worth while to note 
that, in this report of the proceed- 
ings given to the Reichstag on De- 
cember 5th, 187 0, the minister (Del- 
brflck) uses the word federation 
(bund) to describe the new relation- 
ship of all the German States to each 
other. 

The line of the Main, created po- 
litically by the formation of the 
North German Bund in 1866, disap- 
peared politically by the entry of the 
south German States into the north- 
ern bund in 1870. There were three 
treaties made: first, an agreement be- 
tween the northern bund, Baden and 
Hesse, whereby a German bund was 
formed and its constitution agreed to. 
In the second agreement the north- 
ern bund, with Baden and Hesse, 
made an agreement with Wiirttem- 
berg, and in the third they made an 
agreement with Bavaria. Bavaria ob- 
tained a number of special privileges, 
which will be detailed later, and 
which are called the Bavarian "Son- 
derrechte." The treatises were in 



tinned to be the King of Prussia, 
was also given a new title, namely, 
German Emperor (not Emperor of 
Germany) . 

Such in brief was the development 
of the Empire out of the close coali- 
tion of the northern States. The Em- 
pire remains what it was, a federa- 
tion of States which guard, some of 
them with very great jealousy, the 
smallest remaining item of their in- 
dependence, and which also watch 
jealously any suggestion of accretion 
of power by any one of -them such as 
might disturb the balance between 
them. Besides the strictly German 
parts of the Empire, there are cer- 
tain non-German elements which 
constitute "problems." Prussia is 
chiefly troubled by her Polish prov- 
inces, acquired at the time of the di- 
vision of Poland in 1795, and to some 
small extent by the problem of the 
Danish strip acquired by her victory 
over Austria. The third problem was 
that of the territory ceded by Prance 
after the war of 1870. The Alsace- 
Lorraine territory was acquired by 
the victories of all the German States. 
It was, therefore, vested as a pro- 
prietary district in the new bund, 
and became Reichsland, Imperial ter- 
ritory. Recently the question of ar- 



GERMAN CHARACTER IN ACTION 



159 



ranging the final relationship of the 
Relchsland to the Empire became 
acute, and there was not wanting a 
demand that it should in some way 
be more closely attached to Prussia 
than heretofore. The other States 
would have raised an exceedingly ve- 
hement protest had the proposal ac- 
tually reached maturity, but finally 
the Reichsland was given a constitu- 
tion with an electoral assembly and 
a second chamber. Its nominal head 
is a viceroy, who represents the 
rights of the original federal States, 
but it has been made a member of 
the federation with a voice in federal 
discussions and agreements and a 
seat in the Bundesrath, or Federal 
Council. 

Thus the Empire now consists of 
twenty-six States, twenty-two being 
monarchical, three being republican 
city-States, and one a semi-independ- 
ent Viceroyalty. That is the sim- 
plest formula for expressing the na- 
ture of the federation which is called 
the German Empire. It may be as 
well to enumerate these States. They 
are: Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, 
Wurttemberg (kingdoms), Baden, 
Hesse, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Meck- 
lenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, Bruns- 
wick, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Goburg- 
Gotha, Saxe - Altenburg, Anhalt, 
Schwarzburg - Rudolstadt, Schwarz- 
burg-Sonderhausen, Waldeck, Reuss 
(elder and younger lines), Schaum- 
burg-Lippe, Lippe (the last seven 
principalities, the others duchies or 
grand-duchies), Lubeck, Bremen and 
Hamburg (republican city-States), 
and the viceroyalty of Alsace-Lor- 
raine. In a further chapter we shall 
see how these States differ in their 
forms of government and in their re- 
lations to the Imperial Federation 
and the Federal Government. For 
the present it is desirable to note 
that certain of the old political divi- 
sions have disappeared. Prussia, for 
instance, has swallowed amongst 
other once independent units the old 
Kingdom of Hannover, which is now 
the Prussian Province of Hanover; a 
portion of the former Kingdom of 
Saxony, the swallowed portion being 
now the Prussian Province of Sax- 
ony; Frankfurt, which is now a Prus- 
sian city instead of being an inde- 
pendent city-State like Hamburg and 
Bremen; and so forth. Inasmuch as 
Prussia also includes now West- 
phalia, the Rhineland as far as 
Frankfurt, and the Eiffel uplands 
west of the Rhine, it is by far the 
largest partner in the federation, and 
stretches "across the map" from the 
Belgian to the Russian frontiers. 
Oldenburg, the Mecklenburgs, and 
the republican city-States break its 
coast-line, and the small Duchies in- 
tervene in part between Prussia and 
the old dividing-line of north and 
south, whilst it is also broken up by 
occasional excrescences like the Prin- 
cipalities of Lippe and the Schwarz- 
burgs. It should be added that the 
tendency is for these little Principali- 
ties, whilst retaining their individual 
ducal or princely familes, to combine 
for purposes of internal revenue and 
administration, and also, as recently 
in the case of the Schwarzburgs, for 
representation in the Federal Coun- 
cil. But there is no teudencv to re- 
linquish any kind of privilege to 
Prussia. 



It may be added that the map of 
the small central German or Thur- 
ingian States shows curiosities com- 
parable only to the map of Scotland. 
The Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, for 
example, is not even territorially 
united; the Gotha part of it is sepa- 
rated by a fragment of Saxe-Weimar 
territory, and a big strip of Saxe- 
Meiningen from its Coburg section. 
There are eleven different sections of 
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach scattered all 
over the map of the Thuringlan 
States, and even the two parts of the 
little Principality of Reuss Elder 
Line are some fifteen miles apart. 
Sondershausen, the northern part of 
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, is at its 
extreme southern limit twenty-five 
miles as the crow flies from the ex- 
treme northern limit of its middle 
part at Arnstadt, which is again 
separated by a bit of Gotha and a 
trifle of Rudolstadt territory from Its 
southern part at Gehren. A glance 
at a good colored map of the Thur- 
inglan States * * * is itself suf- 
ficient to show the difiiculties in- 
volved in the self-government of such 
complicated territories, so long as 
there was no adequate central au- 
thority and no common protection. 
Even County Councils might find It 
difficult to carry on their work with 
one bit of the county at Brighton, 
another tiny section in the middle of 
Surrey, and a third round Salisbury. 
Development, one might suppose, was 
only possible when some central au- 
thority had provided norms or gen- 
eral lines of procedure for the prin- 
cipal functions of self-government, 
and had further removed difficulties 
of inter-State communication by road 
and rail. That is what was achieved 
partly by Prussia and later by the 
Empire. 



DOING WITHOUT GERMANY. 



The Literary Digest, New York. 

The assertion of the German gov- 
ernment that the export trade of that 
country will shortly be resumed 
ought to be cheering news, for, ac- 
cording to The Engineering News 
(New York, September 17), there is 
probably no other nation in the world 
whose sudden isolation commercially 
would cause such wide-spread loss. 
And, more than any other nation, 
this paper goes on to say, Germany 
has won its place, not by natural 
resources or location, but by the skill 
and intelligence with which its peo- 
ple have attacked modern technical 
problems. We are now learning 
what it is to go without the things 
that are "made in Germany," and 
The News says that some people are 
having their eyes opened to the ex- 
tent and importance of the field cov- 
ered by these articles. While engi- 
neers and chemists, we are told, are 
generally aware of Germany's leader- 
ship in science and technology, the 
events of the past few weeks have 
been a great object-lesson to the gen- 
eral public. We read: 

"Pew have realized the extent to 
which the whole world has relied 
upon German scientists, chemists, 
engineers, and manufacturers for the 
supply of many materials necessary 
in the arts. Manufacturers in Amer- 



ica and in England who were con- 
gratulating themselves on their en- 
larged opportunities for foreign trade 
in markets where the supply of Ger- 
man goods was cut off have in not 
a few cases found their own produc- 
tive operations seriously hampered 
because they could no longer obtain 
certain materials from Germany. 

"As is well known, steel manufac- 
turers were greatly worried to know 
what they were to do for their sup- 
ply of ferromanganese. Manufac- 
turers of fertilizers have had to face 
the possible shut-down of their works 
through the cutting off of the pupply 
of German potash. In the textile in- 
dustries, manufacturers suddenly 
realize that with access to German 
ports blockaded by warships there 
was every prospect that the supply of 
dyes and dyeing materials would be 
seriously interfered with. In'the drug 
and chemical trade, prices doubled 
and trebled when it was realized that, 
with further supplies from Germany 
cut off, the world would have to get 
along for a time without certain 
drugs and chemicals which have be- 
come well-nigh essential both in the 
pharmacy and in certain industries. 

"The above list might be greatly 
extended." 

But can we not furnish at home 
"something just as good" as most 
of these German products? Possibly, 
"The News" thinks, if we are grant- 
ed time enough; but this would mean 
a very long time indeed, in most 
cases. It would take many years, 
for instance, to bring our facilities 
for supplying potash up to the de- 
mands of our own farmers and manu- 
facturers — what are they to do in the 
meantime? Says the writer: 

"The same thing holds true of nu- 
merous materials in the dye and 
chemical trades. Physicians and 
druggists accustomed to use of some 
of the varied products of coal-tar, 
most of which have originated in and 
are solely produced by Germany, are 
in a quandary to know what they 
can do if the source of supply is en- 
tirely shut off. 

"It is of particular interest to note, 
moreover, that the manufacturers of 
England, Germany's great commer- 
cial rival and present enemy, are al- 
most as badly hit as those of the 
United States by the cutting off of 
the supply of German products. Our 
English exchanges reveal that while 
English manufacturers are making 
large plans for capturing the export 
trade in many lands which Germany 
can not now reach, they find them- 
selves handicapped at every turn by 
the cutting off of supplies which they 
themselves have been accustomed to 
obtain from Germany. 

"Fortunately, the war has not yet 
closed all the avenues by which Ger- 
many can send out its product to 
the world. Through Holland, a neu- 
tral nation, shipments from Germany 
can reach tide-water and be distrib- 
uted by neutral vessels." 

Thomas A. Edison, in "The Iron 
Age" (New York), tells how he gets 
along without one German product, 
and incidentally offers a bit of good 
advice. He writes: 

"Carbolic acid is not obtainable in 
this country, as our tars contain 
scarcely any; hence we are depend- 



160 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



ent on England and Germany. I am 
the largest single user of carbolic 
acid here, and the embargo placed on 
shipments by England, together with 
the impossibility of obtaining any 
from Germany, has put me in a pretty 
tight place. However, by massing a 
big gang of men in three shifts, I 
have erected all the machinery and 
apparatus for making phenol syn- 
thetically from benzol, and my plant 
is now working, but I shall manu- 
facture only for my own use in the 
production of phonograph-records. It 
occurs to me that there are many 
things we are short of in the chemi- 
cal line that could be made here 
quickly, if some people in the trade 
would act — not talk." 



GERMAN SUPREMACY IN 
AGRICULTURE. 



The Outlook, New York. 

The August number of the "Navy" 
contains a paper by Mr. Frank A. 
Scott, an influential industrialist of 
Cleveland, Ohio, on the industrial 
progress of the German Empire since 
the Franco-Prussian War. It was 
written and published before the 
present European war broke out, but 
it has nevertheless a war significance 
because it shows in a very clear way 
the industrial domination and pros- 
perity which Germany has risked 
destroying for the sake of pursuing 
military domination.* The area of 
Germany, Mr. Scott points out, with 
its 208,000 square miles, is about 
equal to Indiana, Illinois, Wiscon- 
sin, and Michigan. She has an aver- 
age population of 311 to the square 
mile. The United States has a popu- 
lation of 32 to the square mile. The 
result of this intensive population is 
that Germany has applied her won- 
derful scientific research to the prob- 
lem of intensive cultivation. In the 
thirty-two years between 1881 and 
1913, Germany Increased her produc- 
tion per acre of wheat eighty-six per 
cent, of rye seventy-five per cent, of 
oats eighty-one per cent, of potatoes 
forty-seven per cent. On the other 
hand, the production per acre of 
these food essentials in the United 
States remained practically station- 
ary. This is partially explained by 
the steady bringing into the agri- 
cultural field of undeveloped lands In 
this country. Mr. Scott readily ad- 
mits that in the United States such 
intensive cultivation as is recorded 
by these German statistics is at pres- 
ent impossible in the United States; 
"but," he adds, "the German figures 
are interesting to us as showing what 
can be done by a diligent nation on 
a naturally poor soil in a rigorous 
climate." 

German Supremacy in Commerce 
and Industry. 

It is not merely in agriculture that 
Germany has made wonderful strides 
by applying the researches of the 
scientific laboratory to the daily work 
of commercial production. In the 
production of pig iron Germany to- 
day stands second in the civilized 
world, with an output of seventeen 
million tons. Her native ore is poor, 
and yet by scientific methods she pro- 
duces one-fourth of the total pig iron 



of the world, surpassing England by 
over fifty per cent annually. This 
extraordinary production is largely 
aided by a chemical process which 
dephosphorizes the ore, and the phos- 
phate by-product is used as an agri- 
cultural fertilizer. By the applica- 
tion of science to industry, Germany 
has not only increased her domestic 
welfare, but has enormously added 
to her foreign trade. In twenty-five 
years her foreign trade has increased 
one hundred and eighty-five per cent. 

The highest on her list, the product 
in which she has advanced most, from 
1883 to 1912, is machinery of all 
kinds. The value in marks in 1887 
of machinery exported was 52,800,- 
000 marks; in 1912 it had risen to 
630,300,000 marks. Coarse and fine 
iron goods rose from 96,000,000 
marks in 1887 to 581,000,000 in 
1912. Coal — now think of it — coal 
from that small country, from 79,- 
900,000 marks to 436,600,000 marks 
in 1912. Coke, in 1887, 9,000,000; 
in 1912, 126,000,000. Cotton, wool, 
and silk, from 261,000,000 in 1887 to 
966,000,000 in 1912. These figures 
explain to all of us who have been 
in countries where we seek foreign 
markets why we find the German 
there, and we do find the German 
there, and he is there very strongly 
intrenched, and he deserves it. 

To promote her foreign trade, Ger- 
many employs not only scientific 
methods of manufacturing, but in- 
telligence in selling. She is willing 
to meet the wishes of a customer; 
she quickly adopts new and approved 
methods of reaching new markets, 
she is Interested in every question, 
historical, ethnological, philosoph- 
ical and financial, that pertains to 
economic life and development. "I 
am sure," says Mr. Scott, "that any 
American who has been in the Far 
East, or in South America, or in 
Mexico, or in any of the great coun- 
tries where German competition Is 
now becoming very strong, will agree 
that In shipping facilities, in bank- 
ing facilities, in social touch with 
the customers, Germany is rapidly 
becoming the leader." This Indus- 
trial supremacy has developed, not 
by the military power of the German 
Government, but by the energy and 
intelligence of the German people. 
They must inevitably, we think, be- 
gin to realize as the war goes on that 
they have thrown away a very real 
and constructive leadership in ex- 
change for a chimerical and de- 
structive ambition. 



*It would be Interesting to know 
whether the Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, 
Editor-in-Chief of the evident pro- 
British "Outlook," really believes that 
Germany could have accomplished such 
wonderful progress without her 
powerful army to protect her from 
her "friendly" neighbors. In twenty- 
five years her foreign trade has in- 
creased one hundred and eighty-five 
per cent. "Too many things 'Made 
in Germany' are the Briton's griev- 
ance against her." Does the Rev. 
Dr. Lyman Abbott join Great Britain 
in her protest that Germany should 
not be permitted to build an ade- 
quate navy to protect her ever- 
growing foreign trade? Does the 
Rev. Doctor believe that if the United 



States acquired this vast foreign 
trade of Germany — and to judge 
from some of the hysterical edito- 
rials printed almost daily in the An- 
glo-American press, this will be an 
easy matter to accomplish — that this 
republic would require no additions 
to its present navy in order to protect 
its increased commercial interests In 
distant parts? If she built the addi- 
tional cruisers and battleships 
which the United States Government 
deemed necessary, would the Ameri- 
can people permit It If Great Britain 
tried to prevent such Increase because 
she was mistress of the sea and con- 
sidered her supremacy challenged? 
We believe there is only one answer 
possible to such Interference and the 
American Nation would give It as one 
man. She would remind Albion to 
mind her own business. Can the 
American people claim the right to 
such a reply and In the same breath 
deny this right to Germany because 
she is an empire and not a republic? 

Mr. Scott's article, entitled "The 
German Inspiration,"* contains much 
of vast interest for the American peo- 
ple that cannot be gleaned from the 
short extract made by "The Out- 
look." We believe our readers will 
appreciate our reproducing the arti- 
cle In full on the following pages. In 
order that our readers may not get 
the wrong impression — that an arti- 
cle such as "The German Inspiration" 
could only have been published In a 
paper friendly to the cause of Ger- 
many in her present struggle against 
such terrible odds, we shall not omit 
to state that "The Navy," wherein 
said article appeared, can certainly 
not be accused of being pro-German 
in its sentiments, as the following 
excerpt from its editorial In the same 
Issue proves: 

"It is doubtful If the active inter- 
ference by Germany was anticipated 
by the other European powers at the 
outset. The German Emperor's arro- 
gant attitude has eliminated any pos- 
sibility, except that of war, and has 
called into active life the slumbering 
animosity of the French nation 
towards Germany." — The Publishers 
of "War Echoes." 



*The Editor was recently sorely dis- 
appointed to And that a part of the 
proofs of this article had been lost, mis- 
placed or destroyed; it is quite beyond 
his ability to replace it. — The Editor. 



The understanding was that the 
Nobel Prize committee had about de- 
cided to give this year's peace prize 
to the Kal'ser, in recognition of his 
supposed efforts to avert a general 
European war at the time the Balkan 
war was in progress, but his name 
has been taken off the list. Now it 
is a question whether the prize should 
go to President Wilson for his handl- 
ing of the Mexican situation, or to 
Sec. Bryan for his 20-odd peace 
treaties. The announcement of the 
award will not be made until Decem- 
ber, and perhaps the President may 
do some more peace-making before 
then. From "The Boston Globe." 



By arresting all German residents 
Jamaica injects a little ginger into 
the situation. — From the "St. Louis 
Globe-Democrat," August 18, 1914. 



GERMAlSr CHARACTER IN ACTION 



asi 



BISMARCK ON THE PURPOSE AND 

POLICY OF THE GERMAN 

EMPIRE. 



The Fatherland, New York. 
Dr. Julius Goebel. 

In view of the awful designs upon 
the map of Europe, upon the Mon- 
roe Doctrine, and upon the world in 
general which are attributed to Em- 
peror William by frightened English- 
men and their faithful echo, our 
American newspaper writers, in case 
Germany should be successful in the 
present war, it may be well to recall 
what Bismarck said concerning the 
true purpose and policy of the Ger- 
man Empire. The passage I quote 
In the following is taken from the 
"Reflections and Reminiscences" of 
Prince Bismarck, a book which may 
be said to contain his political leg- 
acy and his parting advice to the 
German people. While in the eyes 
of the Anglomaniacs among our 
journalists the words of the arch 
foe of English supremacy will not 
have the weight of the prognostica- 
tions of political soothsayers such as 
Asquith and Grey, they will, never- 
theless, be pleased to learn that Lord 
Palmerton used to say of Bismarck, 
"Look out for that man, he means 
what he says." The passage reads 
as follows: 

If Germany has the advantage that 
her policy is free from direct inter- 
ests in the East, on the other side 
is the disadvantage of the central 
and exposed position of the German 
Empire, with its extended frontier 
which has to be defended on every 
side, and the ease with which anti- 
German coalitions are made. At the 
same time Germany is perhaps the 
single Great Power in Europe which 
is not tempted by any objects which 
can only be attained by a successful 
war. It is our interest to maintain 
peace, while without exception our 
continental neighbors have wishes 
either secret or officially avowed 
which cannot be fulfilled except by 
war. We must direct our policy in 
accordance vnth these facts — that is, 
we must do our best to prevent war 
or to limit it. We must reserve our 
hand, not allow ourselves before 
the proper time to be pushed out of 
a waiting into an active attitude by 
any impatience, by the desire to 
oblige others at the expense of the 
country, by vanity or other provo- 
cation of this - kind, otherwise plec- 
tuneur Achivi. 

Our non-interference cannot reason- 
ably be directed to sparing our forces 
so as, after the others have weak- 
ened themselves, to fall upon any 
of our neighbors or a possible oppo- 
nent. On the contrpry, we ought to 
do all we can to weaken the bad feel- 
ing which has been called out 
through our growth to the position 
of a real Great Power, by honorable 
and peaceful use of our influence, 
and so convince the world that a 
German hegemony in Europe is more 
useful and less partisan and also less 
harmful for the freedom of others 
than that of Russia, France or Eng- 
land. That respect for the rights of 
other states in which France espe- 
cially has always been so wanting at 
the tittle of her supremacy, and which 




EMPEKOR WILLIAM II 

A recent picture of the Kaiser leaving the palace to review the German troops 

(Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.) 

(From "The Chicago Tribune," October 23, 1914) 



in England lasts only so long as 
English interests are not touched, is 
made easy for the German Empire 
and its policy, on the one side owing 
to the practicality of the German 
character, on the other by the fact 
(which has nothing to do with our 
desserts) that we do not require an 
increase in our immediate territory, 
and also that we could not attain it 
without strengthening the centrifu- 
gal elements in our territory. It 
has always been my ideal aim, after 
we had established our unity within 
the possible limits, to win confidence, 
not only of the smaller European 
states, but also of the Great Powers, 
and to convince them that German 
policy will be just and peaceful, now 
that it has repaired the injuris tem- 
porum, the disintegration of the na- 
tion. 

In order to produce this confidence 
it is above everything necessary that 



we should be honorable, open and 
easily reconciled in case of friction 
or untoward events. I have followed 
this recipe not without some personal 
reluctance in cases like that of 
SchnaeWes (April. 1887). Boulanger, 
Kauffman (September, 18 87), as to- 
ward Spain in the question of the 
Caroline Islands, towards the United 
States in that of Samoa, and I imag- 
ine that in the future opportunities 
will not be wanting of showing that 
we are appeased and peaceful. Dur- 
ing the time that I was in office I 
advised three wars, the Danish, the 
Bohemian, and the French, but every 
time I first made myself clear whether 
the war, if it were successful, would 
bring a prize of victory worth the 
sacrifices which every war requires', 
and which are now so much greater 
than in the last century. Had I to 
say to myself that if after one of 
these wars, we should find some diffl- 



162 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



culty in discovering conditions of 
peace which were desirable, I should 
scarcely have convinced myself of the 
necessity for these sacrifices as long 
as we were not actually attacked. I 
have never looked at international 
quarrels which can only be settled 
by a national war, from the point of 
view of the Goettingen student code 
of honor which governs a private 
duel, hut I have always considered 
simply their reaction on the claim of 
the German people in equality with 
other great states and Powers of En- 
rope, to lead to autonomous po- 
litical life, so far as it is possible on 
the basis of our peculiar national ca- 
pacity. 



GERMANY'S PliACE IN THE SUN. 



By Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President 
of the University of California. 



(Dr. Wheeler is one of the foremost 
educators of the day, and a scientist of 
international repute. He has a com- 
plete and comprehensive knoivledge of 
conditions in Germany. His statement 
as it appears heloio is one of the most 
importa/nt contributions yet made T)y an 
American on the Oreat Conflict.) 

We who love the old German Father- 
land recognize the unextinguishable 
debt which we as individuals, and with 
us the entire world of civilization, owe 
to it fOr the enrichment and liberation 
of our single lives and of the whole com- 
munity life of man upon the globe. In 
the face of tidings of distress and death 
we join together at the call of the land's 
Chief Magistrate to lift our hearts in 
prayer, unspoken or expressed, that 
swift honorable issue may be found 
out of that strife, which sweeping 
across the pleasant places of man's 
abode,- stirs hatred in the hearts of 
those who should be brothers, and 
threatens, if prolonged, to annihilate 
the accumulated stores of Christendom, 
both as to ideals and as to goods, and 
leave the European world a desert. 

Bach of us has his own experience 
and ties which make Germany for him 
what it is ; I must as an individual 
speak and fast and pray out of the 
store of my own experience. These be- 
gan with the new Germany just issu- 
ing forth out of the readjustments of 
1870-71, and undertaken to give shelter 
and provide security and dignity to the 
life of those who inherited German tra- 
ditions and German speech ; and to hold 
the map of central Europe in fixity and 
order by the erection of a German Em- 
pire guaranteed by unity of jnower. 

I came to know it first as a Ger- 
many of ideas and intellectual aspira- 
tions, a spiritual Germany, the Ger- 
many which taught the world philoso- 
phy and music, philology and theology, 
law and government, the history of art, 
the natural sciences and their applica- 
tion to the industrial arts, and withal 
the use of the methods of science in 
every field of human endeavor. 

The Germany I knew first was the 
Germany of the universities. I sat on 
the benches of Leipzig, Jena, Heidel- 
berg and Berlin and listened to the pa- 
tient unfolding of ordered knowledge 
from the lips of Curtius Zarncke, 
Lange and Brugmann at Leipzig ; Ost- 
hoff, Wachsmuth, and the inimitable 



Kuno Fischer at Heidelberg; Delbriick, 
Haeckel and Kluge at Jena ; Scherer, 
Kirchhofl: and Freitschke and Schmidt 
at Berlin ; but better, wandered over 
the hills of Jena and Heidelberg, up to 
the Forst and down the valley of Ku- 
nitz, up the Neckar, and over the 
Konigstuhl in company with one or an- 
other of these men, communing by the 
way over things of the spirit, and learn- 
iiig to know from Germany and her 
men what it means to stand on the 
frontiers of the known, to study at first 
hand, to think independently, and 
above all, having done this, to teach 
"with authority" — not the authority of 
a stamped and well-engrossed diploma, 
but with the authority of independent 
knowledge — to "teach with authority 
and not as the scribes." This — which 
is the real Germany — I saw first, then 
later the Germany of government, law, 
order, which made the inner life pos- 
sible. Every noon as I left the Uni- 
versity of Berlin I saw the "old Em- 
peror" standing at his window in the 
Palace as the guard marched by. Now 
and again I saw the towering figure of 
Bismarck. At the autumn manoeuvres 
in Hannover I saw the forty or fifty 
thousand men pass in faultless review 
before a group of three on horseback, 
the old Emperor, the Crown Prince 
Frederick and von Moltke. 

Very different men in outward guise 
were these trim soldiers from the bent 
and towsled professors who first in- 
terpreted to me Germany, but I came 
to find out that each group respected 
the other, and that both went to make 



ATTACK BY SLANDER. 



Editorial in The Chicago Tribune, 
August 12, 1914. 

Misrepresentation of an enemy's 
character by false reports of outrages 
committed by his forces is an old habit 
of war. It inflames hatred and keeps 
it alive. It increases passion and 
makes the demand for revenge im- 
pulsive. If a nation has gone to war 
cold, it can be aroused to what is re- 
garded as a fighting spirit by tales of 
cruelties inflicted upon its innocent 
countrymen having the misfortune to 
fall into the enemy's hands. 

Furthermore, war not only loosens 
the thousand tongues of rumor, but it 
opens the thousand ears of prejudice. 
Little that Action can invent is incred- 
ible. 

The basest of men in the breaking 
down of everything except military con- 
trol find opportunity for hideous acts. 
They may be in uniform or not. Life 
is apt to seem to have a normal value 
of zero. 

When opportunity is opened for an 
irruption of rufiianism and when na- 
tions are ready to receive, exaggerate, 
and believe the worst that can be told 
of the enemy's action, it is not aston- 
ishing that stories of cruelty get gen- 
eral circulation. 

With respect to so much of these 
narratives as may be true, it should 
be remembered with what difficulty 
in an otherwise peaceful American 
city an outbreak of savagery is pre- 
vented in a great strike. 

With respect to the rest it may be 
regarded as a habit, if not the policy 
of war. 



up Germany as the whole. Without the 

professors it were a hollow thing; 
without soldier and Emperor, without 
order and defense, it were feeble and 
poor, crushed between the two jaws of 
the vise, Russia and France, the Slav 
and the Roman. 

Now within the last four years by 
the chance of three visits I have re- 
newed, after an interval of a quarter 
century, my acquaintance with the land 
and its people. Forty years of peace 
guaranteed by soldier and government 
had given full rein to patient industry 
and scientific orderliness, and brought 
to high fruitage the alliance of shop 
and laboratory. 

For twenty-five years and more the 
present Emperor has actively sustained 
and administered the prosperous peace 
begotten of the union between science 
and competent power. He understands 
both and the mechanisms by which both 
exist. 

A few days before the twenty-fifth 
anniversary of his accession, early in 
June, 1913, I spent a memorable even- 
ing with him at Potsdam. After sup- 
per in the garden for two hours we 
walked up and down in the dark on the 
roadway behind the palace. He talked 
about many things, but most about the 
experiences and fruits of the twenty- 
five years, and some about problems 
and apprehensions for the future. Of 
all the achievements of his reign he 
valued highest the maintenance of 
peace. Next came the development of 
Germany's industries and the provi- 
sion of a market for their products; 
then came the fine arts, and particularly 
architecture, as shown in the great 
number of new and splendid structures 
which had arisen in recent years, not 
only public buildings, but private 
houses, mercantile buildings, and all 
connected with the creation of new and 
distinctively German styles. Then he 
mentioned Germany's leadership in 
world-wide scientific exploration, such 
as archajological excavations, etc., and 
her influence spread abroad throughout 
the world in such idealistic flelds as 
music and education. Germany, he 
said, did not need colonies founded on 
the possession of sovereignty ; it was 
too late for that. What Germany 
needed was assurance of permanency 
for her trade relations so that her 
manufactured wares might find mar- 
kets. This was to be made secure by a 
navy. Force must be available for 
crimes, but the real empire which Ger- 
many was to assert in the world must 
inhere In the prestige, respect, and in- 
fiuence which were won for her in the 
eyes of the world by her achievements 
in art. education, music, medicine, and 
the like. Germany's well-being was pe- 
culiarly dependent on peace, because 
war would immediately close to her all 
her markets, widely distributed over the 
world. Under no conditions must she 
think of increasing her territory in Eu- 
rope. She wanted no more "sore fron- 
tiers." She had three already. Noth- 
ing but trouble could come of such con- 
ditions. Germany must have loyal fron- 
tiers. It must be a homogeneous body 
standing firm in the middle of Europe 
persistent to keep the peace. 

The war which all have dreaded for 
years has come. No man knows what 
will be the issue of It. At the best it 
is fraught with disaster and distress 



GERMAN CHARACTER IN ACTION 



163 



for Europe and for that matter all the 
world. Whoever is responsible for 
bringing it about or letting it come 
about bears before the high court of 
humanity a heavy indictment. History 
will unerringly assign Its verdict. Some 
day all men will know who it was and 
what it was. But whoever it was and 
whatever it was, and however the 
blame may be apportioned among the 
various men and organizations of men, 
this much can now be asserted beyond 
the shadow of a doubt: the war came 
about against the interests, against the 
desires, and against the efforts of the 
German Kaiser. — The Fatherland. 



GERMAN CHARACTER. 



The Vital Issue. 

German names in courts are low. 
The Germans are not of a quarrel- 
some disposition. They are honest, 
upright, and fair. Could the cousins 
of these German-Americans in Ger- 
many be so murderous and so bar- 
barous as some of the newspapers 
have painted them? Of course not! 
They are just as peaceful there, as 
they are here. 

Perhaps you despise German au- 
thority. On what then do you base 
your feeling? The German Govern- 
ment is fair, just, and orderly. It 
is a Constitutional, not a Despotic 
Government. It is not suppressive. 
Compare the German authority over 
the self-government of Bavaria, or of 
Baden, or of Alsace, or of any Ger- 
man state with the tyrannic and un- 
derhanded English methods in Ire- 
land and with the famines in India. 
Compare German education and Ger- 
man free thought with the creeping 
and sneaking British influence in 
Egypt. After a thorough analysis, 
your dislike for the German govern- 
ment becomes entirely unwarranted. 
You were uninformed or misin- 
formed. 

You may have a peculiar notion of 
German aggression? Is there any 
basis for this belief? Of course, the 
Germans want to live, and I suppose 
you will grant them the right to live. 
Aggression? Show me German ag- 
gression, or unreasonable aggression! 
Progress they make, and that is God's 
coinmand. If they become too ag- 
gressive, too mighty, it will be then 
time to check them. But to con- 
demn them, because of an imaginary 
fear is certainly not fair, especially 
when this fear is systematically in- 
stigated by an enemy. 

The history of the world has 
proved, and it is shown everywhere 
throughout nature, that individuals, 
businesses, trusts, and nations will 
rise to a certain height. Then they 
break down by their own weight. 

Why not, on the other hand, in- 
vestigate British and Russian poli- 
cies and methods? Here you will 
find many reasons for fear and dis- 
dain. 

Great Britain has grabbed all the 
available lands throughout the world 
for the last two hundred years. They 
have taken India from the Indians. 
They took North America from the 
Dutch and from the French. In a 
sneaking fashion they occupied 
Egypt. They snatched the Sudan 



from the French. They killed the 
Orange Free State because of gold. 
They annexed Transvaal and killed 
thousands of Boer women and chil- 
dren because of diamonds. Australia 
is controlled by them. Free Canadi- 
ans are under British influence. The 
Irish have been suppressed. Free 
farmers are unknown in England. 
With whom would you rather deal: 
with a low type, arrogant English 
money-lord or Landlord, or with a 
frank and just German or the Ger- 
man Government, which insures ev- 
ery workman against death, accident, 
and sickness, with its system of 
schools, with its tolerance for all re- 
ligions, with even justice for rich 
6,nd poor? 

I suppose you know that the Brit- 
ish Government has for generations 
conducted a systematic campaign of 
slander and has systematically in- 
fluenced the press of various coun- 
tries. During the Boer War it had a 
special press bureau In America, and 
it Is working now in London and all 
over America to poison the public 
opinion of America and Canada. The 
British Government has always 
worked in the dark. Do you think 
that you should lend a helping hand 
to such secret work? Should you 
forfeit yourself, your independence, 
and your newspaper to the British? 

The British press has lied so much 
that untold volumes could be written 
on this subject. A striking example 
is distortion of the Belgian Neutral- 
ity question. There Is no neutrality 
treaty at all. But the British press 
printed wrong information on this 
subject and unfortunately the Amer- 
ican press reprinted it throughout 
the country. It inflamed public opin- 
ion against Germany without a real 
cause. With the help of a few cor- 
rupt members of the press, the work 
of the conspirators has succeeded. 
Have you been duped? 

Perhaps the Germans have commit- 
ted some acts which have not ap- 
pealed to you, but clearly they are not 
as rapacious, as aggressive, or as 
greedy as the British. This is clearly 
proved by two strong facts. 

First, because England attacked 
Germany only when she was fighting 
an enemy on the East and on the 
West. No fair sportsman, no man of 
courage, no man of character, would 
have attacked even his worst enemy, 
when he is battling with two assail- 
ants. The declaration of war by the 
British against Germany is not a 
praiseworthy or courageous act, no 
matter what the cause may be. 

England gives "humanity and civ- 
ilization" as a pretext for declaring 
war, but In reality nothing but vile 
greed is the cause. Or else how 
could "humane and civilized Eng- 
land" fight with the despotic and bar- 
barous Russians. 

But in the heat of argument we 
must not overlook the most impor- 
tant and the strongest points. The 
English Government invited and in- 
cited the Japanese to declare war 
against Germany and today the proud 
Englishman Is fighting in China side 
by side with the yellow men to kill 
his German cousins. What a terrible 
mistake by a misguided British Gov- 
ernment! It should also be remem- 
bered that the French have brought 



the black men and the Turcos from 
Africa to fight the Germans. 

But not enough! Today there are 
passing through Canada shiploads 
and trainloads of peaceful Hindus. 
Every honorable Canadian is revolt- 
ing against this British crime. Whilst 
,they are powerless now, the Cana- 
idians will never forget this British 
infamy. It is offensive to the Ideals 
of every American to know that thou- 
sands of Asiatics are shipped over 
this continent to fight and kill our 
brothers in Europe. 

These poor men from a warm, 
tropical climate will die by the thou- 
sands, like files do in the cold weath- 
er. Chills, cold and pneumonia will 
kill more of these innocent men than 
cannon balls. This is a crime of 
ages! Never before has a more in- 
famous crime been committed than 
this shameful deed. Never in all his- 
tory, as far as man's memory goes 
back, has a meaner crime been com- 
mitted by any nation and these sor- 
rowful facts far over-shadow In im- 
portance any of the smaller occur- 
rences in this great upheaval. A 
crime has been committed against 
the whole White Race! 

Are you, Mr. Editor, lending your 
active, passive, or moral support to 
such a band of criminals? 

We hope not. It goes against your 
conscience. 

FRANCIS J. L. DORL. 
New York, Oct. 2. 

This editorial in "The Vital Issue" 
was accompanied by the following 
note: 

"Dear Beader : In order to bring this 
article to the notice of a large number of 
newspapers, especially those under British 
influence, we request you to forward this 
article at once to the editor of a paper in 
your section. If you do not wish to muti- 
late this copy, we will be glad to send you 
reprints of this article at the rate of three 
reprints tor five cents." 

We also copy from the editorial 
page of "The Vital Issue" for Octo- 
ber 10, 1914, the following informa- 
tion: 

"THE VITAL ISSUE can be obtained 
from any newsdealer in the U. S. or 
through the American News Co., New 
York City. 



DESERVE HONORARY MENTION. 



From "The Fatherland," New York, 
October 7, 1914. 

The Milwaukee "Free Press," the 
Toledo "Blade," the Boston "Trav- 
eler" and "The Chicago Tribune" 
among others are pre-eminently fair 
in their presentation of war news and 
deserve honorary mention and sup- 
port from all lovers of fair play. 
Among the weeklies, the "Literary 
Digest" has constantly given the Ger- 
man side a square deal. The "Sat- 
urday Evening Post" has also been 
fair. But "Collier's" is conspicuous 
for its prejudiced and tainted atti- 
tude. The unfairness of this publica- 
tion should be remembered by every 
lover of the fatherland and of fair 
play. 



The German crown prince has 
established headquarters near Ver- 
dun. This is the same crown prince 
who was killed last week by a British 
censor. — From "The Chicago Even- 
ing Post," September 12, 1914. 



164 

BJRITISH BHWP ON RECALIi OF 
TRADE, 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



By Charles A. Collman. 

We've all been entertained during 
tlie last few weeks by the announce- 
ments- of our Englisb "cousins" that 
the British Empire has placed a boy- 
cott on German goods. The fact is 
proclaimed with a stolid air of final- 
ity, as though it were a pronounce- 
ment of the death of German trade. 
The boycott is one of the few British 
inventions. It has always had an 
ugly sound to American ears. We 
have prohibited it by Federal law, 
and rightly, for it is a most foolish 
weapon that cuts both ways. The 
trade between the British and Ger- 
man empires approximates ?1,000,- 
000,000 a year. No modern State 
or aggregation of States could sur- 
vive the loss of a business of such 
magnitued. Should England end 
her trade with Germany she would, 
inevitably affix the seal to her own 
bankruptcy. Well may the hard 
headed British merchant cringe 
under the indiscretion of the British 
press bureau. 

When English newspaper writers 
gloat over the statements that Great 
Britain and her colonies will no 
longer buy from Germans, they 
ignore the consequence, that, pari 
passu, the Germans will no longer 
buy from them. Germany, as official 
records show, imported from the 
British Empire during the year 
ended December 31, 1912, more than 
$527,000,000 -worth of goods. She 
sold to that country and her colonies 
$385,000,000 worth of German 
goods. The balance in favor of the 
British was $142,000,000. The trade 
figures for the succeeding years are 
much larger. It is useless for the 
British to plead that Germany's pur- 
chases are mostly in the shape of 
agricultural or mining products. 
There will be no other customer in 
sight when her buying stops. This 
truth has been unpleasantly emphas- 
ized in our cotton trade. What pur- 
chasers are available for the mil- 
lions of bales heretofore taken by 
England, Germany or France? The 
sole resource of our suffering cot- 
ton growers is to decrease their 
future acreage. 

The outbursts of English cor- 
respondents may delude some of our 
countrymen, but the American busi- 
ness man had better see to it that 
he is not misled by the suggestions 
of his most hostile competitors — the 
English. Germany is our third best 
customer. Our trade with her is 
worth more than $520,000,000 a 
year. Should Germany be wiped 
out we would lose a customer that 
buys from us above $331,000,000 
worth of goods and produce yearly, 
a catastrophe that our trades and 
industries could not well survive. 

But trade is not a matter of pick- 
ing and choosing customers, of prej- 
udice against some, of friendship for 
others. Racial likings do not in- 
fluence foreign trade. Trade follows 
the same biological laws that govern 
human development. Contiguity 
plays a predominating part in inter- 
national commerce. The French 
have little love for the Germans, yet 
in 1912 they bought from them 



$173,000,000 worth of goods. Rus- 
sia in the same year sold to the Ger- 
mans $382,000,000 in produce. Who 
would buy It from her should the 
German buying cease? We Amer- 
icans may well bestow some pitying 
smiles on the pretentions of the 45,- 
000,000 inhabitants of the British 
Isles. They assert that the suyrem- 
acy of the seas is to them a holy 
duty. But to them the ambition of 
the 120,000,000 German speaking 
races in Central Europe to assert the 
hegemony of the continent, is an 
awful crime. Outnumbered in pop- 
ulation three to one, the 45,000,000 
English say to the 120,000,000 Ger- 
mans: "We shall no longer buy from 
you." 

It is laughable, for whatever be- 
falls, the English, the Germans and 
the Austrians must remain in Europe 
to the end of human time. There is 
no escape for them. They must 
trade with one another or perish. 
If the English bankrupt the Ger- 
mans and the Austrians, Great 
Britain, the creditor nation, goes 
thundering down into a bankruptcy 
from which she ma ynever rise again. 
Should the Allies conquer the Ger- 
mans they ruin themselves, for Ger- 
many has no wealth in lands or col- 
onies to reward them for their ex- 
penditures in blood or money. Her 
wealth lies solely in the productivity 
of her people. — Reprinted from the 
"News of the War in Europe," which 
are published 2 or 3 times weekly 
by "The Fatherland," New York. 



"I do not consider the German 
Emperor to be only a great man, but 
I know him to be a good man. I 
pity him with all my heart, because 
I know that he feels with intense 
sorrow that the war has broken out. 
There are many indications that the 
German Emperor is a peaceful man. 
For instance: Years ago there were 
over 120 duels a year amongst army 
officers. The Kaiser mentioned his 
dislike against duels, and advocated 
a law against it. Now there are only 
10 duels a year. The Emperor is a 
much broader man and much more 
religious and much more tolerant 
than is commonly known. Numerous 
laws in the army for greater toler- 
ance and freedom originated from 
him." 



ANDREW CARNEGIE PRAISES 
KAISER. 



From "The Vital Issue," New York, 
October 10, 1914. 

Andrew Carnegie arrived on the 
Cunarder Mauretania on September 
25th, and gave an interview highly 
favorable to the German Emperor. 
He praised him as "Peace Lord." 

Mr. Carnegie is reported to have 
said: "I have known the German 
Emperor personally for years. I have 
met him many times in Berlin and 
on his yacht. Because of my per- 
sonal acquaintance, I think I know 
something about the man and his 

"It is not the Kaiser who brought 
on this war, but probably the Military 
Clique who imagine that they are in 
office for life. England is not fight- 
ing German scientists, German art- 
ists, German philosophers, but mili- 
tarism. During the Kaiser's absence 
the Military Council acted, and I be- 
lieve that the Kaiser himself was the 
most sorrowful man in the world 
when he realized that the war could 
not he avoided." 

Mr. Carnegie continued that "the 
present German Kaiser had done 
more for Germany than any other 
Emperor. When he succeeded his 
father he found Germany undevel- 
oped (a New York paper reports that 
Mr Carnegie said 'uncivilized,' but 
in all probability he said undevel- 
oped) and it is he who built it up." 
"He has advanced German culture, 
and under him Germany has had 27 
years of peace. I am of the opinion 
that there would have been no war, 
if the Emperor had been in Berlin." 



A FRENCH VIEW OF "KULTUR." 

Reprinted by Courtesy of The New 
RepubUc, March 27, 1915. 

I am not one of those who deny it 
[German culture — Translator^ and re- 
fuse it a place in the evolution of 
European civilization, but I am one of 
those who have always refused to 
recognize its supremacy. To speak the 
truth, I must admit that I have never 
accorded to any people of Europe or 
America an absolute supremacy from 
the point of view of civilization. In 
that part of the world which was an- 
ciently known as Christendom there 
is only one civilization in which all 
men participate more or less. The 
Germans, however, give a special sig- 
nificance to their "kultur," which 
closely resembles what we should call 
"national education," and in this sense 
"kultur" is really the sum of the natu- 
ral or acquired qualities proper to a 
German. The Manifesto of the Ger- 
man intellectuals showed to what an 
extent the German professors, savants, 
artists and! writers were proud of 
their specialized culture, and to what 
an extent they boasted of remaining 
loyal to it even when it had led to acts 
condemned as much by other and even 
neutral nations, as the massacres of 
Dinant, the destruction of Louvain, 
and the general violation and ravag- 
ing of Belgium. The power of this 
"kultur" is as undeniable as its legiti- 
macy is suspect. But it has no ra/p- 
port with civilization, to which it is 
clearly opposed. While "culture," in 
the European sense, in the general ac- 
ceptation of the word, is the effort of 
peoples and of individuals toward an 
objective sentiment of good and evil, 
"kultur" is a German effort towards 
a subjective sentiment of German 
good and German evil. At least that 
is what I have gathered from all the 
discussions on this question. But the 
Germans have not wholly succeeded in 
isolating themselves in their pride. 
They have a great deal of vanity, and 
they have never renounced their place 
— which they desired to be the first 
place — in general civilization. They 
have even imagined that they had con- 
quered this first place, and we have 
seen their intellectuals proving on this 
point the naivete of their infatuation. 
Let us consider this general civiliza- 
tion, and note what sort of figure is 
cut therein by the German genius. The 
German genius was a Romantic prod- 
uct, and Romanticism implied liberty 



THE GERMAN MENACE— MILITARISM 



and fantasy. Witi the union of the 
empire liberty has disappeared, and 
with the disappearance of the con- 
sciousness of higher destinies we have 
seen the traditional German fantasy — 
the fantasy of a Goethe — vanish from 
every sort of activity. Little by little 
the genius of Germany has become dis- 
ciplined, serious, unanimous, mechani- 
cal. But it has not always been so. 
This transformation is recent. Before 
they became the prey of the mad pride 
which has consumed their sensibility, 
the Germans lived and thought like 
men. They have notably participated 
in universal civilization. I will take 
Frederic Nietzsche as an example. 

This was before their great victories 
of 1870-71. A few minds, formed, like 
that of Nietzsche, in an earlier time, 
developed after that period, and 
through them the old German influence 
is perpetuated through the world. 
Nietzsche is still a Romantic ; one 
might say that he is the most Roman- 
tic of the Germans. His philosophic 
conceptions were not addressed to 
Germany, which, moreover, was un- 
able to understand them. He wrote 
for all humanity. His Influence in the 
world only began when his Ideas, 
translated into French, became acces- 
sible to those who shared in French 
civilization. He fully realized this. 
German thought has no influence out- 
side of Germany, has no interest ex- 
cept for German iDrains. As he desired 
to speak to other men he attempted 
more than once to get his works 
translated into French. That was the 
object of his negotiations with Talne. 
They were only successful after his 
Intellectual death, and the name of 
Nietzsche only became universal at 
that moment, which, as it happened, 
was also the moment when the Ger- 
mans began to believe that their recent 
wholly material victories had given 
them the right to the Intellectual dom- 
ination of the whole world. Nietzsche 
had no part in this great German mad- 
ness nor had he in any way prepared 
it. His imagination soared above good 
and evil, and his imaginations were 
not the imaginations of a German but 
of a demigod. To measure the dis- 
tance which separates his ideas from 
those of Herr Ostwald — who is a 



chemist and a philosopher as Nietzsche 
was a philologist and a philosopher — 
we must reinember that Nietzsche, the 
theoretician of the Superman, desired 
the growth of the individual beyond 
the laws of Christianity, and that 
Herr Ostwald, the theoretician of 
Energy, desires the growth of the 
energy of the German masses with a 
view to (en vue de) German discipline, 
German power and German domina- 
tion. Ostwald's ideas are as opposed 
to those of Nietzsche as a political 
thesis Is opposed to a conception of 
the mind. Ostwald himself has com- 
mented on his theories in a recent pub- 
lication which the University of Leip- 
zig has hastened to disavow, on ac- 
count of the misfortunes of the times. 
How the University would have ap- 
proved it If force had conquered at the 
first blow! 

Nietzsche should not be considered 
as .part of modern Germany. By his 
education, by the turn of his mind — 
which was purely speculative — ^he be- 
longed frankly to a period of Germany 
when the true modern German spirit 
— all arrogance and national egoism — 
had not yet blossomed forth. Nietzsche 
can be read without one noticing that 
he was a German, except by the ob- 
scure turn given to certain phrases. 
Nietzsche himself boasted that he was 
a European. One of his favorite 
phrases is, "We good Europeans." He 
was absolutely above the German na- 
tional idea. He needed a larger and 
certainly a freer country. Zarathustra 
had to have a romantic country. He 
would have been stifled in the country 
which has been created by modern 
German Ideas, the ideas which grew 
up after the victories of 1870-71, and 
which developed in the following years. 
But Nietzsche was already intellectu- 
ally dead when these ideas suddenly 
and unexpectedly developed, and when 
the Germans, departing from European 
civilization, shut themselves up in 
their national culture. He could write 
no longer, and nothing that he had 
written was marked with the seal of 
German egoism. He is the last Ger- 
man who frankly belonged to European 
civilization. 

It has been said, a little inconsider- 
ately, I think that Nietzsche was one 



of the educators of . William 11^ In 
any event the latter has profited very 
111 by his lessons, for Nietzsche 
preached to men not a domination over 
their fellows but a domination over 
themselves. We must remember the 
portrait he sketched of the true phil- 
osopher, of the philosopher of modern 
times ; we must reflect on what 
strength of soul and even abnegation 
this must have cost him. He demands 
this also of those who wish to con- 
trol their fellows, and never, even In 
his most brutal pages, does one find 
any eulogy of force pure and simple. 
Because he distinguishes between the 
morality of slaves and of masters we 
must not conclude that he recognized 
the right to dominate In those who 
possess nothing but brute strength. 
This admirer of the Renaissance knew 
that the breastplate of the cpndottiere 
was composed of many imponderable 
elements, and he knew that to domi- 
nate men requires more than a belief 
in the sword. But the directors of 
German thought have acquired the 
habit of taking to themselves all the 
writers of old and new Germany, and 
making them say whatever is needed 
in favor of their thesis. It is quite 
possible that William II has read 
Nietzsche upside down, and that the 
mystic counsel, "Be hard!" has been 
read by him In the letter as an incite- 
ment to cruelty. One might really ad- 
vance the theory. 

It still remains, however, that for 
me, at least, Nietzsche, far from in- 
carnating certain tendencies of im- 
perialism and of German culture. Is 
strongly opposed to them. He repre- 
sents a totally different kind of civili- 
zation — the civilization which started 
with the Greeks and which unites the 
French, or, to be less partlcularist, the 
Europeans of the twentieth century. 
Has he not laughed at this very "kul- 
tur" of which he is supposed to be 
one of the founders? The man who 
wept at the news of the bombardment 
of Paris cannot by any audacity be im- 
plicated in the approbation at the de- 
struction of Louvain ! 

Remy db Goukmont. 

— Translated by Richard Aldington. 



German Militarism and the Evolution of the Empire 



NATIONAIi CONSCIOUSNESS. 



Editorial, The Chicago Tribune. 

Mr. H. G. Wells continues to be 
the most earnest and most rhapsodic 
of Englishmen with leave to print. 
He supplies half the opinion we get 
from Europe and his supplies are in- 
teresting. In this emergency he is 
an unashamed child of emotion, and 
as such is able to make the conveni- 
ent jump over everything interven- 
ing and arrive at eventualities. The 
hurdle is a possible 200,000 corpses, 
but Mr. Wells, a seer immersed in 
Ink, already is at the peace confer- 
ence, seated and waiting for the other 
commissioners to come up. 

As the Inspired prophet of the 
one-way-looking English middle 



class, Mr. Wells has two ideas, one 
Inconsiderate and the other noble. 
One Is anti-Prussian; the one is pro- 
national. 

If Mr. Wells would go out and 
kick an English brewer every time 
he wants to kick a Prussian lieuten- 
ant or drill sergeant, he might spread 
the manifestations of his wrath im- 
partially. 

What is Prussia? It is the state 
which gathered the German Empire 
into being and made it immune from 
wars except of its own choosing? 
One hundred years ago dismembered 
Germany was the convenient alley 
into which nations went when they 
had something to settle- It is all 
very well for peaceable Bavaria to 
sit over a stein of beer and consider 
philosophically the state of the uni- 



verse, but the power which gave se- 
curity to German meditation was the 
military power which had its yeast 
in Prussia.i 

That this led to overdevelopment 
need not be questioned. The Prus- 
sian became obnoxious. The feeling 
has disappeared In the press of war, 
but the Prussian, until a month ago, 
was as little liked by his fellow 
Germans as a Russian. 'The lieu- 
tenant and the non-commissioned did 
become a menace to European stability, 
agents of a military oligarchy, crude, 
big chested enemies of civil life, but 
to let criticism of them and of their 
order go galloping without thinking 
is unintelligent. 



^Emphasized in bold type by the 
publisher of "War Echoes." 



166 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



Militant Prussia put the German 
Empire on the map, and that was a 
good thing. It brought hesitant 
states together. It made an empire. 
Mr. Wells' indignation against mili- 
tancy considers only its extreme as- 
pects and ignores its good products. 

In the making of this and other 
empires nationalities were sub- 
merged, and that was a bad thing. 
Whatever there is in Schleswig-Hol- 
stein that is Danish, and restless to 
have Danish national consciousness 
restored, is maltreated by submersion 
in the German people. The Polish 
nation is one that ought to be alive. 
If Lorraine and Alsace in national 
consciousness are French, they ought 
to have the tricolor. The Slavs of 
Austria-Hungary ought to have 
racial and national expression. Thus 
through all Europe. 

National consciousness, which In 
times of danger flares up and is 
called patriotism, is a part of the 
spiritual life of people. It is a part 
of the life separate from three meals 
and eight hours' sleep. It is a sacred 
thing if men are not to be hideously 
materialistic. 

Germany is not the one nation in 
Europe to extinguish it or to try 
to extinguish it in subject peoples. 
Does Mr. Wells propose that the 
Bengalis^ of the Indian empire, a 
people hopelessly reaching after in- 
dependence, be granted the national 
existence he asks for the Slavs in 
Austria?! 

Switzerland is happier than Po- 
land. Europe would be better di- 
vided on nationalistic lines. Whether 
it would be more stable or not is 
another matter. Mr. Wells' convic- 
tions are profound, but may not be 
final.3 



2"The Chicago Tribune" "over- 
looked" to add: The Irish, the Boers, 
the Finns, the Persians, the Egyp- 
tians, etc. — The Publisher of "War 
Echoes." 

sWhat the true Mr. Wells REALLY 
thought before his utterances were 
biased by the present war, our read- 
ers will find quoted on this page in 
the article, "Mr. Wells on Germany." 
And as it Is impossible that the 
United States should ever permit any 
part of its states to be taken, thus 
it is impossible that Germany would 
ever permit any part of Prussia to be 
taken by Russia. Nothing would 
suit, of course, England any better 
than to have Germany divided again, 
so that either France or Russia 
could "stamp It into the mud." But 
"der deutsche Michel" is not the old 
fool any longer to permit his coun- 
try to be used as the battleground 
of Europe as of old. The blood boils 
In us "barbarians" of German de- 
scent when we read what the ene- 
mies of Germany would like to ac- 
complish. But as long as there will 
be a German left to defend the 
Fatherland, Mr. Wells' "New Map of 
Europe" is only possible in the imag- 
ination of that type of bigotted Eng- 
lishmen who consider themselves the 
lords of creation. 

"The German 'Michel' knows, and 
will forever remember, that allied 
with Russia on his eastern frontier, 
he has an enemy on his west, from 



whom he has suffered as no other 
civilized people have suffered at the 
hands of enemies. He knows the 
story of the wars of Napoleon, of 
the invasions of Louis XIV., who 
cut off with the sword German- 
speaking Alsace and Lorraine from 
the German body, of the Thirty 
Years' War, and all the rest of them; 
how his cities have been destroyed 
by the invader, mainly by the French 
and the Russian, or his hirelings 
and allies. He knows how they rav- 
aged his country again and again, 
and actually, literally, cut the popu- 
lation of Germany in half, stamped 
it into the mud. Try to get the per- 
spective. Picture a score of your 
finest American cities wiped out, not 
merely that the houses were de- 
stroyed, but that every man. woman 
and child within those places had 
perished, and this in not some dis- 
tant past, but so near to you that 
your great-grandfather could have 
told you the story, having got it 
from the mouths of those who wit- 
nessed it. 

"Of course, you cannot conceive, 
no inan can conceive, what the de- 
struction of ten million human be- 
ings means. Yet by that number of 
beings was the population of Ger- 
many decreased during these wars. 
A state as populous as England when 
Queen Victoria came to the throne 
was in one war reduced to the popu- 
lation of Holland. What has any 
civilized country to compare with 
this, to set beside it? When, indeed, 
has any civilized nation h^ad to watch 
vast uncounted multitudes of its 
women and children driven forth 
homeless, their corpses massed in 
the country roads, with grass in their 
mouths, the only food the invader 
had left? And these same invaders, 
who have poured in devastating 
fioods over our land today, boast 
that again they will invade us if and 
when they can. I say boast. Can 
you find me one French public man 
who will say that France should 
abandon the hope of attacking us? 
It is their declared, their overt 
policy." 

It would seem, therefore, that Mr. 
Wells' convictions are not profound 
and CANNOT be accepted as final, 
even if accepted as such by "The 
Chicago Tribune." — The Publisher 
of "War Echoes." 



Bulgaria, Servia and Greece have 
been at war more than once. So 
has little Montenegro. Austria-Hun- 
gary had the occupation of Bosnia. 
Mexico has been one large battlefield 
for over a year. 

Germany, alone, among the big na- 
tions of the world, has kept peace for 
forty-four years. And for tweniy- 
six out of these forty-four years a 
so-called war lord has been the em- 
peror of Germany. 

England, France and Russia charge 
Germany with having started a great 
European war. Germany denies 
having been the aggressor. 

History will Decide. 

History will decide this point, and 
In the meantime it behooves Amer- 
icans to reserve their judgment. 



SUTRO ASKS AMERICANS TO BE 
STRICTIiY NEUTRAL. 



By Theodore Sutro,. Editor of the 
New York German Journal. 

Among the leading nations of the 
world Germany is the only one that 
has had no war for the last forty-four 
years. 

Russia and Japan were fighting 
only a few years ago. Previous to 
that Japan had her war with China, 
and Russia her war with Turkey. 

France and Italy had their wars 
in Northern Africa. England had 
her struggle with the Boers. 

The United States and Spain were 
at war in 1898. Portugal had a civil 
war. Chile and Peru had their war. 
There was a civil strife in Brazil. 



GERMAN SOLDIERS RESPECT 
WOMEN. 



High Tribute Paid Them by a 

French Writer Who Served in 

1870-1871. 



From "The Fatherland." 

The complaint that the reports of 
German acts of violence in the enemy's 
country are intended to serve the pur- 
pose of prejudicing public opinion in 
neutral countries, is borne out by the 
frequent testimony of unbiased wit- 
nesses to the good behavior of German 
soldiers in Belgium, in France, partic- 
ularly their respect" for women and 
children. The Germans have not 
changed their character since 1870. 
Two years after the war, the French 
writer, G. Monnod, published a book 
under the title of "Germans ana 
French. Recollections of the War." 
The following extract from the work is 
characteristic : 

"The most remarkable feature of the 
war is the respect, in which women 
were held by the Germans ; it is a na- 
tional trait and one source of the 
strength of the German nation. 
Isolated eases of crime may have oc- 
curred, but during the seven montns 
covering my experience in the field I 
witnessed not a single instance nor 
heard of one authentic ease. 

"On the contrary', I invariably saw 
them treat women with exceptional 
courtesy to an extent that excited the 
astonishment of the French soldiers. 
'We would not have acted like that.' I 
frequently heard them say. From the 
very first day, the children made 
friends with the Germans. When there 
was nothing to eat at "home, and grief 
was expressed on account of the chil- 
dren, the whole family was sure of 
being provisioned by the Germans. The 
soldiers played with the children, 
walked with them, learned French 
from them, and more than once the 
presence of children in a house made 
friends of enemies. Beyond all others, 
the most polite were the Brandenburg- 
ers. Saxons, Hannovarlans, Rhine- 
landers, and Schleswig-Holsteiners." 

This is the testimony of a Frenchman 
in a work which at the time of its 
appearance was extremely popular. Is 
it likely that the German soldiers of 
1914-15 are different from those of 
1870-1871? 



THE GERMAN MENACE— MILITARISM 



167 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GERMAN 
MIIilTARISM. 



By George Stuart Fullerton, Pro- 
fessor of Philosophy, Columbia 
University. 

We need to remind ourselves that 
militarism is not peculiarly German. 
The German army does not compare in 
size with that of Russia, and it must 
be confessed by all that it has been, 
for nearly half a century a very peace- 
ful force. Since its struggle with 
France forty-four years ago, Germany 
has kept the peace with all nations, 
in spite of her militarism. During 
this period the Russian army has con- 
stantly been used as weajjon of ag- 
gression, Russia's last great war — that 
with her present ally Japan — being 
brought about by the seizure of Chinese 
territory to which she had no other 
claim than the desire to possess it. 
Russia's invasion of the territories sur- 
rounding her can only be compared to 
the inundations caused by a rising tide. 
She is always aggressive, and it needs 
a strong bulwark to hold her back. 

French Militarism. 

Nor is France without an army. She 
has, in fact, an army approximately 
equal to that of Germany, and yet her 
population is less than two-thirds as 
great, and her geogi-aphical position is 
a more fortunate one, for she can be 
effectively attacked by land on only one 
side. Each Frenchman has to pay a 
higher price for the luxury of having 
an army and navy than does each Ger- 
man. He pays less than does the Eng- 
lishman for the same luxury, but the 
burden is great, nevertheless. And if 
we use the term "militarism" to indi- 
cate, not the existence of a great army, 
but the presence of a warlike spirit, 
we must surely recognize that public 
opinion in France has been for decades 
vastly more militaristic than in Ger- 
many. The latter nation has had no 
desire to attack France, whereas 
the present-day Frenchman has been 
brought up to cherish the thought of 
a revenge to be attained with the co- 
operation of Russia. 

Of Japanese militarism we need 
hardly speak. No nation has threat- 
ened the independence or any vital in- 
terest of Japan. Japan has started out 
upon a predatory expedition, and the 
alliance with England leaves her free 
to help herself, in the Pacific, to pretty 
much what she pleases. How far Eng- 
lish-Japanese control of the Pacific can 
be made compatible with the interests 
of the United States remains to be. dis- 
covered. 

British Militarism. 

Finally, what shall we say of Brit- 
ish militarism? Here let us use a new 
word. A man may defend himself with 
a knife, with a revolver, or with some 
other weapon. And he may justly be 
regarded as aggressive if he attacks his 
neighbors, whether near or remote, 
with any weapon he regards as most 
convenient and most effective. The 
English are a practical people, and 
they have provided themselves most 
abundantly with the weapons which 
they find that they can use most effec- 
tively. In other words, England has 
cultivated "navalism" as no other na- 
tion has cultivated it, and that for 



generations past. We are all so ac- 
customed to this phenomenon that it 
excites little comment even among 
those who declaim against militarism. 
That a little island off the coast of 
Europe should be able to hold in sub- 
jection vast populations in Asia, and, 
entering into an alliance with an Asi- 
atic power which has also, in quite 
recent years, embarked upon a career 
of navalism, should dictate to other 
nations the terms upon which men may 
be allowed to live and to trade in the 
Pacific, appears to be taken rather as 
a matter of course. It is perhaps nat- 
ural that there should not appear in 
the British journals, along with the 
many articles against militarism, fer- 
vent protests against navalism, a means 
of aggression even more dangerous to 
the world at large; but it is a little 
surprising that, since Japan has come 
upon the stage, more should not be 
heard upon the subject in America. 
No man in his senses would maintain 
that navalism differs from militarism 
in being only a weapon of defence. 
The British Empire was not built up 
by a fleet that confined itself to patroll- 
ing the coast of England, nor did the 
Japanese take Corea by staying at 
home and defending their own ports. 

Militarism, or its equivalent, is not, 
then, the exclusive property of Ger- 
many. Other nations may be accused 
of being even greater sinners in this 
regard. Nevertheless, there is milita- 
rism in Germany, and it is of interest 
to us Americans to hear how the Ger- 
man defends its presence. Does he re- 
gard it as an evil, and, if not, why 
not? Suppose that we let him speak 
for himself, reserving our own judg- 
ment upon the subject. 

Americans who have come much in 
contact with educated and intelligent 
Germans have heard the reason as fol- 
lows : "Why in the world should we, 
above other peoples, be asked to de- 
prive ourselves of a means of defence 
that seems to us essential to our wel- 
fare, and even to our national exist- 
ence? We have shown abundantly that 
we wish to be allowed to carry on our 
industries in peace. But our great 
neighbor to the north is not so civilized 
that it regards a state of war with ab- 
horrence. In fact it is always at war 
with someone, and it is a constant 
menace to us. Our neighbor to the 
west is civilized, but is embittered, and 
has for a generation made no secret 
of a hostile intent. The private per- 
son who lives between two hostile fam- 
ilies may appeal to the police to keep 
them in order. But where is the police 
to whom Germany may appeal to com- 
pel Russia to be civilized and France 
to be peaceable? There exists as yet 
no such police. 

"Moreover, we beg you to remember 
that the reaJ reason of the outcry 
which has been raised over our mili- 
tarism is not that we have maintained 
an army, but rather that we have built 
a fleet. A nation not menaced as we 
are, and which, hence, has only wanted 
enough of an army to hold in subjec- 
tion nations which it has conquered in 
various parts of the earth, has filled 
the world with clamor because we have 
built a fleet about half as big as its 
own. It does not want other nations 
to sail to and fro upon the sea as it 
does, for it regards the sea as its own 



peculiar property. What we Germans 
cannot understand is by what reason- 
ing it can be proved that English trade 
needs to be protected by an English 
fleet, but that German trade should not 
be protected by a German fleet at all. 
"And, lastly, we beg you to bear in 
mind that it is not the man to whom 
a state of peace is peculiarly profitable 
that seeks pretexts for breaking the 
peace. During the past forty years 
Germany has been exceedingly pros- 
perous. The Germans seem especially 
adapted for the attainment of success 
by dint of industry and intelligence and 
along the path of peaceful competition. 
Would it ever occur to us to undertake 
the thankless task of invading Russia? 
As to France, we want the French to 
be our allies against the uncivilized 
East. And why should Germany at- 
tack England? German trade has, un- 
der existing conditions, been overtak- 
ing that of England by leaps and 
bounds, and Germans would like noth- 
ing better than a continuance of such 
peaceful conditions. Peace has not 
seemed equally profitable to other na- 
tions, and that is the real cause of the 
present terrible war. War is a scourge 
to us as to other nations, but there is 
something that would be still worse. 
That something is the delivery of Ger- 
many into the hands of those who 
would be still worse. That something 
is the delivery of Germany into the 
hands of those who would crush her 
with a view to their own profit." 

So much for the German view of Ger- 
man militarism. It is perhaps worth 
while to remind ourselves that Ger- 
man militai'ism is by no means all of 
Germany. Many thousands of us visit 
Germany every year, and we see a 
great many soldiers. But those that 
we see are not soldiers by profession. 
They are young men who are devoting 
one or two years to the task of learn- 
ing how to defend their country in case 
of need. Soon they will go back to 
their homes and take up the peaceful 
occupations that are to fill their lives ; 
Germany's real occupation is not war. 
Her attention is given to agriculture, 
manufactures, commerce, education, 
science, literature, music, painting, and 
to the working out of a social organi- 
zation that guarantees to the masses of 
her population the enjoyment of those 
goods reserved, in some countries ac- 
counted civilized, rather for the few. 

In this her real work Germany has 
been eminently successful. She has 
served herself, but she has also served 
the world, as every industrious and 
really civilized nation must. It does 
not follow, however, that every nation 
will thank her for these services. Pri- 
vate interests interfere with universal 
judgments. Germany's services to the 
world have not furthered Russia's de- 
sire to sweep down on Constantinople. 
They have not neutralized the Gallic 
sentiment of revenge. For some they 
count as "feathers" when weighed in 
the balance against British commercial 
interests. The sympathies of men are 
scarcely to he compelled by general 
considerations. Nevertheless, we Amer- 
icans, who have no immediate personal 
interests at stake, can afford to view 
the situation with some degree of im- 
partiality. It inspires us with a lively 
curiosity, and we may well be eager 
to hear what may be urged by every 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



party to the great dispute. Arguments 
that obviously draw their force purely 
from the self-interest of this or that 
party, and from no broader considera- 
tion, we are in a position to weigh more 
justly than the parties directly con- 
cerned. — The "Continental Times," 
Berlin. 



THE "MILITARISM" OF 
GERMANY. 



[Note: — This last sentence seems puz- 
zling; the writer very likely means to 
say that a disinterested expression is 
to be valued more highly than an ex- 
pression coming from self-interest.— 
Editor.] 



"WE SHALL WIN!" SAYS VON 
HINDENBURG. 



From "The Fatherland." 

The chief magistrate and aldermen 
of the city of Magdeburg have record 
of the following letter from the Head- 
quarters of the army of the East : 

"With an admirable generosity, a 
large number of German cities have 
placed at my disposal, through Lord 
Mayors Mr. Beutler, Dr. Wilms and 
Town-Councillor Dr. Luther, $500,000 
as 'Hindenburg gift for the Eastern 
Army,' with the object of procuring 
furs for the troops under my command 
and protecting them against the sever- 
ity of the winter. 

"Magdeburg has taken a prominent 
share in bestowing that gift. Please 
accept my warmest thanks and those 
of my ai-mies for that patriotic action. 
Fighting for hearth and home as we 
are, we feel proud, happy and grateful 
that those who are left behind should 
remember us so lovingly and endeavor 
to make the privations of the cam- 
paign less keenly felt. 

"With God's help we shall win the 
war which has been criminally forced 
upon us." 

This was signed "von Hindenburg, 
General Field Marshal and Com- 
mander-in-chief of all German forces 
in the East." 



ENGLAND'S WARS SINCE 1870. 



(From "The Chicago Tribune," Sep- 
tember 18, 1914.) 

Chicago, Sept. 16. — [Editor of The 
Tribune.] — Be kind enough to an- 
swer the following questions in the 
Voice of the People: During the 
twenty-five years that the dreaded 
Kaiser, the war lord, has been on the 
throne, how many wars has he pre- 
cipitated, or been engaged in? Since 
the Franco-Prussian war of forty- 
three years ago, has Germany been 
at war with any country? During the 
same length of time, how many con- 
flicts has England brought on? And 
has England, up to date, ever en- 
gaged in war with a country of her 
own size? M. R. E. 

(Germany, in the forty-three years 
up to the present summer, had no 
war since that with France in 1870- 
71. Since that time England has 
fought the Ashanti tribes in 1873-4 
and 1895-6; the Zulus In 1879 and 
1906-7; Arahi Pasha in Egypt in 
1882, and the Madhi in 1884 and 
1896. In 189 9-1901 occurred the 
Boer war.) 



The Fatherland, New York. 
E. Dallmer. 

One of the cheap phrases repeated 
with the intention to influence the 
opinion of those Americans that can- 
not do their own thinking, but have 
to rely for their opinions upon the 
"expert" editorials of the yellow 
press is that "German militarism 
must be crushed before peace can 
reign in Europe." As this phrase 
has been repeated again and again 
a great part of the American people, 
for principle's sake opposed to com- 
pulsory service, came to the con- 
clusion that in reality nothing but 
"German militarism" has caused the 
war and that France, England, Rus- 
sia, Japan and all the smaller allies 
ought to be applauded for the hu- 
manitarian service they render the 
world in general — and the poor, 
down-trodden German people espe- 
cially — by delivering them from the 
heavy burden that the "mad War 
Lord" has put upon their shoulders. 

Although the originators of this 
phrase know that these conclusions 
are untrue, being based upon false 
assumptions, nevertheless . — under- 
standing well "the psychology of the 
crowd" — they constantly repeat this 
and many other stories of the same 
character and reliability with the 
sinister purpose of exciting the 
American public to such a degree as 
to force an Intervention of our Gov- 
ernment in favor of the "unholy al- 
liance." In the last few days not 
only the English prime minister and 
several of his colleagues, but the king 
himself, have joined the ranks of 
those craving our sympathies for 
England against German militarism. 

Now, what is militarism? Our 
dictionaries define it as (1) the mil- 
itary spirit; (2) addiction to war or 
military practices; (3) the mainte- 
nance of national power by means 
of standing armies. The definition 
given last seems to be the one apply- 
ing in our case. But if so, almost 
every country In the world, including 
our IT. S., is suffering from militar- 
ism. Thus It cannot be militarism In 
itself — the mere keeping of a stand- 
ing army — that Is eondemnahle, but 
the exaggeration of militarism, the 
keeping of such an armed force as to 
become a burden to their own people 
as well as a menace to the neighbors. 

Why is it that whenever the ques- 
tion of militarism Is raised every- 
body refers to the armies and no- 
body seems to think of the navies 
which are just as important a part 
of the national defense as the land 
forces are? Why is It that nobody 
points to the English navy, vastly 
superior to any other in the world, 
In number of ships and enlisted men, 
and talk about militarism? Is Eng- 
land allowed to have as big a fleet 
as she wants? Are Prance and Rus- 
sia allowed to Increase the strength 
of their armies as often and as much 
as they want, without anybody clam- 
oring "militarism"? Why is not the 
same spirit of tolerance shown 
towards Germany? Why is that 
country, the only one, denied the 



right to "maintain her national 
power by means of a standing army" 
of a size that will guarantee her 
this maintenance? 

In the following table I give a 
comparison of eight principal coun- 
tries, six of which are at present en- 
gaged In the war, one Is on the 
verge of entering the conflict, and 
the last one, our own beloved coun- 
try, needs all the prudence and 
statesmanship of her President and 
his political advisers to keep her out 
of the cataclysm into which the hire- 
lings of England try to draw her: 







Enlistment 






(Peace strength.) 


Country. 


Population. 


Army. 


Navy. 


England 


. 45,000.009 


254,500 


137,500 


Russia 


.160,100,000 


1,290.000 


52,463 


France 


. 39,300,000 


720,000 


60,621 


Germany 


. 64,900,000 


870,000 


66,783 


United States. 


. 94,800,000 


89,604 


64,780 


Italy 


. 33,900,000 


250,000 


33,095 


Austria- 








Hungary . . . 


. 49,400,000 


390,000 


17,581 


Japan 


. 52,200,000 


250,000 


51,054 



Per 

Estimated Expenditures 1913-14. Capita 

Army. Navy. Total. Cost. 

England . .$224,300,000 $224,140,000 $448,440,000 $9.97 

Russia 317,800,000 122,500,000 440,300.000 2.75 

France 191,431,580 119,571,400 311,002,980 7.91 

Germany... 183,090,000 111.300,000 294,390.000 4.54 

n. S 94,266,145 140,800,643 235,066.788 2.48 

Italy 82,928,000 51,000,000 133,928,000 3.95 

Austria- 
Hungary. 82,300,000 42,000,000 124,300,000 2.52 
Japan 49.000,000 46,500,000 95,500,000 1.85 

From the above we see that Ger- 
many, occupying the third place In 
population, stands in the second 
place in regard to enlistment in her 
army and navy, behind Russia and 
England, respectively. Her expendi- 
tures for maintaining the armed 
force, however, are surpassed by 
those of England, Russia and France, 
and. In the case of the navy, by those 
of the United States, also. The per 
capita cost of her armaments Is $4.54, 
much below that of France ($7.91) 
and less than half of what the Eng- 
lishman has to pay ($9.97). 

With no natural boundaries, e. g., 
high mountain ranges, to protect 
her provinces, Germany finds her- 
self threatened in the east by 1,290,- 
000 Russians, In the west by 720,000 
Frenchmen, together over 2,000,000 
soldiers, against whom she keeps an 
armed force of 870,000 men, 1. e., 
not even half the number her op- 
ponents have under arms all the 
time. Yet London claims — and the 
American papers obediently repeat 
It — that the German army is threat- 
ening not only all of Europe, but 
the rest of the world besides. 

I believe the above shows clearly 
that it is not Germany that has been 
strengthening her armaments and In- 
creasing her forces so as to endanger 
the peace of Europe; she has in 
reality done nothing but follow her 
course, as war seemed to be inevi- 
table. All this talk about German 
militarism ruining the prosperity of 
the country and endangering the 
world is so foolish when one looks 
at the real facts, that it is hardly 
worth while to try to open the eyes 
of those that do not want to see. 
Contemptible, however, and in the 
highest degree dangerous is the ef- 
fort of perfidious Albion and her 
American newspaper vassals to con- 
vince the United States that this so- 
called militarism Is directed against 
our republic, and that If Germany 



THE GERMAN MENACE— MILITARISM 



169 



could not be subdued in such a way 
as to be crippled for all time she will 
war against America next. As Ger- 
many (or Prussia) always has shown 
herself to be the only true and re- 
liable friend the Americans have — 
while England always was their 
greatest enemy — this conscienceless 
attempt of a part of the American 
press is so much more despicable 
and hardly short of criminal. 

But who is going to judge where 
justified militarism ends and the ex- 
aggeration begins? In the first 
place, surely the people who through 
their representatives in parliament 
have to appropriate the necessary 
means for the maintenance of army 
and navy. What is the attitude 'of 
the German people in this respect? 
It is true, they have been growling 
all these years when they paid their 
taxes, but less because they did not 
think the armaments necessary than 
for the very human reason that no- 
body likes to pay any money without 
receiving immediate returns for it. 
The Social Democrats, of course — 
• the strongest party in the Reichstag 
— have opposed many of the army 
and navy bills, but for principle's 
sake only (as their comrades have 
done all over the world). Their 
true standpoint was clearly shown 
in that memorable session of August 
4 th, when the Reichstag unanimous- 
ly appropriated 1250 million dollars 
to defray the necessary expenses in 
the beginning of the war, and the 
attitude of the people in general is 
best judged by the fact that when 
the government, a short time ago, 
asked for the first rate of 250 mil- 
lion dollars, more than one billion 
dollars were subscribed within a few 
days, with the subscriptions of all 
the rich men fighting at present with 
the army still standing out. 

Two years ago the government 
asked for a "Wehrsteuer," a spe- 
cial assessment on property and in- 
come to yield about 25 million dol- 
lars, for the purpose of increasing 
the peace strength, completing a 
number of regiments, providing for 
more machine gun companies, etc 
The law was passed by a great ma- 
jority, even the Social Democrats 
not opposing it very much, as the 
burden of this taxation rested on the 
well-to-do classes, while the poorer 
people were not affected by it. Their 
leaders knew very well that France 
was increasing the time of service 
from two to three years, thereby rais- 
ing the peace strength of her army 
almost 50 per cent; that she made 
great exertions to bring army and 
navy to the highest standard of effi- 
ciency, and that she had arranged 
for a large loan to Russia to be used 
In building out the strategic rail- 
roads of that latter country; they 
knew that Russia had failed to let 
the men who had finished their ac- 
tive service pass to the reserve, but 
kept them at their colors, thereby 
raising the strength of the active 
army to over a million and a quar- 
ter men, besides mobilizing (even at 
that time) army corps in various 
parts of the country, especially at 
the Austrian border; they knew very 
well that something had to be done 
to sharpen the German sword and 
that a strong opposition to and a re- 
sulting defeat of this bill would have 



been destructive the Social Demo- 
cratic party in Germany. 

As said above, the only people who 
would have a reason and a right to 
protest against German militarism 
are the Germans themselves, who 
have to pay the bills. That they are 
not in opposition to the Emperor 
and the government in this respect 
could not possibly have been shown 
any clearer than in those great days 
after the war was declared. Up to 
that time they had paid their taxes, 
which for purposes of armament 
amounted in the last years to about 
19 marks per head of the population, 
as an insurance against war, and 
many times it was only this prepon- 
derance of Germany that averted the 
catastrophe. And do not forget that 
all these hundreds of millions spent 
every year are left in the country. 
Millions of Germans, men of all 
trades, are employed by the govern- 
ment directly or indirectly to furnish 
all the necessaries for army and 
navy, and are paid with this money, 
Where, therefore, is the loss to the 
country that is so loudly proclaimed 
by "experts" when they speak of 
the "enormous German expendi- 
tures?" 

Germany has not much to gain in 
regard to enlarging her territory 
through a victorious war, but all 
Germans, from every walk of life — 
merchants and manufacturers, pro- 
fessors and students, artists and pro- 
fessionals, farmers and laborers, and, 
last, but not least, the German 
princes, quite a number of whom 
having been wounded or killed dur- 
ing the past few weeks in defend- 
ing their country (who has ever 
heard of English princes or Russian 
grand dukes exposing their valuable 
person?) — in fine, the whole people 
are united with the one purpose to 
sacrifice their lives and their pos- 
sessions in order that this account 
may be settled once and for all 
times, so that the Fatherland may 
develop further, as it has done dur- 
ing the last decades; that German 
commerce may expand over the 
whole globe in peaceful competition 
with that of other nations, and that 
no enemy will ever again try to 
deny the Germans their justly earned 
place in the sun. This spirit of self- 
sacrifice, this subordinating of their 
own personality for the best of the 
State has been the secret of Gei»- 
many's success in the past, and as 
long as this spirit is alive in all 
classes of the people — as shown by 
the spontaneous outburst during the 
first days of this August and ever 
since — there is every reason to be- 
lieve that Germany will triumph over 
her enemies and will arise after the 
war like a phoenix from its ashes. 



FIELD MARSHAL VON HINDEN. 
BURG. 

The Chicago Tribune recently pub- 
lished a series of articles by James 
O'Donnell Bennett which give an ex- 
cellent pen picture of Field Marshal 
Hindenburg, Germany's most popular 
hero. In the first of these Mr. Ben- 
nett describes the personal appear- 
ance of the German commander as 
follows: 

"His gray-white hair is cropped 
close at the back and sides of the 
head and in a wide, flat pompadour 
on the top, and that emphasizes the 
squareness of his head. His fore- 
head is low, his nose smallish, his 
complexion pale, and the skin like 
fine parchment. 

"The notable feature of his face 
is the eyes. It is they and the big 
mustache and the strong jaws that 
give the man his leonine aspect. 
There are deep, heavy, sad lines 
under the eyes and at each side of 
the mouth. Even the large black 
mustache does not conceal the latter. 

"The eyes, too, are sad— small, 
sad, searching eyes — small, not won- 
derful when the general's attention 
is not aroused, but at once startling 
and commanding in their effect when 
he becomes alert. When he turns 
them on you, you know it — and the 
realization is accompanied almost by 
a gasp. One glance searches a man. 

"There is power in the well poised 
head and in the erect shoulders, and 
that impression of power is increased 
because the man moves so little. For 
many minutes he seems to sit motion- 
less, and when he does move it is 
with slow deliberation. His counte- 
nance is not stern, but melancholy 
and meditative: not gloomy, though, 
for there is a sweetness in it that 
none of the portraits can convey, for 
the painters are inclined to make 
him burly. It is the victor of the 
awful week at Tannenberg whom 
they paint and not the man of the 
long years of patient waiting." 



MR. WELIiS ON GERMANY. 



THE GERMAN SPIRIT. 

Men do not fight as the Germans 
have, as they are now fighting; na- 
tions do not bear, suffer, endure, 
unless the very depths of their spirit 
responds to the call made upon them 
by their country's need. Not in any 
record of history that we have has 
any nation given more supreme evi- 
dence of devotion, of courage, than 
the Germans in the recent months. 



From "The Chicago Tribune," Sep- 
tember 14, 1914. 

Chicago, Sept. 12. — (Editor of 
The Tribune.)^ — In Mr. Wells' "So- 
cial Forces in England and America" 
(Harper Bros.) you will find on page 
41: 

"It is usual to regard Germany as 
the common enemy. We in Great 
Britain are now intensely jealous of 
Germany. We are intensely jealous 
of Germany not only because the 
Germans outnumber us and have a 
much larger and more diversified 
country than ours, and lie In the 
very heart and body of Europe, but 
because in the last hundred years, 
while we have fed on platitudes and 
vanity, they have had the energy and 
humility to develop a splendid sys- 
tem of national education, to toll at 
science and art and literature, to 
develop social organization, to mas- 
ter and better our methods of busi- 
ness and industry, and to clamber 
above us in the scale of civilization.'* 



170 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



MIIilTARISM. 

Very seldom has the attractiveness 
of a catch-word been better exempli- 
fied than by the grim sounding phrase 
"militarism," and not often have the 
multitudes been so Impudently be- 
fooled by a hollow word, the mean- 
ing of which was a mystery to every- 
body. 

Of course, there has been here in 
America a sensible minority who from 
the beginning saw the absurdity of 
these two propositions : 

(1) That Russia, France and Eng- 
land were not militaristic with armies 
and navies about three times as strong 
as Germany's, who was surrounded 
and incessantly threatened by them ; 

(2) That England should call Ger- 
many militaristic, when she had a 
fleet over twice as large as Germany, 
whose army was not as large as the 
armies of Russia and France, not even 
half as large, but only a little over a 
third the size of her enemies' armies. 

"Militarism," the dictionary tells us, 
"is that system or policy which causes 
nations to keep up great armies (or 
navies), and to pay excessive attention 
to military affairs." 

"Excessive attention," there lies the 
crux of the matter and that is the 
measui'e we may use to find out 
whether militarism is to be found in 
Germany or in any other country. 

At the beginning of the war the 
peace strength of the different armies 
and navies was as follows : 

Battleships and 
Army. Dreadnoughts. 

Germany 800,419 35 

Great Britain. 250,545 71 

France 760.000 23 

Russia 1,246,000 — 

In other words Gernmuy had an army 
of 800,000 men, against 2,006.000 men 
of France and Russia, by whom she 
was enclosed and openly threatened. 
Germany has thirty-five battleships 
and dreadnoughts against ninety-four 
of England and France, who no less 
openly had threatened her for years 
on the seas. 

For centuries France has been the 
avowed enem^ of- Germany, for decades 
Russia, for years England. Ever since 
the time of Caesar has Germany been 
the battleground of Europe and in the 
year 1914 her bad neighbors intended 
once more to devastate her green fields, 
to destroy her treasure, her commerce 
and her industries, to burn her cities 
and villages. Was there anything to 
do for Germany but to arm, and to in- 
crease her armament with that of her 
neighbors? Time and again she has 
stretched out the hand of friendship 
towards her Gallic neighbor, but each 
time it was refused by France, latter- 
ly because England had begun to fan 
the smoldering embers of her hatred 
into flames again. 

The question, then, is whether Ger- 
many with an army of 800,000 men paid 
excessive attention to military affairs, 
when she was to use this army only 
in defense, and against armies aggre- 
gating over two million men. Can any 
sensible man answer this question in 
the aflirmative? Whoever does, says 
by it that two million is less than 
eight hundred thousand, that thirty- 



five is more than ninety-four. Russia 
had fifty per cent, more soldiers than 
Germany, France had forty thousand 
less, but as Germany had sixty-seven 
million, while France had only forty 
million inhabitants, the latter should 
have had only 477,000 soldiers instead 
of 760,000, in other words 283,000 sol- 
diers less than she actually had, not 
to have more in proportion than Ger- 
many. 

Can any but madmen assert that 
Germany with eight hundred thousand 
soldiers thought of aggression against 
countries with over two million sol- 
diers? By such aggression Germany 
stood to gain nothing and to lose every- 
thing, and it is a fact, which every- 
body can verify, that in the beginning 
of the war nobody thought that Ger- 
many (even with Austria-Hungary 
helping) had any chance of victory 
even before England joined her allies. 

And now let us consider a while the 
militarism of England, not as exhibited 
by her mercenaries (before the war), 
but as represented by her navy on a 
peace footing. This instrument of her 
might consisted in 1913 of 625 vessels 
with 2,878 heavy guns and 1,146 tor- 
pedo tubes, among them 71 dread- 
noughts and battleships, while Ger- 
many had only 35 of the latter. Eng- 
land's fleet m time of peace was twice 
as large as Germany's, and why Ger- 
many with an army 50 per cent, 
smaller than Russia's should be called 
the home of "militarism" while Eng- 
land with a fleet twice the size of Ger- 
many's never was, is one of those mys- 
teries, which, like the man in the iron 
mask, will never be solved. And it 
should be remembered in this connec- 
tion that the militarism of England, 
represented by her fleet, has been an 
objectionable fact these two or three 
centuries, while Germany has existed 
only since 1871. 

And another point in this connec- 
tion ! 

With wars going on all around her, 
and giving her wonderful opportunities 
of acting as contemptibly as England 
did in August, 1914 (we mention only 
the Boer war and the Russo-Japanese 
war), Germany stuck to her policy of 
honor and peace, and not once gave 
any sign that she would use her army 
for purposes of aggression. England, 
on the other hand, has, through the 
centuries, used her fleet only once or 
twice for home defense, but mostly for 
aggression, and has in all of her wars 
discarded the rules of fairness and in- 
ternational law. Similar to France, 
who under Louis XIV stole Alsace and 
Lorraine from Germany when she was 
busy fighting the Turks, perfidious Al- 
bion has always used the misfortune or 
weakness of other countries to enrich 
herself tiy conquest, until now she is 
the tyrant of possessions (so-called 
colonies) all over the world, which she 
holds by right of might, rules by the 
whip of the slave-driver, and blesses 
with rum. opiufli and a lying press. 

And now, as to militarism, 'What is 
the answer? — From "The Crucible." 



A WARNING. 



Germany is the only combatant 
that is publishing a list of her dead 
and wounded. England, France and 
Russia have stopped counting. — 
Prom "The Fatherland," New York, 
October 28, 1914. 



Editorial from the "Milwaukee Free 
Press," September 16, 1914. 

Isn't there danger that some of us 
— especially certain newspapers — are 
adopting a "holier than thou" atti- 
tude with respect to the nations in- 
volved in the terrible European war? 
The pacific temper of the American 
people is not to be underestimated. 
We want peace with all the world, 
and we are prepared to go to the 
farthest lengths in maintaining 
friendly relations with our fellow 
peoples. America leads the world in 
the promotion of those means that 
make for the peaceful settlement of 
international disputes. 

At the same time, there are certain 
facts in our government and our his- 
tory which we must bear well in 
mind before we attempt hostile crit- 
icism on the ground of militaristic 
and warlike tendency; we must do 
this, or run the danger of being ac- 
cused of Pharisaism. 

For instance, take the current de- 
nunciation of militarism in Europe. 
Do the good people who give ut- 
terance to this know that of every 
dollar annually appropriated by the 
United States government nearly 63 
cents goes for war? That this appro- 
priation is almost thirteen times as 
great as the next largest appropriation 
— which is for rivers and harbors? 

Do they know that the congress set 
aside $241,302,564.91 for armament 
and other military purposes in 1914 and 
that the pensions obligated by past 
wars amounted to $180,300,000 for the 
same period? 

Do these critics of Europe realize 
that the United States today has the 
second largest navy of the world, a 
navy that costs us over $140,000,000 
every year? 

Do they realize that, on top of all 
this federal expenditure, the militia of 
the states, compelled by national law, 
costs in the neighborhood of $5,000,000 
annually ? 

When we consider that the United 
States has no dangerous foes on her 
borders and no entangling alliances, 
that she is splendidly isolated and un- 
equalled in her latent powers of re- 
sources, can we justly, in the face of 
our tremendous military expenditure, 
denounce, let us say, the militarism of 
Germany, a country surrounded by a 
world of jealous, militant enemies? 

There is the other criticism that 
there is no justification of the Euro- 
pean war; the implication being that 
we. under the circumstances, could 
not have been drawn into such a con- 
flict. . ^. . 

The European war had its immediate 
incentive in the Austro-Servian clash. 
Then let us hark back to our recent 
war with Spain, and see if the condi- 
tions are not somewhat analogous. 

The United States objected to the 
intolerable conditions in Cuba, which 
were increasingly affecting our gov- 
ernment and our citizens. Austria was 
similarly concerned with making an 
end of the evil and bloody machi- 
nations in Servia that threatened her 
peace. , . 

In our case it took the explosion 
of the Maine, in Austria's case the 



THE GERMAN MENACE— MILITARISM 



171 



assassination of the crown prince, to 
bring public opinion to the striking 
pitch and cause the submission of an 
ultimatum by the government that 
could mean but one thing — war. 

We were no more content to submit 
the Maine disaster to a Spanish com- 
mission than the Austrians were to sub- 
mit the assassination to Servian in- 
vestigators. We had our own investi- 
gation just as the Austrians had theirs, 
and though our official findings, unlike 
those of Austria, refused to fix respon- 
sibility for the disaster, public opinion 
proceeded on the justified assumption of 
Spanish guilt and twenty days after the 
report of our commission, congress sent 
our drastic, war-compelling demand to 
Spain. 

It is interesting to note in this con- 
nection that just as the United States 
disavowed any intent of territorial ac- 
quisition in Cuba, so did Austria in the 
case of Servia. In each case the gov- 
ernment made clear that it was actu- 
ated by the sole purpose of putting 
an end to an intolerable condition and 
of punishing those responsible for it. 

We point out these facts because we 
think it of the utmost importance that 
in our efforts and our prayers for 
peace, we proceed in charity and con- 
sideration for our battling kin across 
the sea, and with the fullest recogni- 
tion of our own record with respect to 
war and the preparations for war. 

The "holier than thou" attitude will 
not get us anywhere. 



AN AWAKENED CONGRESS. 



SUBMARINE IN THE SEA AND 
ZEPPELIN IN THE AIR. 



Editorial from the "Chicago Even- 
ing Post," September 24, 1914. 

England in somber dignity, with- 
out explanation or reproach, an- 
nounces the destruction of three of 
her great cruisers by German sub- 
marines. Berlin says that but one 
submarine, U-9, did it. 

The news has sent thru Britain 
a thrill more deep than would have 
come from the rout of General 
French's whole "expeditionary force." 

There is a reason for this pro- 
found feeling. 

Before the war Sir Percy Scott, 
one of the feaval authorities of Eng- 
land, told the Times that the sub- 
marine would render all navies, even 
that of the mistress of the seas, out 
of date and ineffective. 

England's supreme reliance in 
war — her navy — faces a terror as 
unknown as that from the first iron- 
clad when it sailed among the Union 
ships in the Chesapeake Bay. 

Worse than that, another specter 
rises. If it is the logical develop- 
ment of the submarine to render in- 
effective the great sea forces of war, 
may it not be the logical develop- 
ment of the airship to render in- 
effective the great land forces of 
war? May not the Zeppelin be to 
an army what a submarine can be 
to a navy? 

Is Germany holding in reserve 
these two untested engines of war to 
drive home her final thunderbolts? 
Is this the basis for her wonderful 
confidence? Is this her real hope? 



Editorial from the "Army and Navy 

Journal," New York, September 

5, 1914. 

The first step toward the enactment 
of necessary military legislation next 
session will be the creation of a joint 
committee or commission to look into 
the needs of the Army and Navy. The 
dreams of universal peace which have 
lulled the slumbers of members of 
Congress have been dispelled by the 
European war. Those who have been 
giving serious thought to national 
affairs are now fully awake to the 
necessities of preparing the country for 
war. 

Whatever may be the result of the 
great struggle in Europe it is now 
realized in Congress that this nation 
will be confronted with new dangers. 
The success of the Allies will increase 
the power of Japan in the Pacific 
Ocean. Furthermore, a great many 
leaders of both houses are deeply con- 
cerned with the alliance between Eng- 
land and Japan. It is insisted by Eng- 
land that this is a defensive alliance, 
but the word defensive in international 
affairs is very flexible. Japan might 
really force this country to make war 
while constructively it would be on 
the defensive. In that event England 
would be forced to join with Japan 
in a war with this country or violate 
her treaty with Japan. Of course, 
there is a great deal of prattling just 
at present about England being our 
mother country, but two of our wars 
have been with England and in the 
Civil War, England supported the 
South, not so much because she loved 
the Confederacy as for the evident pur- 
pose of splitting the nation in twain. 
At • least this country cannot safely 
depend upon England to support it 
either in peace or war against her ally 
in the Orient. 

With the success of Germany some of 
the members of Congress believe that 
this nation would be called upon to de- 
fend the Monroe Doctrine. There is an 
impression that Germany is not friendly 
to this doctrine, especially as it does 
not preclude England from holding 
Canada and her other possessions. 
Germany insists that there is no foun- 
dation for this fear and that she is a 
better friend to the United States tlian 
any other European nation. At pres- 
ent all of the belligerents are pro- 
fessing friendship and appealing to the 
United States for moral support. There 
is an impression that the United States 
will be a sort of an umpire in the 
treaty that will come at the close of 
the war. But as peacemaker the 
United States may incur the enmity of 
some one or more of the great Powers. 
Neither Russia nor Japan ever appre- 
ciated what this country did in the 
negotiations at the close of the Russo- 
Japanese war, and there are others be- 
sides the parties to the controversy who 
regard our interference as an imperti- 
nent piece of intermeddling. The war 
party in Japan was under the convic- 
tion that the United States robbed 
Japan of much of its fruits of victory 
in proposing peace at the time it did. 
This, it is claimed, has created un- 
friendly feeling in Japan which will 
some time cause trouble between the 
two countries. 



Up to this time only a few members 
of Congress have given serious con- 
sideration to the question of national 
defense. In a begrudging and half- 
hearted manner they have voted for 
the naval program and have begrudged 
every cent that was expended on the 
Army. They have refused absolutely to 
believe that there ever will be any 
serious danger of a conflict with a first 
class Power. Your average Congress- 
man believes that the armament of all 
of the great European nations is a use- 
less expenditure and that if we should 
happen to be drawn into a war we 
would depend upon the patriotic spirit 
of the people of the country to defend 
the nation. But every engagement in 
the European war tends to dispel this 
illusion. It does not require a mili- 
tary expert to see that it is trained 
soldiers that are winning the battles 
in Europe. The success of the German 
arm is now admitted to be due to 
the wise military policy of that country. 

Quite naturally, members of Congress 
realize that it is now their duty to 
take up and solve the question of na- 
tional defense for the United States. 
They have paid very little attention to 
the recommendations submitted by the 
War Department from time to time and 
earnestly desire the advice of the joint 
commission or committee. This com- 
mission will probably take up the en- 
tire question, and the future military 
policy of Congress will depend largely 
upon its report. 



THE AIR STRENGTH OF THE 
WARRING NATIONS. 

From the "Questions and Answers" 

Column in the "New Yorker 

Staats-Zeitnng. ' ' 

N. C. D. What is the air strength 
of Germany and Austria and of the 
Allies? Is the dirigible a more serv- 
iceable war instrument than the 
aeroplane? 

At the beginning of the war the 
"air strength" of the principal par- 
ticipants was given as follows: 

Dirig's Aerop's 

Germany 22 320 

Austria-Hungary ... 7 100 

Totals 29 420 

France 16 834 

Russia 10 164 

England 6 250 

Belgium 2 40 

Servia 10 

Montenegro 1 

Totals 34 1,299 

It should be remembered, how- 
ever, that these figures, though per- 
haps the best available to the pub- 
lic at the time, are only approxi- 
mate. The true strength of the vari- 
ous nations in aeroplanes and dirigi- 
bles is known only to their respective 
governments. It is well known, for 
example, that Germany is much bet- 
ter equipped with Zeppelin dirigibles 
than this statement infers. 

The question of the comparative 
value of the dirigible balloon and the 
aeroplane as an instrument of war 
is still to be answered. As far as 
we are able to see now, as a result 
of their respective performances in 
the present war, the aSroplane is 
better adapted to scouting operations. 



172 



THE ALL,IANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



A SWEDISH POET ABOUT THE 
GERMAN ARMY. 



The Crucible. 

The Swedish poet, Bengt Berg, 
who is one of the best known writers 
of the present generation, is staying 
in Berlin at present. Like his fa- 
mous countryman, Sven Hedin, he 
too felt the longing to follow the 
war near the front but while Sven 
Hedin selected the western theater 
of war, Berg chose the East. Here 
he has watched the operations in Po- 
land for three weeks, and has lately 
returned to his home. In an inter- 
view he spoke as follows: 

"Of the things which surprise me 
most, one observation astonished me 
especially, and that was that I did 
not notice anything of the much ma- 
ligned militarism. If anywhere and 
at any time this militarism certainly 
should have shown during the war 
and in time of battle, but I could not 
see anything of it. The explanation 
of this seems to me to be the smooth 
working of everything that is neces- 
sary. Officers and privates all seem 
to feel themselves as working towards 
one great end: The victory which 
must be won. Everything is deed 
and activity, nothing is word or ges- 
ture. During the battles near Boli- 
mow I was standing among a group 
of high officers who were directing 
the battle, and had a good opportu- 
ity to make observations. They were 
all men of serious and even severe 
countenance, but I said to myself: 
'not one of all these men seem to 
worry about the judgment which his 
superiors later on may pronounce 
about his orders, they all seem to act 
without fear and doubt and still, 
fully conscious of their responsi- 
bility.' 

"And there was another thing that 
struck me; that these men did not 
seem to feel any hatred against their 
enemies. It is true when I stood at 
the batteries, that I saw the artillery- 
men load their guns as it were with 
a prayer to carry death and destruc- 
tion into the ranks of their enemies. 
It is also true that the German sol- 
diers become drunk with the battle- 
rage in a bayonet charge. But as 
soon as the charge is over the rage 
is gone and they know in the enemy 
only the man who suffers from the 
horrors of war exactly as they do 
themselves. And how could these 
men keep up their anger against 
these enemies when they are help- 
less in their hands? I shall not speak 
here of the Cossacks, but I have seen 
the Russian soldiers as prisoners. 
One can hardly imagine anything 
more good-natured and gentler than 
the Russian soldier, so that I had 
only this one thought: how can these 
big children be forced to march 
against the Germans of whom each 
one knows what he wants and what 
he must do? The Germans are men, 
mentally as well as physically, and as 
a Scandinavian, I was surprised to 
meet with so many blond-haired and 
blue-eyed men. I have lived long 
on the Rhine and in Berlin, and so 
I had no idea that there was still 
so much undiluted Germanic blood 
in the veins of the German people. 
These soldiers are well-nourished and 



even out in the field they are want- 
ing for nothing. On the occasion of 
the Emperor's birthday I spent the 
evening in one of the foremost 
trenches where they had fixed them- 
selves up quite comfortably although 
the Russians did not give us any 
peace. We had quite a little feast, 
and there was plenty of everything. 
What I saw on the table in that 
trench might have awakened the envy 
of many a well-situated family. Don't 
misunderstand me, though! There 
were no luxuries, only plain things, 
but in splendid quality and in abund- 
ance. I wish their enemies could see 
how well the German soldiers are 
eared for, and that they could throw 
a glance into the stores in Tilsit 
where eatables are sold. Since 1 
have seen all this I can understand 
how vain an endeavor it must remain 
to starve Germany. And as to con- 
quering her — the very idea is ab- 
surd." 



navaijISm vs. militarism. 



THE COST OP ARMAMENT. 



Editorial from the "Milwaukee Free 
Press," September 17, 1914. 

A reader, referring to our editorial 
of yesterday, "A Warning," asks for 
figures on the cost of maintaining the 
armies, navies and other military de- 
fenses of the European powers as 
compared with those of the United 
States. 

The estimated cost of the British 
military and naval establishment, not 
including fortifications, for the fiscal 
year 1913-14 amounts t.o $448,440,- 
000. 

The military and naval budget of 
Russia, for the same period, com- 
plete, calls for $440,300,000. 

The estimated military expenditure 
of Prance for 1913 is $191,431,580, 
while her navy for 1914 is placed at 
$119,571,400. A fair total estimate 
for the fiscal year is, therefore, $312,- 
000,000. 

The cost of the German army in 
1912-13 amounted to $183,090,000, 
while the German naval estimate for 
1913-14 is $111,300,000. A total of 
$295,000,000 is therefore fair. 

The appropriations of the United 
States for army, navy and other mili- 
tary purposes for the fiscal year 
1913-14 exceeds $241,300,000, which 
does not include some $5,000,000 
spent on state militia and the cost 
of military training at state univer- 
sities and private military schools. 

Italy expected to spend $133,928,- 
000 on army and navy during the 
year; Austro-Hungary $124,300,000, 
and Japan about $95,500,000. 

It will be noted that the United 
States ranks almost as the equal of 
Germany as a military nation; judged 
from the standpoint of expenditure; 
they occupying respectively fourth 
and fifth place in the list. 

We leave it to our readers: Which 
of these nations has the most and 
which has the least warranty for 
these astounding expenditures in 
preparation for war? 



(Prom "The Chicago THbune," Sep- 
tember 18, 1914.) 

Chicago, Sept. 11. — [Editor of The 
Tribune.] — Sir Edward Grey con- 
tends that Britain is at war for the 
purpose of destroying German mili- 
tarism. What does he mean by this? 
Is militarism analogous with con- 
scription? All continental powers 
have conscription, Russia, France, 
Italy, etc., as well as Germany. 

Does militarism mean an abnor- 
mally large standing army? The 
standing army of Germany is about 
800,000 strong, that of Prance 780,- 
000, that of Russia, 1,500,000. Of 
those liable to military service, 87 
per cent had to undergo military 
training in France; in Germany only 
58 per cent. 

Great Britain has always claimed 
that she needed a navy double the 
size of any other nation. Is this not 
navalism? British claimed that she 
needed this navy for home defense. 
But in every war of her history she 
has used this navy for aggression, 
and the destruction of German trade 
proves today the same old story. 

Is British navalism better than 
German militarism? Is Russian or 
French militarism better than Ger- 
man? Dr. C. Dencker. 



OUR OWN BATXIiE. 



Prance has long specialized In 
submarines. What is it going to do 
with them? • — From "The Daily 
News," Chicago, September 28, 1914. 



By Harlowe Randall Hoyt, in the 
"Milwaukee Free Press," Sep- 
tember 15, 1914. 

It was a summer's evening. 
Old Caspar's work was done, 
And he within a beer saloon 
Called for another one. 
A newsboy passing by just then 
Cried out an "Extra!" loud; 
And Caspar bought one for a cent. 
And read it to the crowd. 

"They say the Germans have been 

licked. 
And all were put to rout; 
Prance claims another victory 
With many a cheer and shout; 
Yes, Germany is licked, but still 
Goes on toward Paris with a will." 

"They say the English cleaned them 

up. 
And forced them back again; 
That Russia shattered up their line. 
And caused the kaiser pain; 
That Germany is licked, but still 
Goes on toward Paris with a will." 

"They say it was an awful fight 

That put the foe to rout; 

(I'd give a dollar if I knew 

What this is all about.) 

The kaiser's troops are licked, but 

still 
Go on to Paris with a will." 

"I wish you would explain it, please, 

To those assembled here." 

Spoke up a man, and ordered up 

Another round of beer. 

"Explain it?" Caspar cried, "Search 

me! 
But 'twas a famous victory." 



THE GERMAN MENACE— MILltARISM 



1/3 



The German Menace as Seen Through British Eyes 



Note on the Buroi)eaii War. 



The Open Court. 

By Philip B. B. Jourdain. 

This note is not meant to blame 
those responsible for the war, nor 
even — usually a stage reached long 
after this process, to find out who 
were responsible or to investigate the 
causes of the war. It is enough to 
say that all the people of Great Brit- 
ain are thoroughly convinced that 
they have come into this war for two 
reasons and two only. The first is 
an obligation of honor: an obligation 
to protect the neutrality of Belgium. 
They believe firmly, and on good au- 
thority, that the German statements 
that France intended to violate this 
neutrality, and that Great Britain 
would have meekly allowed her to 
do so, are false. The second is a 
love of liberty, and consequent 
hatred of militarism. To the outside 
world, Britain may possibly appear 
to be a country largely governed by 
a king or queen and an aristocracy 
of birth. This is not true. When a 
king of England thought he was ap- 
pointed by God and consequently op- 
pressed his people, the people bore 
it much longer than reasonable peo- 
ple ought, but at last they cut off 
his head. Long ago, when peers 
were respected far more than they 
are now, a Lord Ferrers, in a high- 
handed way, murdered a servant of 
his. He was tried and condemned to 
death. To show proper respect to 
the aristocracy, he was allowed to 
drive to the gallows in his coach and 
four, . . . iut he ivas hanged. 
Britain is a pleasant place: there is 
a court and gay ceremonies which 
cost a lot of money and an aristocracy 
which is toadied, and yet nearly all 
Britons are republicans; the rest are 
social democrats. 

Then think how the British now- 
adays show that they know the value 
that others put on liberty. Look 
how properly South Africa and Aus- 
tralia have been treated lately. I 
think that all thoughtful British peo- 
jile would agree that all the British 
possessions will be made self-govern- 
ing when they have shown themselves 
to be fit for it, even though it should 
cost the mother country some sacri- 
fices. If Britons and their nominal 
ruler had all been as sensible in the 
reign of George III, Britain would 
never have lost the United States. 
Britons do not believe that Germany 
has the ability, experience or broad- 
mindedness necessary for dealing 
with colonies. German ideals would, 
they think, be forced on German pos- 
sessions as German military ideals 
are forced on the German people. 
And this brings me to the chief point 
of this note. 

Let us consider one aspect of the 
war: the aspect of the possible 
spread of German civilization where 
Russian, French, Belgian or British 
civilization now is. Whether or no 
the necessity for this propaganda is, 
as General Bernhardl seems to think, 
a cause of the war, I am not con- 
cerned to inquire. If the Germans 
are ultimately victorious, the spread 



in question will certainly be an ef- 
fect, and may possibly be an effect 
which is a fulfillment of an ideal that 
made the war seem a righteous one 
to the Germans. If so, the ideal is 
not worthy of the sacrifice of even 
a small part of a nation's honor or 
life or even prosperity. We can 
neither shut our eyes to the disgrace- 
ful brutalities that war must neces- 
sarily involve, nor to the fact that 
such brutalities are exaggerated by 
enemies and hidden or excused by 
friends. It is the custom of people 
to speak as if they were far more 
bloodthirsty than they really are. The 
British are usually supposed to be 
very reserved, and yet I have heard 
a wish expressed by a kindly old 
woman in an omnibus that a certain 
foreigner who attempted to shoot a 
policeman in London should be boiled 
in oil. Another story illustrates the 
essential calmness and good humor 
of the British disposition, in spite of 
alarming words. An American visi- 
tor was listening to a very high- 
sounding oration in Trafalgar Square. 
The speaker was referring to some 
one now dead and who was a prom- 
inent member of the English royal 
family. " 'E ought to be shot, the 
swine !" said the orator. The 
American visitor said in an awe- 
struck voice to a policeman who 
was standing by: "There, do you 
hear that? What are you going to 
do about it?" The policeman just 
.smiled: "Lor' bless you, sir," he 
said, " 'e don't mean no 'arm." The 
policeman's view was quite correct. 
It is nearly always misleading to 
draw distinctions between national 
characteristics; at the bottom all na- 
tions are very much alike. The 
ability of doing noble things in an 
emergency is common to all; the 
willingness to make a great sacrifice 
and to bear it through tedious years 
without making a noise about it, is 
not confined to any particular nation 
or group of nations. All nations are 
riddled through and through with 
vanity and snobbery. Indeed, 
broadly speaking, snobbishness seems 
to be the main thing that differenti- 
ates civilized peoples from uncivil- 
ized ones. We all have a love of 
home and comfort. In the upper 
classes and among men and women 
of genius, a straining after ideals is 
often a more powerful desire than 
the wish for comfort; but martyrs, 
musicians, poets and scientific men 
are not the monopoly of Teutonic 
or Slav or Anglo-Saxon nations. I 
do not suppose that good humor is 
a peculiarity of one's own nation. 
The only things that seem to be 
possibly a national peculiarity are 
jokes; but even here liability to 
laugh at the jokes of other nations 
does not necessarily mean that the 
jokers of one's own nation are the 
only amusing jokers there are. 
Probably Americans and Britains 
have more or less the same sense of 
humor, and this may be due to their 
common origin. The two sayings 
about the war which appeal uni- 
versally to Englishmen's sense of 
humor were both, if I am not mis- 



taken, first said by Americans. One 
is: "Nobody seems to be on the side 
of the German's except God, and we 
have only the Kaiser's word for 
that." The other is: "There is only 
one thing that the Germans could do 
which would be worse than the de- 
struction of Rheims Cathedral, and 
that is its restoration." As further 
evidence that the American and Eng- 
lish senses of humor are fundamen- 
tally alike, these two facts should 
be remembered: first, Mark Twain 
is appreciated in England; secondly, 
no American laughs at "Punch," 
and no Englishman does 
either. 

Since all nations have a good deal 
of common ground on which to build 
up a friendship, it is necessary that 
each nation should use that under- 
standing which discovers the lova- 
bility of the people one knows to 
make the thought of each nation well 
understood by all other nations. It 
is a great mistake to imagine that 
any of us can do merely with that 
part of the civilization of a particu- 
lar people which finds expression in 
print, music or pictures; and this 
truth, which, as it happens, Ameri- 
cans have grasped more firmly and 
put into practice more fully than any 
other nation, I shall try to illustrate 
by considering shortly those con- 
tributions of Germany to civilization, 
with which I am acquainted. I think 
that, if one wishes to say anything of 
the least value, it is to be recom- 
mended that one should not stray out 
of the narrow domain of what one 
knows. 

I shall then leave out of serious 
consideration the realms of art and 
most of the realms of science. Most 
of us know, with some reason for 
knowing, that almost the whole of 
the art of music is due to Germany, 
and that hardly anything in the arts 
of sculpture and painting is due to 
Germany. In literature, it is a 
platitude that Germany stands far 
below almost every other civilized 
European nation. In philosophy, it 
is a debatable point whether the Ger- 
mans can be put above the British: 
they can undoubtedly be put above 
all other nations. We come to the 
sciences. 

In the first place, every one must 
admit that the bulk of the tremen- 
dously valuable work of the organi- 
zation of research and reports of re- 
searches during the last fifty years 
has been done by Germany. In 
mathematics, physics, chemistry and 
other natural sciences, it is to Ger- 
man industry, German talent and 
German organization that we are in- 
debted for abridged and permanent 
records of nearly everything that 
has happened in science over the 
whole world, and which otherwise 
would probably have been quite lost. 
Also — and what is far more import- 
ant — there have been many eminent 
Germans who have supplied the ideas 
that other men write about. In 
mathematics during the nineteenth 
century, the work of German mathe- 
maticians like Gauss, Grassmann, 
Dirichlet, Riemann, Weierstrass, 



174 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



Steiner and Georg Cantor is certainly 
more important than the work done 
by the mathematicians of any other 
nation. In physics, any candid in- 
quirer must admit that the most im- 
portant work has been done by the 
physicists of Great Britain. If any 
of the physical works of that original 
and open-minded man Ernst Mach be 
examined, we shall find almost on 
every page warm and unstinting 
praise given to men like Maxwell, 
Kelvin and Jo.ule. And Mach's 
praise is worth having. As a critic, 
he is just and penetrating, as witness' 
his estimate of Dalton's achieve- 
ments in his "Principles of the The- 
ory of Heat" or of Newton's achieve- 
ments in his "Mechanics." 

In a branch of science which is 
now very closely allied to mathe- 
matics — I mean modern logic — the 
part played by Germany is extraordi- 
narily unimportant. It is true that 
one of the greatest of Germans, 
Leibniz, may be said to have orig- 
inated modern logic, but the majority 
of his writings on it remained un- 
published for more than two hundred 
years. The beginnings of it were re- 
discovered about the middle of the 
nineteenth century by two English- 
men, George Boole and Augustus De 
Morgan; developed importantly by 
an American, Charles Peirce; and 
developed less importantly and sys- 
tematized in a work of incredible pro- 
lixity by a German, Ernst Schroder. 
I omit all lesser names. Then came 
the truly great work of a German, 
Gottlob Frege, which only began to 
be appreciated about ten years ago, 
and is not yet properly appreciated 
by any German logician or mathema- 
tician. Schroder, indeed, quite mis- 
understood the purpose of Frege's 
work. Later on came the work of 
the Italians, Giuseppe Peano and his 
school. Schroder misunderstood 
them and showed a miraculous ob- 
tuseness in asserting over and over 
again that he could not accept a dis- 
tinction of ideas pointed out by 
Peano. Peano's distinction is quite 
easy to see when it is pointed out. 
At present the chief cultivators of 
modern logic are English, but im- 
portant parts have been taken by 
Americans, Italians and Frenchmen. 
Germany has hitherto taken no part 
in one of the most important philo- 
sophical movements there can be, 
giving as it does, definite information 
about the foundations of the exact 
sciences. 

These lines have served to show, 
by a very important example, that 
if we confine ourselves to German 
science we miss a very important 
part of what has been done. There 
is not even an intelligent account 
of the principles of the exact sciences 
published in the whole of Germany. 
In this respect the Germans have 
shown unexampled obtuseness. This 
is not national prejudice, nor is it 
my intention to depreciate the noble 
work the Germans have done in 
many other branches of science. But 
I merely wish to express strongly my 
feeling that discovery of the truth 
is only to be reached by promoting 
the mutual understanding of nations. 
One of the features of the science of 
the last ten years has been the 
growth of international journals de- 



voted to the discussion of scientific 
subjects. To this end both "The 
Open Court" and "The Monist" con- 
stantly contribute; and only by the 
help of a growth of understanding 
between nations and the perception 
that we are all really very much alike 
and all seek very much the same ends 
can a lasting peace be secured. 



MR. JOURDAIN'S NOTE ON THE 
WAR. 



By the Editor. 
The Open Court. 

When the editor of "The Open 
Court" came to the conclusion that 
the present crisis in international 
politics should be discussed, he 
thought at once of having an article 
published which would represent the 
position opposite to his own. He 
himself, who has always been a 
strong and outspoken friend of the 
English, has taken the German posi- 
tion and has done so for reasons set 
forth in the October issue of "The 
Open Court." There is scarcely any- 
thing gained by attempting to de- 
fend either Russia or France, for 
their motives in entering into the 
war are plain. We are interested to 
learn the reasons which have moved 
England to join Russia and France 
in this tremendous struggle. 

For a number of years the Open 
Court Publishing Company has been 
in correspondence with Mr. Philip 
E. B. Jourdain, a scholar of English 
training in close touch with the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, and we take 
pleasure in presenting on another 
page his "Note on the European 
War," but must confess that the 
amiable character of Mr. Jourdain 
has prevented him from speaking out 
his mind with special vigor, though 
he feels very strongly the justice of 
England's cause. We quote from a 
private letter the following passage: 
"For myself, the whole of the pro- 
ceedings which led to the war seems 
to me to bear so strongly against 
Germany that I cannot believe that 
England can be considered as an in- 
stigator of the war or to have en- 
tered the fight through any but hon- 
orable motives." 

In another letter Mr. Jourdain re- 
gards as the main reason of the war 
the difference between the English 
and the German people, saying that 
the English are superior to Germany 
in the development of individualism 
and have an innate dislike for Ger- 
man militarism. Mr. Jourdain has 
strong English sympathies, and I as- 
sume as a matter of course that the 
large majority in England feel as 
strongly as he, if not more so, that 
English politics are just. The edi- 
tor of "The Open Court" himself feels 
just as vigorously that Great Brit- 
ain has done wrong, and if the 
people of England do not know why 
Germany feels so bitter against Great 
Britain, it is simply because they are 
not sufficiently informed about the 
secret treaties and the motives which 
have led the British cabinet to de- 
clare war. 

Mr. Jourdain expresses the con- 
viction of the English people as to 
the causes of the war as follows: 
"The first is an obligation of honor. 



an obligation to protect the neutral- 
ity of Belgium." Certainly it is an 
obligation of honor to Belgium to 
declare war, in view of prior prom- 
ises and the inducements offered her 
to join the Triple Entente against 
Germany. If the documents found 
at Brussels and Antwerp which 
prove a secret understanding be- 
tween England and Belgium are not 
falsified by the German authorities 
who claim to have them in their 
possession, the English were indeed 
in honor bound to come to the rescue 
of Belgium. But was it right to 
enter into this secret understanding? 
The English government did it, not 
the English people. The English 
people knew nothing of it and can- 
not be accused of having made these 
promises with France and Russia 
and afterwards with Belgium. I feel 
strongly convinced that the people 
would have objected to all of these 
entangling alliances. 

In England the spread of democ- 
racy is apparent, not real. The Eng- 
lish government has taken care to 
make the people believe in the preva- 
lence of democracy among them, but 
democracy does not exist in fact. In 
Germany the people take a much 
greater part in politics and are a 
factor which the government must 
reckon with, while in England the 
people can easily be ignored; in fact 
it is ignored and the masses of the 
people are absolutely indifferent to 
the foreign policy of the empire. Lib- 
erty in England is a fiction and only 
concerns the personal freedom of a 
man in his house — what he shall eat 
and drink and how he shall amuse 
himself, the laws which touch the 
price of bread, and labor questions. 
In imperial matters the people's in- 
terest scarcely goes beyond the ques- 
tion of home rule in Ireland. 

I do not doubt the love of liberty 
in England. Nor do I doubt that 
every man there is free to pursue 
his business, and every farmer is 
master of his own fields and deter- 
mines what he shall sow and what 
he shall do with his earnings; but he 
has no right, not even the slightest 
chance, to influence the politics of 
the country. He is kept in ignorance 
and is satisfied to be told that Great 
Britain is the freest country in the 
world. 

The English hate militarism be- 
cause they dislike the idea of service 
in the army. In my opinion it would 
be as good for the English as for 
any other people in the world to 
serve in the army and be educated 
in strict obedience to duty whatever 
that duty may be, to learn something 
of manhood and be ready to come to 
the defense of their country. No 
doubt the English aspire to be gen- 
tlemen, and I must confess that great 
numbers of them become gentlemen, 
which makes it so pleasant to deal 
with them; but it would be to their 
own interest if they would attain to 
the higher ideal of becoming "men," 
and military service is a very practi- 
cal method of imparting manhood to 
both the over-refined dude of the 
city and the awkward son of the 
farmer. 

German militarism has been mis- 
represented in English periodicals 
all over the world. Above all, it is 



THE GERMAN MENACE— MILITARISM 



175 



not known that German militarism 
makes the German people peaceful. 
It is one of the falsest statements to 
picture the Germans as aggressive 
and war-like. There is no German 
father or mother in the empire, nor 
any person of responsibility, who 
would not prefer to keep peace even 
at a sacrifice, for they know that 
their own sons, their own brothers, 
their own sons-in-law, have to go to 
war to defend the country. It is a 
gross misstatement of the truth to 
represent Germany as going to war 
simply for the sake of waging war, 
either for glory, or in sheer aggres- 
siveness, or for conquest. The pres- 
ent enthusiasm for the German cause 
is to be lauded the higher since there 
is no one in Germany who does not 
have to make sacrifices of the gravest 
kind. How many families have lost 
their only sons! and Germans of high 
culture, as young professors at the 
universities, are compelled to face 
the guns and sabres of the negro 
Turkos in the west or of the savage 
Cossacks in the east. 

The Germans are fully convinced 
that it is England's policy that has 
encouraged both France and Russia 
to start the war, and only those who 
do not know the significance of the 
military institutions in Germany can 
expect that militarism should he 
abolished. If England possessed the 
same institutions of militarism as 
exist in Germany, the British Gov- 
ernment would never have dared to 
start the war, for the people would 
have censured it severely. 

As to Mr. Jourdain's statement 
that the king of England is merely 
"nominal," I will say that the Ger- 
man emperor and king of Prussia 
has no more rights than the king of 
England, and infringes as little upon 
the liberty of the people. On the 
contrary, in case of war he cannot 
begin a war without the consent of 
all the people, including his political 
opponents, the social democrats who 
form about one-third of the Reichs- 
tag; and the idea that he is a tyrant 
who forces his people is utterly un- 
founded, for the social democrats 
would not fight unless they felt the 
necessity of going to war. The Kai- 
ser is not purely nominal; he has 
serious duties to perform. We may 
grant that he still regards himself as 
wea.lng the crown by God's grace, 
hut whatever errors he may still en- 
tertain as to his divine rights, we 
must recognize that he is deeply im- 
pressed with his responsibility, and 
he interprets his office, thus held by 
the grace of God, as an obligation, 
a sacred trust, a religious duty, a 
right in which he is accountable to 
his conscience before God. Not even 
hiA enemies doubt that the Emperor 
is sincere, and that, however mis- 
taken he may be in his views, he is 
honest and attends fearlessly to duty. 
It is easy enough to ridicule the 
Kaiser for his frequent use of the 
word "God," and I would not deny 
that he lays himself open to criti- 
cism, but the impartial observer who 
has followed his life cannot but in- 
terpret this habit as the expression 
of a deep-seated conviction. The 
word "God" is no hypocrisy on the 
lips of the Emperor. It is a truth- 



ful expression of his attitude of 
heart. 

Militarism has not been forced on 
the German people by the Kaiser, 
but historic conditions, mainly by 
the danger which has threatened 
Germany from France, just as the 
origin of the German navy was due 
to the conviction that one of these 
days Great Britain would fall upon 
Germany, exactly as she has now 
done. 

The German authorities saw the 
growth of the German mercantile 
fleet and encouraged it; knowing 
how Great Britain had dealt with 
Holland in former times, they felt 
that a navy was needed for the de- 
fense of their colonies. If they were 
wrong, was it not wrong for the Brit- 
ish to reserve for themselves the 
right to have a navy? Never and 
nowhere has Germany shown any in- 
tention of falling upon English col- 
onies as England fell upon New Am- 
sterdam in North America and Cape 
Town in South Africa. 

Liberty of speech as it exists in 
England, so humorously character- 
ized by Mr. Jourdain in the permis- 
sion given a violent orator to have his 
say in Trafalgar Square, is being 
tried in all Germanic countries, but 
there is a most serious other side, 
and England has naturally been 
forced now and then to restrict free 
speech, while Germany has learned 
to allow it. Yet have not the violent 
speeches of reckless orators caused 
much harm in the world? I will only 
remind our readers of the assassina- 
tion of President McKinley, who was 
shot by a Slav that had been incited 
by violent anarchistic speeches to 
commit the deed. Who is the real 
criminal, the inflammatory orator 
who put the idea into the degenerate 
brain of Czolgosz, or the assassin 
himself? 

Considering such incidents I do not 
blame a government for restricting 
free speech under certain conditions, 
and I remember that this was done 
in England at the time of the Boer 
war. At that time I was passing 
through London and attended a 
meeting of protest held in club rooms 
of a liberal society, where the Brit- 
ish government was denounced in 
the most violent terms. I tried to 
speak up for England and England's 
glory in preserving the ideal of lib- 
erty of speech, when I was hooted at 
and could not finish. The audience 
shouted, "There is no freedom in 
England!" and informed me that 
mass meetings had been broken up 
by the police; members of the club 
declared they had been ejected from 
meeting halls and bodily injured. 

I have always spoken up for Eng- 
land. I like English people and en- 
joy their company. It is but natural 
that I have always justified their po- 
sition when possible or at least made 
excuses for them against accusations 
that had some basis in fact. 1 have 
preached friendship for England in 
Germany and the United States and 
have encouraged the establishment 
of a Triple Alliance between the 
three countries in the interest of uni- 
versal peace on earth.' 

I recognize the superiority of Eng- 
land in many points, especially in 



her successful methods of building 
up colonies which the Germans have 
yet to learn; I admire the executive 
ability of the English, and their far- 
reaching but often questionable diplo- 
macy, in which the Germans are 
solely lacking; and I have also un- 
stinted praise for the English lan- 
guage, originally a Saxon (that is to 
say a Low German) dialect which is 
unsurpassed in its simplicity of con- 
struction. But with all my admira- 
tion for the British I cannot help 
thinking that, like most of England's 
prior wars, the present war is not 
only a great wrong but a great blun- 
der, for it will prove a dire calamity 
to Great Britain. How foolish it was 
for Edward VII to originate the anti- 
German movement at the time of 
the formation of the Triple Entente, 
was brought home to me when I 
saw in an American Sunday issue 
an article on the German family 
that has ruled England ever since 
the Hanoverian kings were called 
to ascend the throne. There in a 
cartoon stood Tommy Atkins, full 
page size, gaudy in his red uniform, 
holding on his hand a little figure 
of Lilliputian size representing Ger- 
man royalty on the English throne. 
Admiral Battenberg had to quit the 
service because he is of German 
descent. Why, the article said, 
should not George V follow him, on 
the ground that his grandfather 
was of German birth and his grand- 
mother's family was imported from 
Hanover? 

I will not enter into the details of 
Mr. Jourdain's exposition, although 
I differ from some of them, for in- 
stance his statement as to art, music 
and science. I believe that Ger- 
many ranks high in music, but the 
latest development in Russia ought 
not to be overlooked nor the prior 
merits of Italy. Germany is not 
the only country where music has 
been developed. On the other hand 
I do not believe that "hardly any- 
thing in the arts of sculpture and 
painting is due to Germany." I be- 
lieve that Germany still rank* 
higher than France; and the sculp- 
ture in public places in England can 
scarcely be classed as art. 

Germany has always been highly 
appreciative of the accomplishments 
of other nations, and I believe there 
is no country in the world where 
the latest books of merit of all coun- 
tries are so frequently translated and 
so widely read as in Germany. Next 
to Germany ranks England, and I 
will further add that all the other 
Germanic nations rank very high and 
surpass the Romance nations consid- 
erably in many respects. 

Certainly no one can regret the 
war more than myself, hut I will add 
that according to a practical consider- 
ation of all the facts and, as far as 
that be possible, from an impartial 
standpoint, I blame England first of 
all for the outbreak. It is plain to 
me that England has created among 
English speaking people, the United 
States not excepted, an anti-German 
movement. England has founded the 



1 See for instance my address before the 
first congress of the Yerein alter deutschen 
Studenten, published in the Proceedings 
of the society. 



176 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 




A SQUADRON OF THE GERMAN STAFF UNDER COVER NEAR GRUDUSK. RUSSIAN POLAND 

(Photograph by the International News Service) 



Triple Entente, whicli, although it is 
not in the interest of England, allies 
England with two nations naturally 
antagonistic to her. Russia did not 
even discontinue her intrigues 
against Great Britain after the estab- 
lishment of the Triple Entente, in 
Tibet as well as in Persia, Afghanis- 
tan and even India, but the men who 
hated Germany have set aside every 
other consideration for the sake of 
crushing Germany first. I believe 
that the ill-will created by the war 
among the different European nation- 
alities is a great misfortune and will 
not so easily be set aside even after 
the conclusion of peace; and Eng- 
land will reap a very sorry harvest. 
That the French do not love the Eng- 
lish became apparent in the treat- 
ment Sir Edward Grey's brother re- 
ceived from his fellow prisoners. The 
famous German chant of hatred 
proves that whereas the German 
flght against France and Russia is a 
sportsmanlike affair — a shot for a 
shot and a blow for a blow — England 
is blamed as giving a shot in the 
back. England has become the 
hated foe, and I fear it will he a 
long time before this sentiment can 
be outgrown. 

I deem it highly necessary for the 
development of mankind that we 
have several great nationalities, and 
that in addition we have a number of 
smaller states which are independent 



and follow their own free govern- 
ment. The different nationalities 
complement each other, and the 
smaller states have frequently con- 
tributed very important ideas or in- 
terpretations of life to the develop- 
ment of humanity; and I will say 
that the German empire has prac- 
tically solved the problem of having 
a strong union combined with .indi- 
vidual development of the different 
small German states. The unity of 
the German empire has beyond any 
question been established through 
the political needs of self-defense, 
but the Bavarian considers himself 
very different from the Prussian, the 
Swabian again is different from his 
neighbor, the inhabitant of Baden, 
and likewise even the different prov- 
inces of Prussia cling each to its own 
peculiar individuality. In the same 
way this individualistic development 
in Germany is carried into the fam- 
ily life, and I have nowhere in the 
world found such a variety of char- 
acter and of conviction as in the Ger- 
man fatherland. 

I must insist, therefore, that the 
present characterization of German 
conditions in English, and often also 
in American papers, is very unfair, 
and as it seems to me, due to an 
intentional misrepresentation in order 
to create a prejudice against Ger- 
many. 

Mr. Jourdain concludes his article 



with an appreciation of "The Open 
Court" and "The Monist," and I have 
not ventured to remove it in order 
to let his article be as independent as 
I intended that it should be. If I 
had known that he would praise my 
work, I would have asked him to 
omit it, but as he has done so, I 
wish my readers would regard it as 
but a manifestation of our author's 
amiability. 

In conclusion I will repeat that I 
am not anti-British. On the con- 
trary, I am in a sense pro-British. 
But while I am a friend of the Eng- 
lish, while I fully appreciate their 
good qualities, I have a decided and 
well-founded conviction that the Brit- 
ish government is guilty of this war, 
that this war will not bring any 
blessings to Great Britain, in short, 
that it is against all the interests of 
the British Empire, of Great Britain 
and of the English people. It will 
prevent the progress of civilization 
and the peaceful co-operation of the 
three most powerful countries of the 
world, Germany, Great Britain and 
the United States, and is greatly to 
be deplored. It is not Germany that 
is guilty of the war, but the men who 
brought about the Triple Entente, 
an understanding which made it in- 
evitable that England should feel in 
honor bound to inflict injury upon 
Germany- — an injury which will re- 
coil upon her own head. 



THE GERMAN MENACE— MILITARISM 



THE TBtJCE OF THE BEAR. 



Budyard Kipling. 

(Alfred Noyes, William Watson and 
Bobert Bridges have defended Eng- 
land in driveling verse. England's 
one great poet, Kipling, has not 
been heard from. Perhaps the fol- 
lowing poem which first appeared 
in 1898 explains Mr. Kipling's si- 
lence. Evidently Mr. Kipling can- 
not approve of an alliance with 
Bussia, for Adam-zad means Bns- 
sia and Matun, the old blind beg- 
gar, is England.) 

(Beprinted from "The Fatherland," 
New York, August 31, 1914.) 

Yearly, witli tent and rifle, our care- 
less white men go 

By the pass called Muttianee, to shoot 
in the vale below. 

Yearly by Muttianee he follows our 
white men in — 

Matun, the old blind beggar, band- 
aged from brow to chin. 

Eyeless, noseless and lipless — tooth- 
less, broken of speech, 

Seeking a dole at the doorway he 
mumbles his tale to each; 

Over and over the story, ending as he 
began: 

"Make ye no truce with Adam-zad — 
the Bear that walks like a man !" 

There was a flint in my musket — 
pricked and primed was the pan, 

When I went hunting Adam-zad — the 
Bear that stands like a man. 

1 looked my last on the timber, I 
looked my last on the snow, 

When I went hunting Adam-zad fifty 
Summers ago! 

I knew his times and his season, as 
he knew mine, that fed 

By night in the ripened maizefield 
and robbed my house of bread; 

1 knew his strength and cunning, as 
he knew mine, that crept 

At dawn to the crowded goat-pens 
and plundered while I slept. 

Up from his stony playground — 
down from his well-digged lair — 

Out of the naked ridges ran Adam- 
zad the Bear; 

Groaning, grunting and roaring, 
heavy with stolen meals. 

Two long marches to northward, and 
I was at his heels! 

Two full marches to the northward, 

at the fall of the second night, 
I came on mine enemy Adam-zad all 

panting from his flight. 
There was charge in the musket — 

pricked and primed was the 

pan — 
My finger crooked on the trigger — 

when he reared up like a man. 

Horrible, hairy, human, with paws 
like hands in prayer. 

Making his supplication, rose Adam- 
zad the Bear! 

I looked at the swaying shoulders, at 
the paunch's swag and swing. 

And my heart was touched with pity 
for the monstrous, pleading 
thing. 

Touched with pity and wonder, I did 
not fire then . . . 



I have looked no more on women — I 
have walked no more with men. 

Nearer he tottered and nearer, with 
paws like hands that pray — 

Prom brow to jaw that steel-shod 
paw, it ripped my face away! 

Sudden, silent, and savage, searing 

as flame the blow — 
Faceless I fell before his feet, fifty 

Summers ago. 
I heard him grunt and chuckle — I 

heard him pass to his den, 
He left me blind to the darkened 

years and the little mercy of 

men. 

Now ye go down in the morning 

with guns of the newer style. 
That load (I have felt) in the middle 

and range (I have heard) a 

mile? 
Luck to the white man's rifle, that 

shoots so fast and true. 
But — pay, and I lift my bandage and 

show what the Bear can do! 

(Flesh like slag In the furnace, 
knobbed and withered and 
gray — 

Matun, the old blind beggar, he gives 
good worth for his pay.) 

Rouse him at noon in the bushes, 
follow and press him hard — 

Not for his ragings and roarings 
flinch ye from Adam-zad. 

But (pay, and I put back the band- 
age) this is the time to fear. 

When he stands up like a tired man, 
tottering near and near? 

When he stands us as pleading, in 
wavering, man-brute guise. 

When he veils the hate and cunning 
of the little swinish eyes; 

When he shows as seeking quarter, 
with paws like hands in prayer, 

That is the time of peril — the time of 
the Truce of the Bear. 

Eyeless, noseless and lipless, asking 

a dole at the door, 
Matun, the old blind beggar, he tells 

it o'er and o'er. 
Fumbling and feeling the rifles, 

warming his hands at the flame, 
Hearing our careless white men talk 

of the morrow's game; 
Over and over the story, ending as 

he began; 
"There is no truce with Adam-zad, 

the Bear that looks like a man!" 



KIPIilNG BBANDS GERMANY 

MENACE* 



And after this the blind beggar 
made a truce with the Bear in Per- 
sia, and what the Bear did there, he 
will try to do again in Turkey — if 
Germany does not stop him — ^but 
she wm. — "The Fatherland." 



"After the (Russian) mobiliza- 
tion became known in Berlin, the 
Imperial Ambassador at St. Peters- 
burg was ordered on the afternoon 
of July 31 to advise the Russian 
Government that Germany had de- 
clared a state of war as a counter 
move to the mobilization of the 
Russian Army and Navy, which 
would have to be followed by mobil- 
ization unless Russia ceased her 
military preparations against Ger- 
many and Austria-Hungary within 
twelve hours and so advise Germany. 



Virginia Editor Writes It Would 

Threaten V. S. if Victorious 

Over Allies. 

(From "The Chicago Tribune," Sep- 
tember 26, 1914.) 

Staunton, Va., Sept. 25 (Special). 
— On Sept. 5 the Staunton News 
printed some verses by Dr. Charles 
Minor Blackford, an associate editor, 
addressed to Rudyard Kipling, call- 
ing attention to the apparent incon- 
sistency of his attitude of distrust of 
Russia as shown in his poem, "The 
Truce of the Bear," and his present 
advocacy of the alliance between 
Russia and Great Britain. 

Reply from Kipling. 

A copy of the verses was sent to 
Mr. Kipling and the following reply 
has been received from him: 

"Bateman's Burwash, Sussex — I 
am much obliged for your verses of 
Sept. 5, 'The Truce of the Bear,' to 
which they refer was written six- 
teen years ago. It dealt with a sit- 
uation and a menace which has long 
since passed away and with issues 
that are now quite dead. 

"The present situation, as far as 
England is concerned, is Germany's 
deliberate disregard of the neutrality 
of Belgium, whose integrity Germany 
as well as England guaranteed. Ger- 
many has filled Belgium with every 
sort of horror and atrocity, not in 
the heat of passion, but as a part of 
the settled policy of terrorism. Its 
avowed object is the conquest of 
Europe on these lines, as you may 
prove for yourself if you will con- 
sult its literature of the last genera- 
tion. 

Calls Germany Menace. 

"Germany is the present menace 
not to Europe alone but to the whole 
civilized world. If Germany by any 
means is victorious, you may rest 
assured that it will be only a short 
time before It turns its attention to 
the United States. 

"If you could meet the refugees 
from Belgium flocking into England 
and have the opportunity of check- 
ing their statements of unimaginable 
atrocities and barbarities, studiously 
committed, you would, I am sure, 
think as seriously on these matters 
as we do, and in your unpreparedness 
for modern war you would do well to 
think very seriously, indeed." 



*To show our readers what Mr. 
Kipling REALLY thought before his 
utterances were biased by the present 
war, we reprint on this page "The 
Truce of the Bear." Every unbiased 
reader will know what value to attach 
to Mr. Kipling's present utterances, 
i. e., that "The Truce of the Bear," 
written sixteen years ago, dealt with 
a situation and a menace which has 
long since passed away and with is- 
sues that are now quite dead. Haw! 
Haw! It's comical how men, even 
of the type of Mr. Kipling, repudi- 
ate their former writings when It 
comes to whitewashing England's 
new bedfellow — Russia. — Editor. 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



GERMANY'S FOES AND THE WAR. 

This is the fifth article of a series 
on THE EUROPEAN WAR, ichich ap- 
peared in the Ooto'ber Number of THE 
OPEN COURT, under the title "Ger- 
many's Foes," written Vy the Editor, 
Dr. Paul Cams. 

Consult the INDEX for the complete 
series, and, in order to see wihere, in 
the various Chapters of the iook, the 
different articles of this treatise may be 
found, looTc for EUROPEAN WAR 
(THE). In this way the reader may 
read the entire series of articles in 
their original order, if he chooses to do 
so, while the present arrangement still 
gives him the advantage of bringing 
the various articles under their proper, 
respective Chapter-headings of the 
book. 

This is a series of exceptionally fine 
articles on the subject in question, and 
they bear a unique and important rela- 
tion to each other. Be sure to read 
them also in their original order. — 
Editor. "War Echoes." 

The plan of the English govern- 
ment has for a long 'time been to 
make other nations carry on wars 
intended to benefit Great Britain. A 
short time ago this method caused 
them to use Japan for the purpose 
of humiliating Russia, and, soon 
after the Russo-Japanese war, the 
same principle led to the formation 
of the Triple Entente between Eng- 
land, Russia and France. 

In her anxiety for revenge Prance 
has looked for an ally ever since 
1871, and has courted Russia, al- 
though the French know very well 
that Russia is in every respect an- 
tagonistic to French ideals of repub- 
licanism, liberty and progress. Yet 
it was a foregone determination that 
should Russia ever attack Germany, 
Prance would fall upon her enemy 
from behind. 

Russia is an inveterate enemy of 
England, for Russia endangers the 
spread of English influence by subtle 
intrigue so characteristic of Russian 
policy, which has shown itself in 
Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet and China, 
and even in India. It was considered 
very clever of Edward VII to make 
Russia join England, and, in com- 
pany with France, to establish the 
Triple Entente. The English people 
should have known that Russia would 
never abandon her intrigues against 
England, and it is excluded that she 
would help to establish England's su- 
premacy on the sea; as a matter of 
fact, the Russians have never ceased 
to continue their anti-British policy. 
Russia meant to use the English for 
her own advantage, just as Edward 
VII hoped to make Russia sub- 
servient to England. The English 
have not yet learned that smart 
tricks are boomerangs. 

France was easily induced to join 
Great Britain and Russia, for Prance 
is a monomaniac nation dominated 
by the hope for revenge. 

The English claim that the T'ai Ping 
possessed a spurious Christianity, tor the 
T'ai Ping believed only in the sermon on 
the mount : according to Chinese notions 
they called Christ the Elder Brother, i. e., 
the authoritative son who represents God 
the Father. They worked out a Chinese 
conception of Christianity and did not be- 
long to the Anglican church. That was 
enough to condemn their Christianity as 
spurious. 



The French are like big children. 
They are amiable and really lovable. 
They are enthusiastic and, like their 
Gallic ancestors, excitable in char- 
acter. Caesar found it easy to sub- 
due them because, like children, they 
were unsteady, and lacked the seri- 
ous insistency of their Teutonic 
neighbors. 

The Romans used the same meth- 
ods in Germany that Caesar employed 
in Gaul, and were to a certain ex- 
tent quite successful, but when the 
Germans discovered that a Romaniza- 
tion of Germany meant an end of 
German institutions, of German lan- 
guage, and of a development of the 
characteristic traits of German na- 
tionality, they became roused to the 
danger and beat the Romans in the 
battle fought in the Teutoburg 
Forest, a battle which saved not only 
Germany, with its germs of a national 
civilization, but also England. It will 
be well for the English to remember 
that England's fate, too, depended on 
the victory of Arminius, for at that 
time the Saxons were still living in 
Northern Germany, and if the Ger- 
mans had been Romanized, England 
would never have risen, and the very 
roots from which English speech de- 
veloped would have been destroyed 
458 years before they were trans- 
planted to British soil. 

France is no longer purely Celtic 
in blood, but the conquerors of the 
country, first the Romans, then the 
Franks and other Teutonic Invaders, 
have changed into Gauls, and even to- 
day the people who settle in France, 
mostly Germans, acquire the Celtic 
characteristics. Prance has become 
Teutonic in all the most important 
spots, but the childlike nature of 
their inhabitants remains the same. 
Charlemagne was a Frank, his chil- 
dren and children's children behave 
like Celts. The Visigoths settled in 
the southwest, the Burgundians in 
the southeast, other German tribes 
in Lorraine, the Norsemen in the 
north, but all of them acquired the 
childlike gayety of the Celts; and the 
same can be observed today. There 
is a continuous stream of German 
immigration going on still, but the 
children of the German immigrants 
are indistinguishable from their 
French fellow citizens, while the 
French Huguenots have become Ger- 
mans in Germany. 

The French, like big children, are 
vain. Flatter them and you can dupe 
them easily. They are also theatri- 
cal. Note for instance how theatri- 
cal was the deportment of the great 
Gallic chief, Vercingetorix, when he 
surrendered to Caesar, and also how 
Thiers behaved when he signed the 
peace treaty in 1871. All proclama- 
tions made by the French government 
to the French people, of any event, 
even of the enemy's progress, are ap- 
peals to their vanity. They are as- 
surances of French greatness, even 
when retreats or defeats are an- 
nounced. They praise French gal- 
lantry, French triumphs, French 
deeds of valor and prophesy ulti- 
mate victory. Read for instance the 
transfer of the capital from Paris to 
Bordeaux. There we gain the im- 
pression that the Germans are 
beaten and that the French army is 



intact, but the government prefers a 
change of air for the good of the 
country and so it moves to Bordeaux. 
The great Corsican, Napoleon the 
First, brought up in France, was a 
typical Frenchman, at least in vanity, 
and it was his vanity which proved 
ruinous to him when dealing with the 
Czar. When these two most power- 
ful monarchs of the age met at Er- 
furt in 1812 Czar Alexander was 
bent on outwitting the great emperor, 
and he succeeded by flattering his 
enemy. When the two met, Alexan- 
der turned round to his aide-de- 
camp and whispered, careful at the 
same time to be overheard by Napo- 
leon, "How beautiful he is. If I 
were a woman I would fall in love 
with him." In further conversation, 
Alexander pretended to be over- 
whelmed by admiration for Napo- 
leon's genius and, sitting at his feet, 
he pretended to be his faithful dis- 
ciple. It was this attitude of Alex- 
ander which influenced Napoleon's 
plan of the Russian campaign. Napo- 
leon thought that a victorious battle 
or a bold rush into the interior of 
Russia or some display of his dash- 
ing genius would most easily convert 
Alexander to make peace. So he ven- 
tured to capture Moscow and — lost 
the war. 

The French clamor so much for re- 
venge that the world has become ac- 
customed to it, and whomsoever it 
suits, he encourages his clamor. But 
let us see first what right the French 
have to demand revenge. 

First, as to the war of 1870-71: 
Was it not a war undertaken by Na- 
poleon III with the loudly expressed 
acclamation of the people who pa- 
raded through the streets of Paris 
shouting "d Berlin"? And the cause 
of the war was the unjustifiable de- 
mand that the King of Prussia 
should humiliate himself before the 
French Emperor. He should beg 
pardon for a Hohenzollern prince of 
an entirely different line because the 
Spaniards had oflfered to the latter 
the crown of Spain. As Napoleon 
was beaten he received the fate he 
had deserved, and the French, having 
approved the war, have lost their 
right to complain about their defeat. 
Secondly, as to the conditions of 
peace: The surrender of Alsace and 
a small piece of Lorraine was de- 
manded by the victors for the sake 
of rounding off the lines of Ger- 
many's defense, and incidentally it 
was remembered that the people of 
Alsace were Germans, that Alsace 
had belonged to the German empire 
and its people even in the year 18 71 
were still speaking German. The 
French had appropriated Strasburg 
and other cities some time previously, 
without even taking the trouble to 
apologize for their robbery. But 
having taken Alsace-Lorraine, and 
having held it in their possession for 
almost two and one-half centuries, 
the French claim to be justified in 
their sentiment of revenge. 

If that revenge were proper, why 
should not England constantly 
clamor for revenge because the 
United States were once English 
colonies? Why should not the Span- 
ish clamor for revenge to regain 
Gibraltar? Why should not Sweden 



THE GERMAN MENACE— MILITARISM 



179 




IN THE PRISONERS' CAMP AT OHRDRUF 

Note the relative Intelligence of the Different Types 

(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 



use every opportunity to drive the 
Russians out of Finland? There is 
no need of swelling the number of 
instances from the hooks of history, 
ancient and modern, but the French 
policy of revenge and the clamors of 
the French people for the re-occupa- 
tion of Alsace-Lorraine have surely 
the very slightest foundation. 

The real interest of France would 
naturally lie in an alliance with Ger- 
many. France and Germany have 
common interests in the establish- 
ment of mutual business relations 
and a mutual protection of their colo- 
nies against England. This has 
often been recognized by the Ger- 
mans, but the French are blinded 
by their vanity, their vainglorious- 
ness and their narrow-minded hope 
for revenge. Like big children, they 
became an easy prey to the British 
King who ensnared them to fight the 
battles of Albion, and to suffer more 
than the English themselves, for 
whose benefit they are willing to 
sacrifice themselves only in the ex- 
pectation that England and Russia 
will support their lust for revenge. 

Even to-day the French are the- 
atrical and vain. Every defeat is 
represented as a glorious retreat, 
and every German victory is a dis- 
grace to the enemy. In their rhetori- 
cal style the surrender of a fortress 
always appears as a deed of valor, 
a patriotic act for the glory of 
France, and is sure to lead to ulti- 
mate victory. Every position aban- 



doned is an advantage gained, and 
the forts either taken by the enemy 
or evacuated are of no strategic im- 
portance. When it can no longer be 
denied that the enemy marches into 
the interior of the country, we are 
informed that his advance will lead 
him into a trap, where he is sure to 
be annihilated. The Germans seem 
to lack intelligence, for they walk 
into the French traps; but instead 
of being caught, they somehow 
smash the trap to pieces. Even their 
victories are symptoms of the bar- 
barism of these hordes. 

The French well know why they 
have their war news ornamented 
with a most exaggerated optimism, 
for they know that under the gloom 
of truthful reports, their troops are 
not likely to display overmuch cour- 
age, and a little lie is condoned if 
it buoys up the soldiers in battle. 
For assuring the publication of the 
desired variety of reports the ofllce 
of a strict censorship has been in- 
stituted. 

It is strange that the English have 
learned from their allies this princi- 
ple in spreading war news. Though 
the English people are gradually be- 
ginning to resent this kind of cen- 
sorship, it is still most faithfully ad- 
hered to, and the war news coming 
from Paris, London and Petrograd 
has proved so unreliable that in cer- 
tain circles in the United States it 
is now accepted as a joke. 

It is interesting to note the con- 



tradictory character of the war news. 
So for instance the Prussian guards; 
have three times been absolutely an- 
nihilated, but they are fighting still; 
and "The Scoop," the organ of the' 
Chicago Press Club, publishes a 
humorous poem by J. F. Luebben 
of Buffalo, N. Y., on the treatment 
of the German army in newspaper- 
reports. We read in "The Scoop"' 
for Saturday, Sept. 26, p. 1068: 

"The German soldiers, strenuous; 
men. 

In peace and war and thunders, 
.Have not been killed by French or 
Russ, 

But by newspaper blunders. 
Ten thousand they must die a day 

(They cut such funny capers); 
They do not die from cannon balls,. 

But from big wads 'of papers. 
Ten thousand dying day and night,. 

According to the guesses — 
They dip them all in printer's ink. 

And squeeze them in the presses.. 
Five million Germans in the war, 

With officers and chattels, 
What will the press soon do for men- 

To fight the German battles? 
The German, every inch a man. 

Is doing some good walking. 
He's fighting now to beat the band. 

And lets us do the talking. 
Now news comes fiying through the^ 
air, — 

Although they've cut the cables. 
The Germans found the wireless. 

And that may turn the tables." 



180 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR' ALLIES 



The Franco-British, reports praise 
the English and the French troops. 
They speak of the superiority of the 
French artillery and the excellence 
of French gunners; yet by sheer luck 
the Germans hit. The Germans are 
inferior in every respect, they are re- 
pulsed, they have heavy losses; they 
are losing battle after battle. And 
yet they advance. It is almost a 
miracle, and we newspaper readers 
in the far west wonder how a de- 
feated army can take one position 
after another and enter into the ter- 
ritory of the victors! 

Germany is at such a tremendous 
(disadvantage; why must jlies also 
be employed to run down that poor 
nation? And, as if it were not enough 
to be faced by the three greatest 
powers of the world, England, France 
and Russia, not to mention Belgium, 
which has been in the fight from 
the start, there is still in the distant 
Orient the little nation of the farth- 
est East, Nippon, who plays the pick- 
pocket on Germany, and steals the 
Kaiser's possessions while his hands 
are full and he cannot whip the little 
urchin for his impudence. Japan's 
behavior is cowardly, but, encouraged 
by England, the bold Asiatic feels 
that he can act with impunity. Such 
are thy allies, proud Albion! 

It is strange that the English boast 
of their own free institutions and 
characterize the Germans as abject 
slaves, but any one who knows Eng- 
land will understand that the poor of 
England have scarcely any influence 
on the British government. Not so 
the Germans! The Reichstag is 
elected by universal suffrage. The 
Germans know what they are fight- 
ing for, and they are willing to fight. 
Young men in Germany who had 
formerly been rejected from military 
service have offered themselves at 
the recruiting stations to the number 
of one million three hundred thou- 
sand, while in England about one 
hundred thousand joined the colors 
when volunteers were urgently re- 
quested. 

The emperor has been character- 
ized as an autocrat, a czar, a tyrant, 
but one thing is certain: among all 
the monarchs of the world the Kaiser 
is most closely in touch with his peo- 
ple, much more closely than King 
George is with the English people; 
and the reason is this, that no one 
doubts that the emperor's soul is 
filled with the idea of duty; even 
where he errs he acts with the in- 
tention of doing the work that God 
requires him to do, and he feels the 
responsibility of his high position. 

The Foes of Germany. 

This is the reply to Dr. Carus by Mr. 
Jourdain on the subject of Germany's 
Poes. — The Editor of War Echoes. 

An accusation is made against Eng- 
land of stirring others to war and keep- 
ing out of it herself," "making other na- 
tions carry on wars intended for her 
benefit.'" As an illustration of the 
first policy the attitude of England 
during the Schleswig-Holstein compli- 
cation is quoted as follows : 

"In 1864 England encouraged Den- 
mark to resist Prussia and Austria on 



account of Schleswig-Holstein, and the 
Danes relying on English assurances, 
refused any compromise, the result 
being that they lost their duchies. A 
Danish friend of mine expressed him- 
self very vigorously in condemning 
British statecraft, saying that the war- 
fare of Prussia was square and honest, 
but the attitude of England was un- 
pardonable." 

Though some of England's diplomacy 
in the past has been both weak and 
blundering, her action in this affair 
compares favorably with Germany's. 
The succession to the duchies received 
international sanction by the protocol 
of London (May 8, 1852), signed by 
the five great powers and Norway and 
Sweden. In 1863, Frederick, Duke of 
Augustenburg, son of the prince who 
in 1852 had renounced the succession 
to the duchies, next claimed his right 
on the ground under the style of Duke 
Frederick VIII. With "this folly," as 
Bismarck termed it, Austria and Prus- 
sia would have nothing to do. It was 
clear that they, as signatories to the 
1852 protocol must uphold the succes- 
sion as fixed by it, and that any action 
they might take in consequence of the 
violation of that compact by Denmark 
must be so "correct" as to deprive 
Europe of all excuse for interference. 
"From the beginning," Bismarck ad- 
mitted later, "I kept annexation stead- 
ily before my eyes.'" On December 28, 
a motion was introduced in the Diet 
by Austria and Prussia calling on the 
confederation to occupy Schleswig as 
a pledge for the observance by Den- 
mark of the compacts of 1852. This 
was rejected by the Diet, and Austria 
and Prussia thereon decided to act 
in the matter as independent European 
powers (January, 1864). "Had' the 
Danes yielded to the necessities of 
the situation, and withdrawn from 
Schleswig under protest, the European 
powers would probably have restored 
Schleswig to the Danish crown, and 
Austria and Prussia as European 
powers would have no choice but 
to prevent any attempt upon it by 
the Duke of Holstein. To prevent this 
possibility, Bismarck made the Copen- 
hagen government believe that Great 
Britain had threatened Prussia with 
intervention should hostilities be 
opened, though (he admitted) as a 
matter of fact England did nothing of 
the kind. The cynical strategem suc- 
ceeded; Denmark remained defiant, 
and the Prussian and Austrian forces 
crossed the Eider." This explains the 
fact that Denmark is in favor of Eng- 
land today, and anti-German in its 
sympathies. 

There is no evidence that England 
used Japan for the purpose of humiliat- 
ing Russia.' The talk of inveterate 
enmity between England and Russia is 
by no means justified. The entente 
with Russia is an indication that Eng- 
lish and Russian policies were not ir- 
reconcilable. As to national sympa- 
thies, England is quick to appreciate 
the qualities of that "profound and 
humane people." 

The Editor describes the French as 
theatrical and vain, unsteady and lack- 
ing "the serious insistency of their 



="0. C," p. 604.* 
» "Ibid.," p. 613. 

•See Index for complete article,, giving 
full reference to notes. — Editor. 



■> "Reflections," Vol. 11., p. 10. 

■ I quote here the resume of the question 
in the "Encyclopsedia Britannica," "Schles- 
wig-Holstein Question," 11th edition, Vol. 
XXrV, p. 329. 

»"0. C," p. 613. 



Teutonic neighbors,'" and dominated by 
the idea of "revenge." "The French 
are blinded by their vanity, their vain- 
gloriousness, their narrow-minded hope 
for revenge. Like big children they be- 
came an easy prey to the British king 
who ensnared them to fight the battles 
of Albion." The Editor's French type 
reminds one of the comic Frenchman 
of fiction. But how are we to explain 
the fact that the German army has 
moved backward from the Mame, and 
has vainly attempted to break through 
the lines of their vain, decadent and 
vainglorious enemy? The French idea 
of revenge is circulated by Germany, 
but little has been heard of it in France 
in recent years. There is evidence that 
French statesmen looked on war with 
Germany as one of the greatest evils 
that could befall a nation, and the 
events of 1905 and 1911 are a proof 
that she was prepared to pay a price 
to avert the ill-will of Germany. As 
French statesmen speak of the launch- 
ing of five threats of war against them 
by Germany since 1S70 — the first in 
1875 when Moltke wished to bleed 
France white, the fifth in 1911 — it is 
hardly to be expected that the French 
should have adopted the point of view 
that "the real interest of France would 
naturally lie in an alliance with Ger- 
many . . . this has often been rec- 
ognized by Germans, but the French 
are blinded by vanity and their nar- 
row-minded hope for revenge.'" 

The war has come; the French who 
know their history no doubt remember 
the war of 1870-71. Of this war in 
which Napoleon III was a mere puppet 
in Bismarck's hands, the Editor writes, 
"Was not the cause of the war the 
unjustifiable demand that the king of 
Prussia should humiliate himself be- 
fore the French emperor? He should 
beg pardon for a Hohenzollern prince 
of an entirely different line because the 
Spaniards had offered to the latter the 
crown of Spain.'" Prince Leopold of 
Hohenzollem-Sigmaringen was advised 
by Bismarck to "abandon all scruples 
and accept the candidature in the in- 
terests of Germany," and as "a red 
rag to the Gallic bull." Prince Bis- 
marck worked the German press to 
inflame opinions against France. On 
the evening of July S, the French am- 
bassador Benedetti reached Ems under 
instructions to ask King Wilhelm to 
secure the withdrawal of Prince Leo- 
pold. The King wrote privately to 
Sigmaringen ; on the 10th, Prince Karl 
Anton, father of Prince Leopold, said 
it was too late to draw liack, but on 
the 12th, Prince Leopold actually with- 
drew, and the news was published in 
the "Kolnische Zeitung." Benedetti re- 
ceived orders to demand an undertak- 
ing from King Wilhelm that the can- 
didature would never be renewed. The 
old king refused but added that he 
had no bidden designs, and had reason 
to hope the question was closed. The 
German ambassador in Paris sent to 
Ems for approval a draft note stating 
that the king of Prussia had meant 
no offense to France. Though irritated, 
the king sent an aide-de-camp to Bene- 
detti to report that he had received the 
oflicial withdrawal from Sigmaringen 
and approved of it. The aide-de-camp 
added that Benedetti might come to the 



"Ibid.," pp. 613-615. 
"Ibid.," p. 616. 
"Ibid.," p. 615. 



THE GERMAN MENACE— MILITARISM 



181 



station at Ems to salute His Majesty 
on his departure for Coblentz. As 
Beuedetti bore witness at Ems "there 
was neither insulter nor insulted." 
Bismarck, as is well known, falsified 
the telegram summarizing the conver- 
sation with Benedetti ; and this "news" 
made public rendered the continuance 
of peace impossible. This was not an 
affair in which French diplomacy 
shone, but what of the Prussian? 

With regard to the conditions of 
peace after the French defeat, the Edi- 
tor writes that the surrender of Alsace 
and a small piece of Lorraine was de- 
manded for rounding oft the lines of 
Germany's defense, and "incidentally it 
was remembered that the people of Al- 
sace were Germans, that Alsace had 
belonged to the German empire, and 
its people even in the year 1871 were 
still speaking German,"" therefore the 
French should not resent this settle- 
ment. 

This account avoids the cruelty of 
the annexation of these provinces by 
Germany. Though largely German in 
speech and race their inhabitants were 
for the most part passionately attached 
to France. In accordance with the 
Treaty of Frankfort the inhabitants 
were allowed to choose between French 
and German nationality, but all who 
chose the former had to leave their 
country. Some 50,000 did so before 
October, 1872, and settled in Prance. 
Even after this exodus, when in 1874 
the provinces were enabled to elect 
members for the Eeichstag, they sent 
fifteen deputies who delivered a formal 
protest against the annexation and re- 
tired from the House, they formed no 
party and took little part in the pro- 
ceedings except on Important occasions 
to vote against the government. Gort- 
chakoff gave warning that the annex- 
ation would leave a wound that would 
long be a menace to Europe, while Bis- 
marck is reported to have said "one 
does not mutilate with impunity. To 
take Metz and a part of Lorraine was 
the worst of political bljjnders." It 
will be seen from this account of the 
feelings of the two provinces, that the 
cases imagined by the Editor, of Eng- 
land clamoring for revenge because the 
United States were once English col- 
onies, and Spain clamoring to regain 
Gibraltar, are not parallel. 

It is difficult to see why the English 
alliance with Japan (which has for 
soine time been recognized by the pow- 
ers as a civilized power), is condemned' 
by the Editor, while Germany's alliance 
with the oriental and unspeakable Turk 
is welcomed with enthusiasm at Berlin. 
To the German mind Japanese inter- 
vention is cowardly, the Turkish glor- 
ious. 



PRUSSIA'S BLIGHTING 

INFLiUENCE. 



How This Same Prussia Has Culti- 
vated the Democracy of the 
Three Republics in the 
German Empire. 



""Ibid.," p. 616. • 
» "Ibid.," p. 618. 

*See Index for full reference to notes. - 
Editor. 



Japan's Broken Pledges. 

Japan violates the neutrality of 
China. Not a voice is raised in pro- 
test. Japan violates her word of 
honor to restrict her action to Kiau- 
chau. She seizes the Jauluit Island, 
dangerously near to the Pacific pos- 
sessions of the United States. Uncle 
Sam says nothing. He even smiles. 
But he is doing some deep thinking. 
— ^From "The Fatherland," New 
York, October 21, 1914. 



The Fatherland, New York. 
Frederick F. Schrader. 

Of the many insidious attempts of 
the English press to poison public 
sentiment against Germany no topic 
is more often harped upon just at 
this time than that the German sys- 
tem of government spells the sup- 
pression of liberty and individual 
freedom for all upon whom its blight- 
ing influence may fall. "The vic- 
tory of Germany in this war means 
the retardment of democracy," is the 
cry raised in a number of Anglo- 
phile American newspapers. One 
London Journal exploits this deli- 
cious fiction under the eloquent head- 
ing, "The Barbarians," in which Ger- 
many is put down in the lower list 
of uncivilized nations. 

This unique way of poisoning pub- 
lic sentiment in this country stands 
self-refuted; but coming from a coun- 
try which has but recently divided 
Persia with Russia, destroyed two 
flourishing republics, for centuries 
oppressed and persecuted Ireland, 
stolen Egypt, seized Cyprus, invaded 
Tibet and is now holding India in a 
state of abject subjection, its appeal 
to the ignorance of the masses is 
only added proof of its hopeless hy- 
pocrisy. It cannot possibly affect the 
thinking class of American citizens. 

Let us take a few concrete exam- 
ples of proof, positive, which brand 
this presumption as utterly false. 

How many are aware that three of 
the States in the German Empire are 
republics and have a complete form 
of republican government? 

And how have these borne their 
political relations to Germany, the 
Kaiser, and in particular, to Prussia? 
We refer, of course, to the free 
states of Hamburg, Bremen and Lue- 
beck. 

Let us take Hamburg for example: 
"a state and city of the German Em- 
pire" (Universal Encyclopedia); com- 
prising the city of Hamburg, the 
neighboring territory of Bergedorf 
and some smaller districts, and Ritze- 
buettel, including Cuxhaven, at the 
mouth of the Elbe. 

In 1215 it was made a free city 
by the Emperor Otto IV. It prac- 
tically remained a free city until 
1810, when Napoleon destroyed its 
liberties and incorporated it with 
Prance. With the downfall of the 
Corsican tyrant it resumed its re- 
publican form of government, and 
has remained a free city ever since. 

Remarkable to relate, Hamburg is 
entirely surrounded by Prussia. Has 
Prussia, has the German Empire, or 
the Kaiser, at any time curtailed the 
liberty of Hamburg, or of Bremen, 
or of Luebeck, in the slightest po- 
litical sense? Let us see. 

Today, as always, Hamburg is gov- 
erned as a republic by a Senate and 
House of Burgesses, and a first and 
second burgomaster chosen annually 
by secret ballot. 



Now what has been the blighting 
infiuence of the Prussian political 
system on its destiny? 

In 1870 Hamburg had a popula- 
tion of 250,000. That was at the be- 
ginning of the Franco-Prussian war. 
In 1914 Hamburg has a population of 
one million, and only last year it 
wrested the supremacy from Lo^don 
and Liverpool and became the larg- 
est harbor in the world. 

Much of this wonderful change in 
the history of the German republic 
may have been due to the far-seeing 
policies and enterprise of its govern- 
ment; a vast deal is due to the be- 
nevolent care exercised in behalf of 
Its development and growth by Prus- 
sia, Germany, and the Kaiser in par- 
ticular. None of the states in the 
German Empire are more loyal than 
those of Hamburg, Bremen and Lue- 
beck. Much of the fighting at Liege 
was done by the troops of the repub- 
lics. 

No state in Germany has benefited 
more directly by the friendship and 
personal intercession of the Kaiser 
than has Hamburg. With its consti- 
tution unimpaired, it has grown un- 
der the fostering care of the Prus- 
sian government and the German 
Empire as no other city in Europe. 
Nowhere, as he repeatedly has pub- 
licly expressed it, has Emperor Wil- 
liam felt so much at home as in "my 
beloved Hamburg." His receptions 
in Hamburg have literally been ova- 
tions. 

Why? Because the good burghers 
of Hamburg but too well realized not 
only that their treasured republican 
institutions were in no danger from 
"the blighting infiuence of Prussian 
diplomacy," but that its enormous ex- 
pansion, its wealth, its staggering 
tonnage and shipping were the result 
of the influence directly exercised by 
Prussia and the Kaiser. 

It laid the foundation of its su- 
premacy in the European continent 
when in 1888 it joined the Zoll-Ve- 
rein and expended $30,000,000 on 
the enlargement of its harbor. Of 
this amount the German Empire con- 
tributed $10,000,000, largely through 
the good offices of Emperor William. 

And what is true of Hamburg is 
relatively true of the two other re- 
publics nestling directly under "the 
blighting shadow of Prussia's politi- 
cal system." Wherever the German 
eagle has spread its wings prosperity 
has grown up, poverty has been re- 
duced to the minimum, beggary has 
been abolished, industry has fiour- 
ished and invention fostered. It was 
said by an English writer in 1891 
that "Germany has done more for Al- 
sace-Lorraine in twenty years than 
Prance did in two hundred." 

It has been said that one of the 
severest shocks encountered by the 
French was the disappointment in 
finding so little response to the bdm- 
bastic appeal to the people of Alsace- 
Lorraine which General Joffre ad- 
dressed to them when he invaded 
their territory at the beginning of 
the war. Such theatrically worked- 
up affairs as that of Zabern by an 
active gang of French irreconcil- 
ables was taken as a sign of general 
disloyalty to Germany. 



182 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



"Wounded French officers related in 
Paris that while they were received 
with signs of hearty welcome, secret- 
ly the population of Alsace-Lorraine 
was betraying the quarters of French 
troops to the Germans and signalling 
where German artillery could be most 
effectively employed to destroy 
French invaders. 

The ranli and file of the people 
were German; in their hearts they 
realized that France and Russia had 
provoked the war; and it is entirely 
safe to say that they will be more 
loyal to Germany hereafter than 
ever. 

So much for this blighting influ- 
ence in that section. 



Even in Denmark, which next to 
France imagined itself more ag- 
grieved by Prussia than any other 
country in Europe because of the loss 
of Schleswig-Holstein, there is a 
growing sentiment for Germany, and 
quite recently the Danish Colony in 
Berlin published the following ad- 
dress to their countrymen: 

"We who have lived here for many 
years appeal to our countrymen to 
stand by our German friends in this 
hour of trial with heart and soul in 
order that we may substantially prorve 
our own friendship and sympathy." 

Which of the oppressed and threat- 
ened nations are praying for the suc- 
cess of the Allies? 



Is Finland? Is Poland? Is Swed- 
en? Is Holland? Is Egypt? Is Per- 
sia? Is India? Are the Boers pray- 
ing for the defeat of Germany? 
Hardly. Not for England, which Is 
employing the Oriental in his cam- 
paigns. Not for France, which has 
sent the uniformed negro savages of 
Africa against the white race. Not 
for Russia, which has set a new mark 
in barbarity in its invasion of Prus- 
sia by cutting off women's breasts 
and impaling the five children of one 
woman upon fence pickets. (Dispatch 
September 2.) 

"The blighting influence of Ger- 
many" means civilization, culture, 
prosperity and progress! 



The Kaiser — What Great Men Know of His Character, 
Motives and AbiHty 



EMPEROR WILLIAM, THE MAN. 



Everybody's Magazine. 
Professor Hugo Muensterberg. 

I remember distinctly one evening 
when the emperor stood by the open 
fireplace, telling me laughingly what 
"the boy," that is the crown prince, 
had just written from his hunting- 
trip through India. I felt suddenly, 
like a thrill through my mind, the 
wish that instead of me the whole 
American nation could see this won- 
derful man in the buoyancy of his 
fatherly joy, in the sprightliness of 
his humor, in the incomparable 
charm of his mood as host. 

I felt it because I know how most 
Americans fancy the man as stiff 
and forbidding and awe-inspiring, as 
the war lord with the helmet, as the 
severe dictator whose command 
moves millions of soldiers. This 
harsh, unsympathetic picture of Wil- 
liam II, with the formidable mus- 
tache of the cartoonist, has wrought 
havoc with our American public opin- 
ion in these excited weeks of the 
European war. 

If anything could bring the man 
still nearer to us than does his sense 
of humor, it is the beauty of his 
family life. His six splendid sons 
and his favorite child, the daughter, 
are always in his mind; and the chiv- 
alrous way in which he makes his 
wife the leading personage present 
is really fascinating. In the family 
circle, when she talks, his eye rests 
on her with that perfect delight 
which means a true home happiness. 

It is indeed the simplest house- 
hold life, in spite of all the brilliant 
splendor of the surroundings. I saw 
the empress in a magnificent even- 
ing gown, wearing her long chains of 
superb pearls, sit down at the em- 
peror's side after dinner and do cro- 
chet work for a Christmas bazaar, 
while the talk between the two and 
their two guests flitted hither and 
thither. 

In such a small circle you also see 
best that the emperor's efforts for 
temperance are not only words ad- 
dressed to others, but maxims se- 
verely applied to himself. He hardly 
sips at a glass of wine, and even the 




William II— Emperor of Germany 



festival banquets which in the rich 
Berlin private houses fill many hours 
of over-luxurious feasting, are served 
In the palace with lightning rapid- 
ity. In the same way his ideas about 
sport and physical exercise, with 
which he has rejuvenated the Ger- 
man people, are carried out in his 
own simple and active life. He takes 
his dally long walks, rides horseback, 
or goes hunting. Whenever state- 
craft allows it, he takes an outing. 

Yet his chief interest lies in cul- 
ture. It is simply marvelous what a 
multitude of topics are familiar to 
him. Every science and art, every 
branch of technique and of practical 
life, every movement in social reform 
or religion holds his attention, makes 
him think, and stirs his desire to 
know more about It. 

In America I have seen only one 
person succeed in an effort to meet 
every one in his own field, and that 
was Theodore Roosevelt. After the 
congress of arts and sciences during 



the St. Louis world's fair, which was 
attended by more leading European 
scholars of all scientific denomina- 
tions, the international party went to 
Washington, and I had the honor to 
introduce each individual to the 
President, who received them in the 
East room. He really talked with 
philologists about philology, with 
naturalists about natural science, 
with historians about history, with 
geographers about geography and 
with lawyers about law. Yet six 
years later I had the feeling that the 
Kaiser outdid him. 

It was at the hundredth anniver- 
sary of Berlin university. The schol- 
arly master-spirits of the world had 
come as delegates. After a great 
banquet in the gala halls of the Ber- 
lin castle, the emperor received the 
foreign scholars personally, and I 
happened to stand quite close behind 
him. It was an intellectual delight 
to watch the versatility with which 
he met every man with interest in 
his particular subject. But the feat 
became the more fascinating as he 
addressed every one in his own lan- 
guage, speaking especially French 
and English with exactly the same 
ease as German. 

And yet this Is the man about 
whom so many Americans fancy that 
he has no other thought and no other 
idea than the army and militarism. 

He has his own opinions and sticks 
to them firmly. This naturally means 
that there are many from whom he 
stubbornly differs, and who there- 
fore may have the Impression that 
he is one-sided, and in some fields 
more prejudiced than they like. That 
has been noticed most often in mat- 
ters of literature and art and music. 
He has decidedly a personal aversion 
for radicalism In the field of beauty. 
Anything eccentric, decadent, Inten- 
tionally harsh and repellent in the 
content, or bizarre and unnatural In 
the form, appears to him foreign to 
the mission of art. He wants art 
and literature really to strengthen 
man's joy In life and to bring hap- 
piness to every one. He wants in- 
spiration from a drama, and not 
muck-raking; he wants to see God's 
glory In a landscape, and not freak- 
ish esthetic experiments. 



THE KAISER'S CHARACTER AND MOTIVES 



183 



Yet when a really great individual 
talent, who has something entirely 
new to tell the world, produces de- 
cisive works, the emperor is the, first 
to suppress his personal reluctance 
and to honor the genius. Richard 
Strauss, whose music must be con- 
trary to the emperor's instincts, is 
dii-ector at the kaiser's court opera. 

There can be no doubt that the 
kaiser has a distinct feeling for mel- 
lowed beauty, and the nation has 
often profited from his natural tact 
in matters of art. 1 may point to a 
case which concerns America. When 
Germany was to exhibit at the St. 
Louis World's fair, the architects had 
drawn the sketches for a great Ger- 
man house in the spirit of the newest 
German progressive art. The kaiser 
disliked having Germany represented 
in a foreign land by a building which 
emphasized the radical innovations 
of newest architecture. As witnesses 
told me, in a few minutes he had 
replaced it by a new plan. He drew 
in a few lines a sketch of the well- 
known old castle In Charlottenburg 
and indicated how, omitting the 
wings, the central part could be 
slightly modified and used as a model 
which would stand for the noblest 
traditions of German architecture. 
And so it did. 

This conservative attitude surely 
characterizes also his own ideas about 
his position in the state, and his 
task for his country. This is so 
easily misunderstood. The carica- 
tures make him appear a pompous 
man, who talks in a medieval and 
mystical way about his divine rights 
which lift him above mankind. In 
reality, there is not the least hauti- 
ness in the kaiser. He is genial and 
cordial and thoroughly human. 

But how does he feel, then, about 
his royal r61e? He certainly does not 
take himself as a human being above 
others. He is far too sincere, too 
deeply religious to exalt himself as 
a person. But it is different with the 
office which has come to him by in- 
heritance. 

This is most fittingly expressed if 
In religious language the royal, office 
is treated as if it were God-given. 
The crown is of divine grace, just as 
the wedding-ring is of divine grace. 
Of course, if you are radical, the 
wedding-tie does not mean any more 
to you than a contract, binding until 
you decide to have a divorce. If your 
mind tends more toward a conserva- 
tive view, the wedding-tie is some- 
thing sacred. The emperor would 
certainly take this latter view of 
marriage, and so he takes the con- 
servative view of the office of king. 

But do not forget: Of the office, 
not of the man! The king is more 
than the citizen only as the bearer 
of the office; but if this is under- 
stood, then it expresses the view 
which not only the emperor has of 
himself, but which practically every 
German has of the meaning of roy- 
alty. As soon as the monarch is 
functioning in his Inherited role, the 
German wants to see in him the 
bearer of a sacred symbol from 
which springs a higher power than 
could come from any elective office, 
which necessarily remains dependent 
upon the will of the majority. * * 



THE KAISER VINDICATED. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 
New York. 

Herman Bidder. 

The present war has been made the 
occasion for renewed outbreaks on 
the part of the press throughout the 
world against the Kaiser. Ever since 
the day, twenty-six years ago, when 
Wilhelm II. ascended the throne of 
his fathers, he has been the subject 
of constant editorial attack. The 
mass of calumnies, of distorted mo- 
tives and of petty vituperation that 
has been leveled at him has been in 
direct proportion to the measure of 
the success which has attended his 
efforts for the peaceful promotion of 
the legitimate interests of his people. 

I have followed the career of the 
emperor from the day of his acces- 
sion, through the long years when 
Germany struggled for a greater na- 
tional existence, down to the present 
day of storm and stress. I have felt 
honored by his acquaintance and by 
his friendship. I am a sincere ad- 
mirer of his extraordinary ability and 
resourcefulness. I can understand 
the devotion of his German people 
and their complete unity of purpose 
under his leadership. Whether the 
standard be German or American, the 
answer is Inevitable, the Emperor is 
a man with all that such a term im- 
plies. He Is a great man, a just man 
and a well-beloved man. 

The Emperor has almost a relig- 
ious conviction in regard to his duty 
towards his country. No personal 
motives play any part In his scheme 
of life. He is as much devoted to his 
particular calling of governing and 
brings the same point of view towards 
his profession as the young man 
towards the vocation of priesthood. 
The Emperor believes that he has 
been called to perform a great work 
and he brings a noble sense of duty 
towards its fulfillment. 

Less than any man whom I have 
studied does he yield to the prejudice 
of any particular group that happens 
temporarily to surround him. He 
favors the army, "his beloved army," 
because the army is the staff upon 
which Germany leans in times of 
peril. Imagine where Germany 
would be today without an army to 
defend her borders from the enemies 
that are being hurried from all parts 
of the world against her. 

The confidence of the Emperor in 
the German army has not been mis- 
placed. It is a great machine and 
has proven itself capable of great 
deeds. When the history of the cam- 
paign of France is written it will 
show that von Moltke was not "an ac- 
cident," as so many American papers 
delight in saying. The first rush for 
Paris did not succeed, but the next 
advance will have en entirely dif- 
ferent character. There have been 
no German routs, no great reverses. 
Fortunately the reports from London 
and Paris do not alter the facts of 
the case. Regardless of the coloring 
given at the time, sooner or later the 
facts appear. As the London Times 
naively remarks, "The truth must 
out." 



The advice of Dr. Dernburg, given 
in a speech at a benefit performance 
for the German Red Cross, is well 
worthy of the attention of German- 
Americans: 

"How can you help the Fatherland 
in this most difficult situation? 
Above all by a quiet demeanor and 
dignified attitude. It accomplishes 
no useful purpose to quarrel because 
the American people have no sym- 
pathy for that sort of thing. In the 
days of our victories we will rejoice, 
but we will not whine when we suf- 
fer the reverses which the fortunes 
of war may bring. We will empha- 
size the justness of our cause in those 
circles where it is w:orth while. We 
have too much respect for ourselves 
to answer the attacks of our oppo- 
nents, lie for lie or exaggeration for 
exaggeration. We refute with con- 
tempt, but nevertheless with modera- 
tion of expression, the charges of 
German cruelties which we know to 
be foreign to our civilization and 
our temperament. Your own charac- 
ter and your own experience in this 
country furnish the best evidence of 
that fact. 

"What we should, however, bring 
home to the American people are the 
facts of our mutual ideals, our mu- 
tual commercial Interests and a cen- 
tury of friendship between the United 
States and Germany. If they hold 
the term "militarism" before you, 
ask them which other nation in the 
world always had more than one 
enemy to protect itself against, and 
if they assert that the German peo- 
ple through this "militarism" were 
led into a war, then you can point to 
the fact of the unity of the German 
people and in what a firm and noble 
manner it is fighting its battle. 

"I consider the 4th of August of 
this year as one of the most inspiring 
days that it has been my fortune to 
live At the opening of the German 
Reichstag in the Palace of Berlin, I 
stood in the first row and saw, calm 
and determined, the elected represen- 
tatives of the German people, assured 
and stern the generals, and simple 
and alone, without decoration or at- 
tendance, the Emperor in his field 
uniform. With hope and confidence 
in his voice, the Kaiser read his 
speech. As this man in this hour held 
the responsibility for the history of 
Germany in his hands, as this man 
stepped from the platform, he said 
those few words which will always 
have an Immense importance in Ger- 
man political history: 'What I told 
my beloved people of Berlin from the 
balcony of the palace, I repeat to 
you: From today I know no distinc- 
tion in rank, no diversity of parties, 
no difference of religions. I am a 
German with my German people and 
I call on the leaders of all parties to 
swear the same oath with me and to 
confirm it by laying their hand In 
mine.' As these men stepped for- 
ward to shake the hand of the Em- 
peror, the spirit of a great hour fell 
over the assembled thousands and as 
. we sang the National Anthem, I can 
assure you it sounded different from 
a school festival or a veterans' anni- 
versary." 



184 



THE|ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 




IS THE KAISER GLORY.MAD? 



THE IRON CROSS 
The Order of the Iron Cross for Mili- 
tary Merit was founded by the Kaiser's 
great-grandfather during the wars of 
German Liberation 

THE KAISER'S NEW YEAR 
GREETINGS. 

To the German Army and the German 
Navy : — 

After five months of long, difficult 
and violent fighting, 'we enter into the 
New Year. 

Brilliant victories have been won, 
great successes attained. The German 
army stands in the enemy's territory 
almost on every side. Repeated at- 
tempts of the enemy to flood the Ger- 
man soil with their multitudinous 
armies have met with failure. My 
ships have covered themselves with 
fame on all seas. Their crews have 
proven that they can not only fight 
their way to victory, but that they are 
able, when overwhelmed by superior 
numbers, to meet death heroically. 

Behind the army and the fleet stands 
the German people in unexampled 
unity, ready to offer their dearest pos- 
sessions for the sacred domestic hearth, 
which we are defending against wan- 
ton attacks. 

Much has happened in the old year. 
But the enemy has not yet been van- 
quished. Fresh armies are constantly 
being hurled against our faithful 
troops and those of our ally. But their 
numbers do not frighten us. 

Although the present time is an 
earnest one, the task which lies before 
us most difficult, we may look into the 
future with firm confidence. 

After God's all-wise leadership, I 
place my trust in the incomparable 
bravery of the army and navy and I 
know that I am one with the entire 
German people. 

Let us therefore go forward undaunt- 
edly to meet the New Year — to fresh 
deeds — to new victories for the beloved 
Fatherland. 

(Signed) WILHELM, I. E. 
Chief Headquarters, Dec. 31, 1914. 



Editorial, Ai-my and Navy Journal, 
New York. 

It is well to call attention to a few 
facts which lie close to the surface in 
this titanic European upheavel and 
which should be especially instructive 
to all military men. First, one hears 
on all sides in the United States that 
the German Kaiser is glory-hungry and 
that, in a mad desire to achieve a name 
like Frederick the Great or Napoleon, 
he has flung his great army in the face 
of Europe. When the Boulanger excite- 
ment was at its height in France, one 
of Boulanger's partisans arose in the 
House of Deputies and shouted to the 
opposition : "How do you know that 
General Boulanger will not punish you 
all with a coup d'etat?" "Because,j| 
hissed back an opponent, "he is too old." 
Boulanger was then fifty-one. So it 
may be said of the German Kaiser. 
Born in 1859, he is now fifty-five years 
of age. A gray-haired grandfather does 
not seek military glory at an age three 
years greater than that at which Na- 
poleon died and when twenty-two years 
older than was Frederick the Great, 
when by the treaty of Dresden, in 1745, 
he obtained possession of Silesia for the 
second time and by his military genius 
had "raised himself to a great position 
in Europe." 

The Kaiser has so well kept the peace 
of Europe during the twenty-six years 
of his reign that Mr. Carnegie only a 
few months ago presented to him a trib- 
ute as an expression of the admiration 
of peace lovers the world over for the 
magnificent work he had done to pre- 
vent war in Europe during his years of 
power. Now to say that he has plunged 
nations into war for a mere freak is to 
misjudge entirely those racial currents 
which for centuries, like some deeply 
hidden stream that undermines moun- 
tains and brings the loftiest peak level 
with the plain, have torn through all 
conventions and diplomatic agreements 
and made their way in blood to the 
attainment of their ultimate object. 
There has been more than one occasion 
when the German Emperor, if he had 
been glory-mad, could have thrown his 
sword into the balance with far more 
chance of achieving success than at 
the present time. When the Russian 
Empire was in that fierce grapple with 
Japan, Wilhelm was ten years younger 
than he is today, and should have been 
more eager to achieve military fame 
than when only fifteen years away from 
the three-score years and ten which are 
supposed to round out the life of the 
average mortal. When he took the 
throne in 1888, France was only 
seventeen years removed from the dis- 
astrous debacle of the Napoleonic re- 
gime. Then the Kaiser was a young 
man and glory should certainly 
have seemed more alluring than now, 
when grandchildren are prattling on 
his imperial knees. He had scarcely 
been on the throne a decade when 
the Dreyfus agitation broke out in 
France and the name of the Kaiser was 
brought into the controversy that rent 
France asunder with discord. Then, if 
he had sought only his own glory, he 
could have manufactured a casus belli 
out of the allegations so frequently 
heard that Germany had played a base 
part in the "affaire." Again at the time 



of the Agadir incident in Africa a splen- 
did opportunity presented itself for 
creating a reason for going to war, but 
the Kaiser sat firm and the war clouds 
blew over. Why, then, should the con- 
clusion be jumped at that the German 
Emperor has no other ambition now 
than to achieve glory? Emperors at his 
age, in history of the world generally, 
have already established their reputa- 
tions and have been content to pass the 
remaining years of their reign in peace. 
The case of Napoleon III, who was 
fifty-two when he entered upon the war 
with Prussia in 1870, is not an instance 
in point, for he was an adventurer who 
held his emperorship by virtue of a 
coup d'etat and with whom the coun- 
try was becoming dissatisfied, a situa- 
tion that made war an apparently easy 
way to distract popular attention from 
troubles at home. The German Kaiser, 
on the contrary, is the regular successor 
of a beloved Emperor and his country 
is at the height of its prosperity, with 
no home troubles clouding his adminis- 
tration of his imperial heritage. 

We also hear it said that the great 
army of the Kaiser has led him on 
to challenge the military strength of 
the Triple Entente and that his alleged 
eagerness to go to war is another reason 
for general disarmament, since without 
his large army he would not have been 
tempted to go to war. Here the as- 
sertion is that the possession of a huge 
fighting machine made him imperious 
and unreasonable and that it lulled him 
into a false sense of security. But the 
facts do not bear out this assertion. In 
another column we print a summary of 
a hook by Lieut. Col. W. von Bremen, 
a German officer, which was recently 
published, and which aimed to show 
the Germans their weakness from the 
viewpoint of military preparedness. In 
it will be found little to give confidence 
to the Kaiser, as it shows Germany and 
Austria would be outnumbered by 
nearly 2,000,000 men vnthout counting 
Great Britain, while Italy could not be 
relied upon to stand by the Triple Al- 
liance. Emperors, unless they are mili- 
tary geniuses like Napoleon, are not 
eager to rush into war when outnum- 
bered by more than a million men on 
land and completely overshadowed on 
the sea. 

Americans, not having been placed 
in an environment where they could 
feel the pressure of rival races, natur- 
ally form the opinion that the great 
military establishment of the German 
Emperor is responsible for this war, 
and they cannot understand how a 
thing that appears so small to them 
as the Austro-Servian imbroglio should 
result in this pan-European conflagra- 
tion. This attitude on their part is due 
to their ignorance of conditions that 
have obtained in their own country. 
Only a few months ago the United 
States invaded territory of Mexico and 
seized her greatest port because a cer- 
tain salute was not given to the Ameri- 
can flag. Doubtless the American peo- 
ple would have been much aggrieved if 
Europe had mocked them for entering 
upon hostilities for such a trivial cause. 
Americans are inclined to condemn the 
strenuous methods adopted by Austria 
to punish Servia for the assassination 
of the heir to the Austrian throne, yet 
our own government refused to recog- 
nize the authority of Huerta on the 
ground that he was implicated in the 



THE KAISER'S CHARACTER AND MOTIVES 



alleged assassination of Madero, a 
Mexican — a refusal that resulted even- 
tually in the invasion of Mexican terri- 
tory. 

If one of the European nations hav- 
ing island possessions near the Carib- 
bean terminal of the Panama Canal 
should dispose, by a perfectly legal sale, 
of her islands or island to another na- 
tion, the United States under the Mon- 
roe Doctrine would enter a protest and, 
we doubt not, would be ready to go to 
war. Twenty years ago this country 
was on the verge of war with England 
over Venezuela and the Monroe Doc- 
trine. Could not Europe very justly 
ridicule our clinging to the intangible 
thing called the Monroe Doctrine, which 
has no place in international law? To 
the European the Doctrine may seem 
very insignificant indeed, but to Ameri- 
cans it appears to be vital to the future 
welfare of the Republic and something 
for which the nation is justified in go- 
ing to war. We who watch over the 
Doctrine with nervous care are scarcely 
in a position to shout "militarism" at 
the Germans or Austrians when they 
risk the arbitrament of war for a prin- 
ciple of racial homogeneity that may 
have just as solid a basis in the needs 
of the people as has the Monroe Doe- 
trine. One very important thing the 
American people should learn is that 
each continent, each people, has issues 
peculiar to itself, and that it is not 
projier for a country thousands of miles 
away to evoke from the depths of its 
Isolation a sneer or a criticism for peo- 
ple who may be just as faithfully living 
up to the necessities of their national 
existence as did the American people in 
1861 when they preferred to precipitate 
the greatest civil war in history rather 
than see part of their federation with- 
draw to form a separate nation. 



10,000 GERMANS CABLE KAISER 
liOVE. 



Stirring Meeting Also Urges 

Americans to Delay 

Verdict on War. 



The Chicago Tribune. 

Ten thousand of Chicago's Ger- 
man-Americans gathered in and 
about the Auditorium theater last 
night in a war demonstration. 

From this meeting and its several 
overflow meetings messages of as- 
surance and sympathy were sent to 
Kaiser Wilhelm and Emperor Franz 
Joseph. 

Resolutions were adopted calling 
on the public and the press of the 
United States to consider the situa- 
tion conservatively, thoughtfully, 
cautiously. 

5,000 Parade Streets. 

At the close of the meeting, mem- 
bers of the audience and the large 
gatherings in Grant Park, Congress 
street and Michigan boulevard pa- 
raded the streets more than 5,000 
strong behind the German colors and 
the American flag chanting "Die 
Wacht am Rhein." At the North 
Side Turner Hall the paraders held a 
second meeting, where a collection 
for the German cause was taken. 



Austria-Hungary was strongly rep- 
resented in the meeting. 

Cable to Rulers. 

The cables dispatched from the 
meeting were voted by acclamation 
from the cheering audience. The 
first read: 

"To His Imperial Majesty Kaiser 
Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary: 

"In the largest German mass meet- 
ing ever held in Chicago the Ger- 
mans and Austrians of this world 
city assure your imperial majesty, 
whose venerable brow ever inspires 
all men to love and veneration, of 
undying love and affection." 

This message was approved and 
greeted with "bravos" as the chair- 
man rose to read the following mes- 

"'fo His Majesty Wilhelm II., Ger- 
man Kaiser, Berlin: 

"The German-American citizens of 
Chicago, assembled in as great a 
mass meeting as this world city has 
ever seen, assure your majesty in 
the name of the 2,000,000 Germans 
in Illinois of our unchangeable love 
for home and fatherland." 

The meeting was held under the 
auspices of the German-American 
alliance, with Ferdinand Walther, 
president, presiding. 

Patriotic Music Stirs Crowd. 

The fervor of the audience gath- 
ered fire from the music of Ball- 
man's orchestra, playing marches 
sacred to the memory of many a field 
of German victory. 

The Rev. Alfred Meyer spoke tor 
more than an hour, discussing the 
significance of the controversy and 
the treatment of the news in the 
American newspapers. 

"We have war because of English 
jealousy," he said, as nearly as his 
rapid fire German may be translated 
Into English text. "The trade of 
Germany has increased two and a 
half times in five years. England 
has seen that only war might dis- 
turb the balance of trade." 

Kaiser's Peaceful Instincts. 

The minister spoke of the peace- 
ful instincts of Kaiser Wilhelm and 
pointed to the forty years of Ger- 
man peace. He charged England 
had added fire to the ancient hatred 
of the French and laid at the foot 
of the English throne the blame for 
the world war. 

The Rev. Mr. Meyer's utterances 
drew wild applause from the audi- 
ence. Women enthused with the 
love of fatherland stood up in their 
seats to wave kerchiefs and gloves. 

The orchestra struck up "Radetz- 
ki," the march made memorable by 
the conflict of Dueppel in Denmark 
in 1864. The auditorium roared with 
cheers. 

Former Judge Michael P. Girten 
presented an analysis of the war situ- 
ation in German phrase, which most 
accurately might be translated as an 
issue of "meat and murderers." He 
attacked the right of Servla to as- 
sume affront at the demands of 
Austro-Hungary on account of the 
anti-Austrian plots and of the assas- 
sination of the heir to the Austrian 
throne. 



"Austria has sent inspectors to 
look into the food imports, to search 
for diseased cattle and unwholesome 
meats," he said, "and Servian honor 
was not affronted. Should any 
nation be criticised for wanting an 
inspection of diseased men, reputed 
murderers? 

"Assassinations are contagious. 
They must be kept down by all civ- 
ilized peoples of the world." 

Cites Belgian Incident. 

Judge Girten recounted the Inci- 
dent of the Belgian plot of Du Chose 
against the life of Bismarck and cited 
the promptness with which Belgium 
suppressed the society and the peri- 
odicals held responsible. 

The judge praised the Kaiser as a 
man of peace, declaring in German 
idiom that he had "backed down" fre- 
quently in the last quarter of a cen- 
tury to avoid war. He charged Eng- 
land and France could have avoided 
war by refusing to let Russia go on 
with an extension of "that protection 
of a certain brand that has been ex- 
tended to the Finns and Poles." 

Bothmann Defends Germany. 

William Rothmann, only speaker 
of the night to deliver an address 
in English spoke in behalf of the 
German club. His address was a de- 
fense of the position of Germany In 
world politics. H. O. Lange also 
spoke. 

Carl Zwanzig of Ottawa, 111., presi- 
dent Des Deutsch-Amerikanischen 
Press-Vereins von Illinois, spoke in 
behalf of the German press of the 
State. 

The overflow meetings in the 
streets about and the lobby of the 
theater were addressed by E. G. F. 
Brill, former Judge Girten, August 
Lueders and others. 

More than 6,000 persons were 
turned away by the police and fire- 
men assigned to the protection of 
the theater. Charles Christian led 
a crowd to Grant Park, where the 
enthusiasts formed in tiers north of 
Congress street. 



A similar meeting as this was 
held by German-Americans of Boston 
in Faneuil Hall on August 30th. For 
details see reprinted report on an- 
other page under the head of "Fan- 
euil Hall Rocks As Germans Ask 
Pair Play From the Press." "The 
Boston Evening Transcript" says this 
was "as lacking in legitimate ex- 
cuse, as it was harmful in example," 
and that "the German-Americans 
there assembled emphasized by their 
speeches and resolutions how hyphen- 
ated is their citizenship." 

"It is against them and their 
brand of patriotism," "The Trans- 
cript" continues, "that President Wil- 
son has protested more than once 
and his admirable counsel regard- 
ing our neutrality as a nation in this 
war was, we believe, intended par- 
ticularly for those who, in their sym- 
pathy for the sorrows of the land 
they left, forget not only their rea- 
sons for leaving, but their solemn 
obligations to the land of their adop- 
tion." 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 

Germany's Moral and Sacred Trust to Posterity — Patriotism and Duty 



Die Wacht am Rhein. 

Max Schneckenburg«r. (1840.) 



Allegro maestoso. 



t. Es braiist ein Riif wie 

2. Diirch Hun. deit.tau. send 

3. Er blickt hin.auf in 

4. So lang" ein Tfop-fen 

5. Der Schwiir erscliallt.die 



Carl Wi]helm.(l854) 



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zuckt es.schnelJ,Hnd al . ler Au . gen blit.zenhell: der 
Him.mels.aun, da }|el.den.va. . ter nie. derscliaraiund 
Bint nochgltiht,nocli ei . ne Faast den De-gen zieht,nnd 
Wo . gc rinnt,die Fah.nen flat. tern hoch imWind: am 




1. Rhein, zum Rliein,zuin deiit.schen Rhein! wer will des . Stro . mes Hu.ter sein! 
3. Dent, sche, bie . der,fromni iind- stark, be . schiitzt die heil . ge Landes . Mark. 

3. Sfhwort mit stol . zer Kamp.fes . Inst: „Dii, Rhein,blteib.stdeutschwiemci-nev Brust!"} Lieb 

4. noch ein Arm die Biicn . se spannt, be * tritt kein Feind hier dei.nen Strand! ' 

5. Rhein, am Rhein, am deiit.schen Rhein, wir al . le wol . len Hii.ter seinl 




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THE WATCH O'ER THE RHINE. (Chorus:) 

Dear Fatherland, mayst tranquil be, 

(Translation of the German National Thy faithful sons will watch o'er 

Anthem, which is printed above.) thee; 

1 



That landmark ev'ry heart will keep. 
And watch unsleeping o'er the deep. 

(Chorus.) 

3 
The waves re-echo back the cry. 



Steadfast and true each son, each 
son of thine. 

With thunder shout the air is rent, ^*^°^^ ^®''*''^ °'®'" °'"' ^^'°®' °'"" The standard in the breeze doth fly. 

Like roar of waves and sword-clash °° ^ ^°^" '^^^ Rhine, the German Rhine so 

blent; 2 free, 

"Now of the German Rhine so free, The people hear that mighty cry. ^^'' ^^ ^*" ^" ^^^ guardians be. 
Who will the river's guardian be?" Like lightning flashes ev'ry eye. (Chorus.) 



A SACRED TRUST— PATRIOTISM AND DUTY 



GERMAN PATRIOTISM. 

Maximilian Harden, one of the fore- 
most German journalists, writes in 
"Die Zukunft" as follows : 

"Our foes in East and West are 
drunk with joy — 'In Germany the food- 
stuffs have been placed under Govern- 
ment control, that is the beginning of 
the end.' We reply, 'It is the end of a 
beginning of which we at home dis- 
approved mightily. It means divesting 
ourselves of all shams, whose reign 
could not continue without woeful 
harm.' 

"Do our enemies rejoice that we 
have taken this step? They may rest 
assured we have desired it for a long, 
long time. Government supervision of 
supplies is a necessity. It cannot be 
sufficiently severe where the merest 
possibility of eventual dearth exists. 
We do not complain because every 
man, woman and child is meted out an 
Iron portion of provisions, of meat, 
■eggs, butter, bread. No one knows how 
long the war may continue. And the 
fear of starvation must not he allowed 
to curtail the tear iy the fraction of 
■a day. That is the business of those 
that rule. It is their duty to see that 
the national larder remains replete." 

If Englishmen were as willing to 
make sacrifices, Germany might view 
the future with concern, but drink-sod- 
■den England is not capable of such pa- 
triotism. 

There is a handwriting on the walls 
of England and the voice of the 
prophet is sounding in her streets. — 
From "The Crucible." 



THE DUTY OP PREPAREDNESS 
FOR WAR. 



By Charles Richmoiwl Henderson. 

Head of the department of eccle- 
siastical sociology. University of Chi- 
-cago, editor of the American Journal 
of Theology, editor of the American 
Journal of Sociology. 



"From the Editorial Page of "The 

Chicago Tribune," November 8, 

1914. 

[An extract from the "Russell 
Lecture" for 1914 Tufts college, Bos- 
ton, delivered by Dr. Henderson.] 

We have no reason to abandon in 
this terrible hour our confidence in 
the ultimate triumph of reason and 
justice; nor to surrender to the de- 
testable doctrines of Machiavelli and 
his contemporary disciples; nor to 
look for our deities in Valhalla, in 
a world "beyond good and evil." Our 
first and supreme duty as a people 
is to deserve peace; to avoid every 
just occasion for attack; to be fair 
to our own workingmen, to Japan, 
and to China. No pacifist has ever 
stated that obligation too strongly. 

But the American people have re- 
cently been startled into consider- 
ation of a reality which they have 
not faced before since the awful 
years of the war for the union and 
tor liberation of our slaves. We 
have been taught to trust in the 
ocean; the Emden, the Karlsruhe, 
and other swift men of war, shelling 
Madras, Calcutta, and threatening 
other ports, have destroyed that de- 
lusion. 

We have trusted to treaties of civ- 
ilized nations, and now we are told 




ON DRESS PARADE 

Imperial Guard passing in review before their Emperor, who has just declared 

war. The same dignified and uniform appearance of German Soldiers is seen 

everywhere ; they may be mistaken, but they certainly "mean it" ! 



by the highest authorities that good 
faith and honor are the reliance of 
weaklings and fools, when "interest" 
calls for treachery and destruction. 
We have been taught by certain bril- 
liant economists that the hankers of 
the great financial centers would stop 
war by refusing credits ; and the 
money princes of conquered cities 
are hostages for the payment of 
enormous ransoms, while the bankers 
of Paris, Berlin, and London obey 
the commanders of armies without 
protest or power to lift a little finger. 

We have been taught by the pres- 
ent horrors that we can rely on no 
power but our own. We love Tol- 
stoi and the Friends for their ami- 
able dispositions and their ideals for 
the future, but at the same time we 
set steel bars before our windows 
and arm the police to protect us from 
burglars and assassins. Each man 
must adjust his theology to the facts 
as well as he can, and the mystery 
is confusedly baffling; but facts must 
be counted if we are to have a phil- 
osophy which will actually prevent 
unscrupulous rufiians from ruling the 
world. 

We have, as educated people, 
learned to trust experts, as physi- 
cians, engineers, legal advisers, in- 
vestors; but we have not only dis- 
trusted our military specialists, we 
have permitted them to be defamed 
and covered with opprobrium. The 
only men who really knew how 
strong a navy and army were needed 
have begged for a hearing in vain. 
The danger now is that we shall 
rush to another extreme and accept a 
policy of imperial conquest. Hope 
lies in heeding moderate, sane, coun- 
sels. One thing is sure as daylight: 
We must be a nation in arms; our 
youth must be taught the necessity 
of sacrifice; we must surrender part 
of our wealth, comfort, leisure, lux- 
ury, and sport to the demands of 
patriotism; we must put a powerful 



citizen soldiery under discipline of 
trained soldiers. 

Then, and then only, will the terri- 
tory, the institutions, and the civil- 
ization which we inherited from 
soldier ancestors be secure. Then 
only will peace be guaranteed. 

We have no revenge to wreak on 
any people; we are not land hungry 
for a "place in the sun"; we respect 
the rights of weaker peoples. But 
it would be better to sell the Pan- 
ama zone, the Philippine islands, and 
Hawaii for a song to any nation 
which can defend them than to hold 
them without power to protect them, 
so inviting invasion, humiliation, and 
ruin. With San Francisco, Seattle, 
Boston, Charleston, New York, and 
New Orleans at the mercy of a first 
class power, we are recreant to our 
trust, and mistake cowardice for 
moral ideals, if we fail to heed the 
call of our army and navy, on which 
at present we are imposing a duty 
which they cannot fulfill. There is 
yet time to awake from our dream 
of smug comfort and insure our 
peaceful and unquestioned posses- 
sion of the lands our ancestors paid 
for with courage, toil and the full 
measure of devotion. If our govern- 
ment, after a scientific investigation, 
asks every tenth young man, selected 
by lot, to prepare for their national 
defense, and distributes equitably 
the economical burden, we can count 
on a response worthy of our history. 
But so long as great teachers con- 
tinue to lull us all into a false con- 
fidence, the forces of danger are 
arming against us, and our youth 
are drugged into the same un- 
natural slumber. Without question- 
ing the noble motives of such teach- 
ers, their infiuence is that of the 
disloyal, of public enemies, and must 
be sharply challenged by those who 
would give justice a sword, as well 
as an olive leaf, for national pro- 
tection. 



188 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



GERMAN RACE WARS FOR lilFE. 



With Great Britain it is Simply a 

Business Proposition — Cold-Blooded 

Baron Mumm, Bitter at Britain, 

Cites Slav Menace in Interview 

Authorized by Berlin. 



The Chicago Tribune. 
Joseph Medill Patterson. 

Berlin, Aug. 26. — The following 
remarkable authorized interview was 
granted today by the German foreign 
office — comparable to the state de- 
partment in Washington — to your 
correspondent. 

The interview was held directly 
with Baron Mumm, adviser to the 
German foreign office in American, 
Chinese and Japanese affairs. 

Baron Mumm, who speaks English 
fluently, was secretary of the lega- 
tion in Washington, 1888-1892, and 
minister pro tem to the United States, 
1899. He was minister to China, 
1900-1906, in the six difficult and 
critical years succeeding the boxer 
rebellion, and ambassador to Japan 
in 1906-1911. 

When the interview was completed 
it was typewritten and submitted to 
the German foreign office for ap- 
proval. This approval was very hard 
to get. In fact, the German foreign 
office at first entirely disapproved of 
the article, rather on account of its 
manner than because of its substance, 
which it was acknowledged had been 
faithfully interpreted. 

But the way in which the inter- 
view was written, in American news- 
paper style, caused some of the older 
secretaries of state, accustomed to 
the formal phraseology of less hur- 
ried and more dignified days, to gasp. 
However, Baron Mumm, with his 
deeper knowledge of how things are 
done, written and said in the United 
States, persuaded his confreres that 
the informality of the conversation 
as reported would, if anything, cause 
it to be more widely read in America. 
On that plea the foreign office 
finally and in considerable perplexity 
assented to the interview, stamped it 
with the official stamp, and it appears 
herewith. 



How Germany is Cut Off. 

I first explained to Baron Mumm 
that the American public had so far 
heard little but the Anglo-French side 
of the catastrophe now taking place in 
Europe, owing to the control by those 
governments of the Atlantic cables to 
the United States, the control of the 
Russian and Japanese governments of 
the Pacific cables to the United States, 
and the practical stopping of mail from 
Germany. 

The answer was that the German 
government understood the situation 
perfectly and regretted it greatly, be- 
cause it was its wish to have the en- 
tire facts in the matter laid freely be- 
fore the American public. 

Baron Mumm continued that the 
German government realized that the 
impression had been spread in Amer- 
ica that Germany and the German 
emperor had wished for this world- 
wide war, provoked it, and precipitated 
it, whereas Germany had made every 
possible effort, first, to keep Russia 



from fighting Austria; second, to keep 
Prance neutral in the event of a Russo- 
German war; third, to keep England 
neutral in the event Germany found 
itself forced to fight at two frontiers, 
and fourth — obviously — it hoped that 
the Japanese would be able to restrain 
themselves from the raid on Kiau-Chau 
in China. 

"Germany Not Insane." 

"Germany is not insane," declared 
Baron Mumm vigorously, "and unless 
you think us insane, how can you be- 
lieve that we wished to fight the world 
just for the fun of it? No, the emper- 
or's quarter century of peace gives the 
lie to that Impossible conception. Rus- 
sia fought us because we are the out- 
post of the west and she is the outpost 
of the east of Europe — just as you are 
the outpost of the west on the Pacific 
and Japan of the east. 

"Russia supported her Slav broth- 
ers in Servia and we were forced to 
support our German brothers In Aus- 
tria. Race against race, people against 
people, Occident against orient, civil- 
ization against semi-barbarism — such 
things have always been in history, 
perhaps always will be. But when the 
west, when England and Prance at- 
tacked us in the rear — O, the day may 
soon come when they regret that !" 

"Then this is not a dynastic war, a 
quarrel of kings," T asked, "when kings 
play the sport of kings to see who 
plays the best?" 

"I could properly be offended at such 
a question." was the grave answer, 
"but I will endeavor not to be. because 
T see it is impossible you could believe 
even momentarily such a monstrous 
thing. 

Germany a Fighting Pit. 

"To go back to the beginning, we 
stood in the center of Europe, with 
n hostile nation on each side of us. 
For centuries we were the maneuver- 
ing ground for foreign armies. Span- 
iards. Dutch. English. Russians. Poles, 
Bohemians, but especially the French, 
have drenched our soil with each 
others', with their own. and with our 
blood for centuries. That was when the 
sport of kings was played, if you like, 
and we were the playground. 

"Finally we Germans became self- 
conscious. We realized after a long, 
long time that we must fight beside 
each other, not against each other 
for one party of invaders or another. 
Prussia was the nucletis whence this 
spirit spread over what is now the 
empire. Napoleon's iron heel trod its 



W. R. P. Is it not anomalous that 
England should so strongly oppose 
her "democracy" against the "autoc- 
racy" of Germany, when Lord Mor- 
ley, John Burns, Keir Hardie, Ram- 
say McBonald and the rest of true 
democrats, abandoned her on ac- 
count of the war? 

It is anomalous. But on the part 
of England the war itself is an an- 
omally. It is in no sense of the 
word a "people's war," but the play 
of the oligarchical party — perhaps 
its last. — Prom the "Questions and 
Answers" column in the "New 
Yorker Staats-Zeitung," November 7, 
1914. 



iron into our souls, and with tears and 
mistakes and blood we slowly made 
progress. In 1870-71, under the first 
Emperor Wilhelm — the Great, we call 
him — and Bismarck, the German Em- 
pire was born. In commerce, arts and 
science, the works of peace, it has 
grown, perhaps as fast as your own 
country, certainly faster than any 
other." 

"Certainly faster than ours in the 
arts," I suggested, "if not also in com- 
merce and science." 

Sees English Jealousy. 

"That is the explanation, the down- 
right fundamental explanation, of Eng- 
land's entrance into this war," he ex- 
plained. "We are forging ahead of 
England in all the arts and sciences 
of peace, so in our difficulty she de- 
termined to" — he hesitated, then chose 
his words carefully — "she determined 
to try to destroy our sea borne com- 
merce with her navy. She couldn't 
beat our merchants with her own, 
therefore she hopes to beat our mer- 
chants with her dreadnoughts. Ah, 
well," he said, "it was her only chance. 
English business men work six hours 
a day five or even four days a week — 
three day week-ends have become quite 
the custom over there now — and Ger- 
man business men work nine hours a 
day six days a week. Is it any wonder 
she finds she needs to subsidize her 
commerce with 13.5 Inch shells? Read 
your Mahan," he said. 

"Read Mahan?" 

"Yes — his history of the influence of 
sea power upon history. He shows 
how ever since the Spanish armada 
England has considered all the oceans 
belonging to her. She has resented to 
the point of war the commercial suc- 
cess on the ocean of any other nation. 
She has always either outbuilt her 
rivals, or when opportunity offered, 
instead of outbuilding her rival's navy, 
she has attacked it before it could be- 
come too large. She considers the five 
oceans belong to her. 

Saw Germany a Competitor. 

"We dared to share them with her 
and so she has attacked us in our dif- 
ficulty — ^just as she took advantage of 
your Civil War to fit out Confederate 
privateers and sweep your ocean com- 
merce from the seas. 

"Do you realize," he asked, "that 
it was precisely during the four years 
of your Civil War that you lost your 
ocean commerce and England picked 
It up? In the same way England de- 
stroyed the navies, first of Spain and 
took her commerce, then when the navy 
and commerce of Holland grew large, 
England destroyed her navy and took 
her commerce; then when the French 
attempted colonial expansion and trade 
under Louis XIV and XV, England de- 
stroyed the French navies and took 
French commerce. This happened 
several times. Whenever French com- 
merce showed signs of reviving Eng- 
land promptly cut to the ground again. 
Then, in the Napoleonic wars, England 
destroyed all other navies, including 
yours, and took their trade. It's a 
fine game they play in Westminster 
— that the five oceans belong to them 
— but some day the rest of Europe 
and you in America may grow as 
weary of it as we have already." 

"Then you don't believe it was to 
protect the neutrality of a weaker coun- 



A SACRED TRUST— PATRIOTISM AND DUTY 



189 



try, Belgium, to defend her against a 
powerful aggressor, as the English 
papers assert?" 

"Oh, that — that," he said, "is in your 
expression, simply monumental. Since 
when have the English themselves re- 
spected the neutrality of smaller na- 
tions? Since their South African ad- 
venture? All other nations in the 
world put together have not violated 
the neutrality of weaker countries one- 
half as much as England has. Her ex- 
isting empire of 11,000,000 square miles 
is evidence enough of that. She went 
into the Transvaal and Orange Free 
State because her financiers wanted 
the diamond mines there. We went 
into Belgium as a matter of military 
necessity in a fight for our lives." 

"May I interject," I asked, "that 
the German invasion of Belgium was 
not particularly popular in the United 
States?" 

"I know it," he answered, "and I 
am sorry. It was not particularly pop- 
ular here, either. But self-preserva- 
tion is the first law. You know, for 
instance, that mobilization means war 
— and why " 

"Why?" I asked. 

Had to Strike First. 

"Because it's like winding up a 
great spring that must unwind. The 
reserves leave their work and put on 
uniforms and shoulder guns and take 
the trains to the frontier one behind 
the other. Then the first ones at the 
frontier cross it to make room for 
the ones behind, to carry the war in 
the enemy's country to hit him first. 
Germany can mobilize in a week, 
France in a fortnight, Russia in four or 
six weeks. If, after mobilizing, we had 
waited while the diplomats talked and 
the other countries were using that 
time to mobilize against us, we would 
have lost our advantage, and we can 
afford to lose no advaritage in a war 
at two frontiers, with England on the 
sea ; yet we waited five days after we 
knew Russia had begun its mobiliza- 
tion before we began ours ; five days 
we were risking our safety in the 
hope of peace. Then when we saw war 
with Russia must come, we demanded 
categorically from France an answer 
as to whether she would observe neu- 
trality and received their answer from 
our ambassador August 1 at 1 :05 p. m. 
I quote the official document : 'Upon 
my repeated definite inquiry whether 
France would remain neutral in the 
event of a Russo-German war, the 
prime minister declared France would 
do that which her interests dictated.' 

France's Meaning Clear. 

"In the language of diplomacy, and 
considering France's alliance with Rus- 
sia, that could have but one mean- 
ing, and so we knew we must strike 
as hard and as quickly as possible at 
France. The way in which we could 
strike France hardest and quickest 
was through Belgium, and hence we 
took that way. If Belgium had per- 
mitted us free passage we would have 
paid cash for every mouthful and left 
its territory intact. But Belgium chose 
to appeal to the god of battles and 
must abide by the result. With Russia 
on one side and France on the other 
and England on the oceans, what else 
could we do but strike as hard and as 
QiiVblr as we could? Let history de- 



cide which was the most necessitous, 
and hence excusable — our invasion of 
Belgium or England's of the Trans- 
vaal." 

"But" — I reverted to the horror of 
it all — "all this for the murder of a 
royal couple in Austria? Why must 
millions die for them now? They are 
already dead and cannot return to 
life." 

Cites Allegory in U. S. 

"Suppose," said he, "that the Mex- 
icans had been conducting an anti- 
American campaign along your south- 
ern boundary for thirty years with 
the object of detaching Arizona and 
New Mexico from the United States 
and returning them to Mexico ; sup- 
pose this propaganda was connected 
with the open connivance of the Mexi- 
can government and press and with 
the active assistance of Mexican army 
officers. Suppose then that the next 
highest official in your country, a man 
who corresponded to a combination of 
vice-president, secretary of state, and 
general in the army, were sent to the 
ti'oubled region on a political mission 
to report on what steps should be 
taken to quell this propaganda, and 
suppose further that he was there as- 
sassinated with his wife by a Mexican 
with bombs manufactured in a Mexi- 
can government arsenal and furnished 
him by Mexican officials and army of- 
ficers, and suppose, as I have said, this 
was not an outrage, but the culmina- 
tion of thirty years of anti-American 
attack, then would the American people 
consider a punitive expedition against 
Mexico unreasonable? 

"I rather think not. They would 
insist on it. The arrest of six Ameri- 
can marines resulted in your capture 
of Vera Cruz, did it not? The blow- 
ing up of the Maine, by causes yet un- 
known, in the taking of Cuba, Porto 
Rico, and the Philippines? Yet Aus- 
tria did not wish to take any of Servia. 
It officially agreed not to do so. It 
wanted only a cessation of this pan- 
Servian propaganda of the bomb. If it 
did not insist on that it must abdicate 
its very sovereignty in its own terri- 
tory." 

"Then why not let them fight it 
out?" 

Russia Forced Action. 

"Heaven knows that we wanted to 
let them fight it out — and the fight 
would, as I said, have simmered down 
to a punitive expedition. But Russia 
refused. Against our prayers Russia 
insisted on taking the side of the 
Serbs, the Slavs against our allies. So 
we had no alternative." 

"Why? Why couldn't you let Aus- 
tria and Russia fight without entering 
the strife?" 

"For one reason, we have a treaty. 
But the treaty is not a rather mystic 
piece of parchment between kings as 
perhaps you think," he smiled. "It is 
not a dynastic affair at all. Our em- 
peror is related more closely by blood 
to the czar of Russia and the king of 
England than to the emperor of Aus- 
tria-Hungary. The treaty means this : 
That the Germans in the German em- 
pire and the Germans in Austria-Hun- 
gary must stand together, especially 
against the Slavs, who are always 
pressing west and south — and also 
against their other enemies. 



"We Germans have certainly learned 
this lesson well — and never again will 
forget it — that, situated as we are in 
the middle of Europe, we must stand 
firmly together. If we let Austria- 
Hungary be crushed or weakened, by so 
much is our own strength enfeebled. 
Our support of AilStria-Hungary is but 
enlightened self-interest, necessary to 
Germanic civilization." 

"What is the difference between Slav 
and Teuton? How would the world 
suffer if the Slav did press westward?" 

Germany Had to Object. 

"I suppose," he smiled again, "it is 
natural for us Germans to consider 
first how we ourselves would suffer if 
the Slavs pressed westward into Ger- 
many. How the world would suffer 
by our extinction? That is the ques- 
tion rather for the philosopher than 
the politician. Politicians and people 
generally object to their own extinc- 
tion, and if they don't object strenu- 
ously enough they are not fit to live 
and do not live as a sovereign people. 
But to answer your question. The 
Slav civilization is lower, more brutal, 
more primitive, and less complex than 
ours in Germany or yours in America. 
The individual Slav is less an indi- 
vidual than the individual Teuton. He 
is more of an undifferentiated speci- 
men of the great agglomerate mass. He 
is one of a herd, a single insect in a 
swarm. Of course, this is true of all 
of us, in a measure, but it is truer of 
orientals than of westerners and never 
forget the Slav is always a semi- 
oriental. Perhaps the Japanese have 
really a finer civilization than you. 
Personally I do not think so, but per- 
haps time will say they have. How- 
ever, be that as it may, you in Amer- 
ica would resist fiercely a Japanese 
attempt to supplant your civilization 
with theirs. So have we and do we 
and will we resent the attempt to sup- 
plant in any territory now held by 
Germans our civilization by that of 
the Slavs." 

"Was Japan's entrance into the war 
against you a surprise?" 

"Japan's raid was, of course, not an 
entire surprise. It may be a bitter 
thing for England in the end, however. 
For on the heart of the Japanese is 
written 'Asia for Asiatics.' " 

"You think we are next on the list?" 
I asked — "the Philippines?" 

Sees Japan Our Rival. 

"How long do you think Japan would 
hold her hand from you," he answered 
my question with another, "if you found 
yourself in a war against three great 
and two little powers? Yes, England 
sowed dragons' teeth," he said, "drag- 
ons' teeth for the white skins — 'Asia 
for the Asiatics' is written on the 
hearts of all the Japanese." 

"In your opinion, can that affect 
England herself? She has taken more 
land and more people under her flag 
in Asia than all the white people to- 
gether. Will there be stirrings in 
India from this?" 

"Japan is supposed to guarantee In- 
dia to England," he answered. 

"And you doubt her good faith?" 

"I am firmly convinced that Japan 
will maintain her faith with England 
as long as England doesn't need her 
help. But should England find a 



190 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



Macedonian opportunity in India or the 
Malay Peninsula — ah ! that we cannot 
tell till that event." 

"What chance Is there of the Mo- 
hammedan caliph declaring a holy 
war in the Soudan, Egypt, India, and 
Malaysia and other points north, 
south, east and west against the 
Christians?" 

"Who can tell?" said he. "What 
chance did there seem of this Euro- 
pean devastation two short months 
ago? The more troops England sends 
against us the fewer she will have in 



cousinship with a degree of warmth 
in direct ratio to your degree of 
strength. Because she has the only 
thing in the world you really need to 
round out your boundaries." 

"You mean Canada?" 

"I mean Canada? Of course, I re- 
alize it is inconceivable you will ever, 
or at least soon, attempt to take it. 
But why? Because Great Britain has 
realized so cleverly that the only pos- 
sible way in which she can defend it 
is by making you her friend and put- 
ting you on honor. 



supremely pre-eminent, diplomacy, 
they make little mention. They be- 
lieve the seas belong to them by di- 
vine right and most of the yellow, 
black and brown races for exploita- 
tion. Yet when we strive for our fair 
place in the sun they go to war with 
us the first time our hands are full 
and blame us for the war ; and your 
people, reading their cable dispatches, 
applaud them. However, we shall 
conquer this unholy alliance against 
us," he concluded, "for Germany Is 
one in its determination to live." 




THE KAISER WILHELM CANAL 

The Possession of which gives the German Fleet unrestricted Access to both 

the Baltic and the North Sea 

(By Courtesy of the "World's Work") 



her colonies in case of such a 'holy 
war,' as you call it. That is a plain 
sum in arithmetic. Perhaps, after all, 
your taking of the Philippines marked 
the high water mark of the white race 
and recession has begun. Port Arthur 
was No. 1 for the Japanese, Klau- 
Chau No. 2. What will be No. 3?" 

Calls British Subtle. 

Reverting to the English, he ex- 
claimed: "You in America are accus- 
tomed to think of the English as a 
blufif, hearty, downright, unsubtle 
race, fond of sport and the open air. 
Well, all I can say to that is that they 
are certainly fond of sport and the 
open air. There has never been a 
race of diplomats their equals in 
shrewdness, subtlety and a sleepless 
eye on the main chance since time be- 
gan." 

"Please illustrate." 

"Well, then, there is no disguising 
the fact that for a time at least, prior 
to the growth of the Japanese ques- 
tion in your country, you considered 
us — shall we say? — your chief political 
rivals. Now you have shifted that 
feeling to the Japanese, fl.nd all this 
time you have considered England 
your first friend." 

I said : "She made herself so." 

"Precisely my point. She made her- 
self so ; she began to talk of your 



"You are the only people who can 
get at England while she commands 
the sea, and she has disarmed you by 
this comparatively recent friendship. 
When Canada is filled up with 50,- 
000,000 or 60,000,000 people and 
you have a 3,000 mile border, most 
of it without natural defense, and 
you begin — as you will unless human 
nature changes vastly — to tax your- 
selves on both sides of that imagi- 
nary line for soldiers and forts and 
more soldiers and more forts, until 
at last a spark sets off the conflagra- 
tion — in that day you or your sons 
will agree with my feelings now, that 
when it comes to diplomatic affairs, 
England is quite alone in a class all 
by herself. She combined Europe 
against Louis XIV, against Louis XV, 
against Napoleon, against Russia in the 
Ci'imea, and now against us. 

Combines Against Rivals. 

"Whoever her first rival has been 
she has combined Europe against him. 
She fought you when you were weak ; 
she lent her aid to the effort to split 
your republic in the Civil War. and 
now that you are strong and her do- 
minions are yours for the taking she 
is your best friend. She sets Japan 
on us and uses Japan to guard India. 

"The English take credit to them- 
selves for many excellent qualities, 
but of that quality in which they are 



"If you are shut from the seas," I 
asked, "how long can you subsist on 

yourselves?" 

Foor Until Next Harvest. 

"Until the next harvest is in," he 
answered. "That has all been gone 
into carefully. Our enemies who have 
deluded themselves into the hope we 
shall starve will be disappointed in 
that as in other things. We shall lack 
somewhat in tea, coffee, cocoa and 
other tropical products, but of bread, 
meat, potatoes and sugar we have am- 
ple on hand till the next harvest. We 
would like some of your cotton, 
though, and copper. But we have 
plenty of hides and leather, coal, iron, 
petroleum, lumber, and chemicals." 

"How will you finance the war?" 

"Within ourselves, by war taxes and 
internal laws. For instance, we have 
never had an inheritance tax. Now 
we shall. Likewise heavier excise du- 
ties on beer and tobacco." 

"You will make no external loans, 
borrow no money from abroad?" 

"No, none." 

"As to a war indemnity from 
France, if you occupy Paris?" 

"France chose to appeal to the god , 
of battles," he answered. "We asked •' 
her to stay out ; she chose war, and 
now she shall have it with all its con- 
sequences." 



A SACRED TRUST— PATRIOTISM AND DUTY 



191 



AN AMERICAN SYMPATHIZER 
WITH GERMANY.' 



The Open Court. 

My Dear M.: 

I have your letter expressing your 
astonishment and dismay at learning 
that my sympathy is with the Ger- 
mans in this conflict, and giving what 
you allege to be "incontrovertible 
facts" that challenge the soundness 
of my position. 

You charge: 

1. "That the Germans represent 
a military system , which has long 
threatened the peace of Europe, and 
which will dominate the world if they 
win." 

2. "That to give support to them 
is to 'glorify the hideous doctrine 
that might makes right.' " 

3. "That any impartial considera- 
tion of the official documents sub- 
mitted by the various contending par- 
ties must convince any one that Ger- 
many could have prevented this war 
had she sincerely wished to avoid hos- 
tilities at this time." 

4. "That the cause of free insti- 
tutions and of civilization makes it 
imperative that England and France 
should win." 

You point to the fact that no news- 
paper of any character or influence in 
the East pretends to conceal its sym- 
pathy for the allies, and that, of all 
your acquaintances, save those con- 
nected with Germany by ties of blood 
or marriage, you know of no other 
person who takes the side of Ger- 
many, except J. S., whom you "have 
regarded for several years as being 
unbalanced." 

Accept my assurances that I am 
prompted to write you now, at some 



' The writer of this article prefers not 
to have his name mentionefl, for reasons 
which need not be set forth in detail ; but 
for the benefit of our readers we state the 
following facts concerning his identity : 

He is of pure Anglo-American extrac- 
tion and has neither direct nor indirect 
relation to Germany, either in his own an- 
cestry or that of his wife's family. At the 
same time he is of high social and profes- 
sional standing in his native state, his 
father having served in the Court of Ap- 
peals and in other public services of the 
state for over thirty years. He himself 
holds high rank in the legal profession, so 
that by heredity and training he is well 
equipped to be impartial. 

His reasons for writing his views are 
explained in a personal letter to the editor 
as follows : "I and my wife and daugh- 
ters are among the few persons of English 

descent in whose sympathies have 

been with the Germans in this conflict. 
My wife and my daughters found them- 
selves beset on every side by their friends 
and acquaintances whose sympathies were 
not with the Germans. The arguments 
that they most frequently were called 
upon to meet were those set out on the 
first page of the manuscript, and the 
article was prepared with a view to for- 
tifying them in their position, and en- 
abling them to advance arguments to 
meet the contentions of their acquaint- 
ances. The article has been thrown into 
the form of a letter to make it more col- 
loquial, and in the hope that thereby it 
would be more readily grasped and under- 
stood by the average person." 

Friends of the author of this letter who 
were impressed with the clearness of his 
judgment urged him to make public his 
statement of the case, and it was in this 
way that his manuscript reached "The 
Open Court." 

We do not doubt that there are many 
of our readers who will be glad to receive 
from a purely American source a fair and 
unbiased statement of the case for Ger- 
many written by a man whose scholarship 
and training fit him for judging the merits 
of both sides of the case. — Ed. 



length, not because of any anxiety at 
being seriously classed by you among 
the mentally deficient, but solely be- 
cause I believe that the intimacy 
which has characterized our friend- 
ship for so many years entitles you 
to know why I sympathize with the 
Germans, whilst the vast majority of 
our friends and acquaintances can 
only see the other side. 

To begin with, I feel confident that 
the difference in our viewpoints may 
be largely explained by a failure to 
agree on the facts, or inferences to 
be deducted from the facts. 

I. 
Take your first allegation, namely: 
"That the Germans represent a 
military system which has long 
threatened the peace of Europe, and 
which will dominate the world if they 
win." 

This statement I believe to be in 
the main correct, but I fail to see why 
the Germans should be condemned 
for this situation. The reason the 
German military system has threat- 
ened the peace of Europe is because 
the Germans have made it so efficient 
that, together with their navy, they 
have upset the balance of power in 
Europe, which the other European 
governments, and more especially 
that of England, have sought to main- 
tain with so much concern ever since 
the battle of Waterloo. The German 
military system has threatened the 
peace of Europe not because of its 
existence as a military system, but 
because the other powers of Europe 
have come to see that it is the most 
efficient probably in the world to- 
day. Prance, Russia, England, each 
has a military system, but none of 
these nations has been willing to 
make the sacrifice in time and money 
necessary to bring their respective 
military establishments to the point 
of excellence that has been reached 
by the Germans. 

In addition, each of these nations 
has, of course, a naval establish- 
ment. The policy sedulously fol- 
lowed by England with respect to her 
naval establishment for years has 
been that it must be equal in power 
and efficiency to that of the combined 
fleets of any other two powers in Eu- 
rope. This policy England has fol- 
lowed simply because no other state 
in Europe was strong enough to chal- 
lenge her right. When, however, the 
strength of Germany on land and sea 
is descried looming higher and higher 
on the horizon by the other military 
powers, — they see protection by alli- 
ances, offensive and defensive, that 
would have been wholly unnecessary 
had they each set for themselves the 
same standard of efficiency that the 
Germans have striven for so success- 
fully in the last forty years. 

Now, I submit that it is not only 
the inherent right but the paramount 
duty of every sovereign state to main- 
tain such military and naval estab- 
lishments as its people may deem 
necessary for the proper protection 
of their interests on land and sea. 
This right has been accorded to 
Prance, Russia and England without 
question. If the German military es- 
tablishment had been characterized 
by the morale which characterized 



the Russian army prior to its conflict 
with Japan, had its naval estab- 
lishment been characterized by the 
morale which is generally held to 
characterize that of Russia and 
Prance at the present time, nothing 
would have been heard in regard to 
the danger to the peace of Europe, so 
far as Germany is concerned. 

Is it right then that Germany 
should be penalized for having ap- 
plied successfully the doctrine of effi- 
ciency to her military and naval es- 
tablishments, when the other powers 
have been unwilling to make the sac- 
riflces to the same end; and if the 
balance of power in Europe has been 
upset as a result, should she be de- 
stroyed? 

Whilst I agree with you that her 
military system has threatened the 
peace of Europe, I cannot admit that 
that threat has been accompanied by 
any act of aggression on her part up 
to the time of the outbreak of pres- 
ent hostilities. 

The development of her military 
and naval establishments has gone 
hand in hand with a commercial de- 
velopment and expansion that has 
been unequaled in modern times. 
The German people have excelled in 
peaceful pursuits under conditions 
that find no parallel, not even in this 
country, and whether they succeed or 
not, I confidently believe that the 
efficiency which they have striven for 
will be the goal set by the other pro- 
gressive nations of the world. 

By this I do not wish to be under- 
stood to mean their military system 
in detail. What I do mean is that 
other nations will be taught that if 
they are to give a good account of 
themselves when their rights are 
challenged, they must see to it that 
their military and naval establish- 
ments are efficient. 

In this sense, and in this sense 
only, I agree that the German mili- 
tary system will dominate the world 
until such time shall arrive when 
some method can be substituted for 
deciding international disputes, other 
than that which has hitherto been 
employed, namely, the arbitrament of 
arms. 

I cannot, therefore, see any men- 
ace in the persistence of the German 
military system for the future, unless 
you ask me to subscribe to the doc- 
trine of those well-intentioned but 
misguided persons who demand that 
armies and navies shall from now on 
be abolished. On the contrary, I 
hold that by enforcing a system mak- 
ing for efficiency Germany will, in 
the end, win the lasting gratitude of 
those nations that at the present time 
spend enormous sums of money on 
their military and naval establish- 
ments without getting results in any 
way commensurate with the same. 

Did you see the editorial in the 
New York "Evening Sun" of Novem- 
ber 5 th, on the defense of Kiao Chau? 
Por fear you did not, let me quote 
the following: 

"British statesmen and journals 
have delighted to tell the world that 
Great Britain is making war to save 
the German people from militarism, 
to bring independence to the op- 
pressed Teutons. Was there ever a 
more complete, a more crushing an- 



192 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



swer to such cant than that supplied 
by Kiao Chau, by the response of the 
Germans of the East to a call not to 
battle but to disaster, to a summons 
not to possible victory, but to inevit- 
able defeat and destruction." 
So much for German militarism. 

II. 

Now, as to your second charge: 

By this, I presume, you refer to 
the violation of Belgian neutrality. 
I do not permit my sympathies for 
the misfortunes of the Belgians to ob- 
scure the view of the general ques- 
tion relating to the violation of their 
neutrality. 

Conceding that Germany was a 
party to the treaty of 183 9, through 
the signatory participation of Prus- 
sia, and conceding the adherence of 
Germany to the Hague declarations 
as to the inviolability of neutral terri- 
tory, I am not prepared to grant that 
she was bound to respect the neutral- 
ity of Belgium in the face of mili- 
tary necessity affecting her national 
safety. National safety is the su- 
preme law of the world. No nation 
can bargain away irrevocably its sov- 
ereignty in the form of a treaty or 
by any other instrument that has 
ever been devised. Such a treaty is 
binding only so long as the sovereign 
powers signatory to it are willing to 
be so bound. Its force and effect is, 
as the lawyers say, simply and solely 
in terrorem. At least two sound rea- 
sons can be advanced to support this 
contention. One is that to which I 
have adverted, viz.. No nation has 
the power or right to bargain away 
its sovereignty, so as to bind poster- 
ity for all time. 

It seems curious that there should 
be so much public misapprehension 
on this subject, and it all comes 
about because people have confused 
a treaty between sovereign nations 
with a contract between individuals. 
A treaty between nations is essen- 
tially different from an ordinary con- 
tract between individuals, and yet 
there are certain things that even an 
individual cannot make the subject 
of a binding contract. 

The principle that a state cannot 
bargain away its supreme rights is 
the same in its fundamental concept 
as the principle recognized and en- 
forced in private municipal law — that 
an individual cannot bargain away 
his supreme rights. 

Tou could not, my dear M., bar- 
gain away your right to live, or to 
engage in a lawful, gainful pursuit 
to enable you to live, by the most sol- 
emn instrument ever devised by a 
Philadelphia lawyer. It would be at 
best a mere "scrap of paper." So 
with this treaty respecting Belgium's 
neutrality. This treaty could not 
bind the Germans under circum- 
stances which affected their national 
safety. 

Now, I do not mean to beg the 
question; I hear your protest before 
you even voice it — the question is, 
did the military necessity exist? 
Frankly, I cannot say. How can any 
one, until all the facts are disclosed? 

I am willing to suspend judgment 
until all the facts are in our posses- 
sion, which an interrupted communi- 
cation with Europe and especially 



with Germany, apart from other rea- 
sons, make it impossible now to se- 
cure. 

The second reason for supporting 
the contention that nations are not 
bound irrevocably by treaties to 
which they are parties, is this: 

Nations frequently enter into 
treaties under the compulsion im- 
posed by the military supremacy of 
the other powers to the treaty. A 
nation can hardly be irrevocably 
bound by a treaty which it is forced 
to sign. This principle also finds its 
analogy in private municipal law. As 
you well know, no one is bound by 
the terms of any agreement which is 
signed under the compulsion of su- 
perior physical force. 

This last reason, I must admit, can- 
not be availed of by any signatory 
power to the articles of the Hague 
Convention. It can hardly be claimed 
that they were entered into under 
the compulsion of a superior physi- 
cal force. I do hold, nevertheless, 
that no state has the power to make 
a binding agreement, even through 
the instrumentalities of a Hague 
Convention, that will result in im- 
periling its national safety. 

If the doctrine that the safety of 
the state is the supreme law of the 
land is to give way, and admit of de- 
nial, as is now contended for in some 
quarters, I can only say that it has 
never been questioned before, and 
Germany can hardly be held censur- 
able for regarding it in full force 
and effect when the demand was 
made for peaceful passage over Bel- 
gian territory. 

I accordingly submit that entrance 
into Prance through Belgium cannot 
be regarded ipso facto .as unwarranted 
by the Germans, nor as an assertion 
of the doctrine that "might makes 
right." 

If the military necessity affecting 
her national safety existed, I con- 
tend that not only was it the right, 
but the supreme duty of Germany to 
violate Belgian neutrality, despite 
any treaties that may have been pre- 
viously entered into by her or on her 
own behalf, and despite any views 
to the contrary which may now be 
entertained as the result of a newly 
awakened attitude toward inter- 
national obligations. 

III. 

I now come to the third contention. 
This has to deal with the so-called 
"White Papers." 

The only value of these official 
documents, to my mind, is in dis- 
closing the occasion and the imme- 
diate events leading up to the out- 
break of hostilities. If one is to fix 
the responsibility for this war, one 
must be familiar not only with the 
occasion but also with the causes 
which brought it about. There ex- 
ists much confusion in the public 
mind between the occasion and the 
causes of the war. It is not sufficient 
to fix the blame for the occasion of a 
conflict of this kind. It seems to me 
that every fair-minded person in 
dealing with the question of respon- 
sibility must have respect rather to 
the causes than to the occasion. 
Now, if the causes of the war be 
analyzed, it will be found that a train 



of events had been set in motion 
many years ago which had gathered 
such momentum that they could be 
no longer controlled. 

It is well-nigh impossible with this 
titanic conflict at its height to project 
oneself sufficiently into the future to 
view the situation as it will appear 
to the historian of tomorrow, and yet, 
unless one is willing to set aside one's 
predilections in favor of one side or 
the other, and to strive to assume an 
attitude of strict impartiality, no 
sound judgment can be reached. 

Much hostile criticism was directed 
at the Kaiser, at the outbreak of hos- 
tilities. Many persons blamed him for 
the war. It was claimed that the 
German people were the victims of 
an oppressive military system fas- 
tened upon them by selfish class legis- 
lation; that they did not want war 
and were reluctant to fight. The 
argument was that, as the Kaiser 
declared a state of war in Germany, 
it was equally within his power to 
have refrained from so doing. 

In the publication of the White 
Papers of England and Germany per- 
sons have found what they consider 
satisfactory proof of the charge that 
the Kaiser must bear the blame for 
the outbreak of hostilities. I am 
convinced that the historian of the 
future will not fix the blame for this 
war on the Kaiser, nor find in him 
either its cause or occasion. When 
the secrets of the several chancel- 
leries shall have been disclosed the 
cause of the war will be found in 
a sequence of events beginning, per- 
haps, with the victory of Germany 
over Prance in 1870 and culminating 
in the ambitious projects for Servian 
hegemony in the Balkans, and the 
murder of the successor of Francis 
Joseph in June last. 

United Germany has been em- 
ployed during these forty-four years 
in developing its resources and ex- 
panding a marvelously active and 
successful overseas commerce, only 
to find herself completely isolated by 
an alliance offensive or defensive be- 
tween the three most powerful na- 
tions of Europe, who have viewed 
with suspicion and apprehension ior 
many years her development into a 
great power on land as well as on 
sea. Rightly or wrongly it had be- 
come an obsession with the German 
peoples that these powers were pre- 
pared at the first favorable oppor- 
tunity to attempt to accomplish by 
force that which they had long 
wished for and frequently attempted 
by moral suasion, viz., the curtail- 
ment of her power to fight on land 
and sea. The Germans had come to 
believe that, if their national destiny, 
whatever it might be, was to be 
achieved, it must be by the arbitra- 
ment of arms taken up in defense 
of their national integrity. These, 
briefly, are the main causes leading 
up to the war. 

Now, for the occasion: 

I hold that the conviction existed 
in Germany that in furthering the 
aims of the Serbs in the Balkans, 
Russia had formulated plans which 
must inevitably bring disaster to the 
dual monarchy on the death of the 
aged Francis Joseph. Through Rus- 
sian machinations the break-up of 



A SACRED TRUST— PATRIOTISM AND DUTY 



193 



Austria-Hungary had been tremen- 
dously promoted by the removal of 
the Crown Prince. The immediate 
question for Germany to decide was 
whether she should espouse the cause 
of Austria-Hungary, which demanded 
that for the preservation of the integ- 
rity of the dual monarchy a mortal 
blow be struck at Servia's preten- 
sions; or wait until these pretensions 
should assume a yet more definite 
form of hegemony in the Balkans 
and thus risk being deprived of the 
assistance which her ally was in a 
position to give at this time. 

Austria was in duty bound to seek 
reparation for the blow aimed at her 
by a counter blow calculated to smash 
the plans that had been conceived 
against her sovereign and territorial 
integrity. Should she hesitate to do 
this, she must face with certainty the 
progressive and successful develop- 
ment of the plans secretly formulated 
against her by Servia, and fomented 
and promoted by Russian diplomacy. 
Strike she must, or be stricken in 
turn. 

Under these circumstances, I sub- 
mit that it was not only incumbent 
upon Germany to support her ally's 
position, but equally necessary to her 
own safety. 

If you entertain the idea at this 
stage of the conflict that this is not 
the war of the German people, but 
is the war of the Kaiser, let me call 
your attention once more to the edi- 
torial in the "Evening Sun" (New 
York) from which I have already 
quoted: 

"It is no longer possible for any 
but the wilfully blind to mistake the 
fact that it is not the machine that 
is making German armies potent in 
an attack still continuing. The songs 
of the boy conscripts of 1914 are but 
the echo of the songs of those other 
boys of 1813 and 1814 who freed 
Europe from Napoleon and saved 
Germany from complete subjugation. 
It is inconceivable that there should 
remain a single person who could 
honestly believe that the German 
phenomenon which fills Europe to- 
day is less than the complete, solidi- 
fied, fused resolution of a whole 
nation." 

People have commented, with a 
sneer, on the fact that the life of 
a Crown Prince should be of suffi- 
cient importance to bring on a world- 
war. It can hardly be necessary to 
point out to you that under any exist- 
ing form of government, whether re- 
publican, monarchical, imperial, ab- 
solute, or otherwise, the person who, 
for the time being, is the head of the 
government is an integral part of its 
sovereignty, together with all other 
persons designated by law in imme- 
diate succession. No self-respecting 
power, hoping to retain its voice in 
the council of nations, can permit its 
ruling head or his immediate succes- 
sor to be assassinated by a citizen of 
another power without taking such 
steps as it may decide are necessary 
to vindicate the principle of sover- 
eign integrity. 

No, my dear M., this is not the 
Kaiser's war, nor is the Kaiser either 
the cause or the occasion of it. The 
causes I have briefly referred to 



above. The occasion will be found 
in the brutal murder of the successor 
to the aged Francis Joseph, and 
Russo-Servian designs upon the in- 
tegrity of Austria-Hungary. 

IV. 

Finally, you claim that the cause 
of free institutions and civilization 
makes it imperative that England 
and France should win. 

I yield to no one in paying un- 
grudging tribute to the debt which 
we all owe to England and to France 
as well, for what they have done to 
advance the sum of human happiness 
in the largest sense in which that 
word can be used. The science of 
government, the security of life and 
property, the advancement of learn- 
ing, the development of art, scientific 
research — all the countless things 
that go to make life worth living, 
in this year of grace 1914; — the lead- 
ers in thought which they each have 
produced, the deeds of valor in which 
the history of these peoples is re- 
plete, none of these things I forget 
or overlook. 

But if you ask me what nation in 
Europe today stands in the forefront 
of progress, and whose welfare means 
more to the immediate civilization of 
the world, and the free institutions, 
which are the most precious posses- 
sion of that civilization, I would say 
unhesitatingly, Germany. 

I contend that the great questions 
of the future, not immediately con- 
nected with national defense, with 
which we will be most concerned, are 
those relating to the distribution of 
wealth, and the socialization of in- 
dustries. These are the problems 
with which we are struggling in this 
country, which have caused England 
so much disquietude, and which will 
surely sooner or later vex France. 

Let us not forget that the best 
social legislation of the age is that 
which has been devised and first put 
in practice in Germany. Germany is 
but another word for efflciency. 

In letters and science, in the arts, 
in governmental activities, and espe- 
cially in legislation designed to pro- 
mote so-called social justice, she is 
the leader in the world today. Her 
destruction would be an incalculable 
loss to the world. 

If we are to have progress we 
must have creative work. 

I presume you will admit that 
those individuals make most for the 
progress of any community who are 
engaged in creative work. It is 
equally true that those nations are do- 
ing most for civilization whose ac- 
tivities at the moment can be charac- 
terized as creative. 

England and France have not been 
for the past two decades leaders in 
creative work. Their places have 
been taken by the United States, by 
Germany and by Japan. In this sense 
England and France have exhibited 
unmistakable signs of decay, England 
perhaps more than France. Ever 
since the battle of Waterloo she has 
lauded it over Europe and the world; 
sated with power and the riches that 
come with power, she sees her place, 
hers the foremost in the seats of the 
mighty, challenged by a young and 
lusty power. That the coming of age 



of this young state spells disaster 
for her she senses with unfailing 
accuracy, resulting from years of ex- 
perience in world affairs. Confident 
in the supremacy of her naval arm, 
but unwilling or unable to strengthen 
her military arm, she accommodates 
her quarrels with her age-old ene- 
mies and strengthens it with the sup- 
port of the Latin and Slav. Thus 
she girds herself to readjust, if neces- 
sary through armed conflict, the bal- 
ance of power, which has kept her 
supreme in the affairs of Europe for 
a hundred years, and to dictate peace 
in terms which will secure to her a 
quietude that for her advanced age, 
her reduced vitality and her yearning 
to enjoy the fruits of an active and 
phenomenally successful youth and 
middle age, seem so greatly to be de- 
sired. 

England faces the setting sun, Ger- 
many faces the rising sun. These, 
dear M., are some of the reasons that 
persuade me that the cause of free 
institutions and of civilization are 
safer in the keeping of Germany to- 
day than they are in that of England 
and France. 

I have not mentioned Russia. I 
know your views too well to find it 
necessary to answer any claim ad- 
vanced in behalf of this young and 
powerful barbarian to be the cham- 
pion of free institutions and of civil- 
ization. As to the little yellow fel- 
low, whose ambition is to be the 
Britisher of the Orient, — ^well, we 
shall see what we shall see! 
As ever sincerely, 

E. P. 



A PIECE OF EVIDENCE. 



Editorial, Hartford DaUy Courant. 

Count von BernstorfC, the German 
ambassador to this country, in the 
course of a conversation with Ed- 
ward Marshall last week which was 
printed in yesterday's "New York 
Times," said among other things 
this: — 

"It would have been a sign of 
madness in the entire German people 
if they had done as they have done 
without good reason. But they 
merely rose to save their own, as all 
men who are worthy will arise. They 
had been attacked by Russia. They 
were determined to withstand at- 
tack. 

"It has been said here (in the 
United States) that the sentiment in 
Germany is much divided and that 
there is large opposition to the war. 
This is not the case. Indeed, it is 
an absolute misstatement. 

"There are many Socialists in the 
German Reichstag. Socialism de- 
cries militarism and declares its ab- 
horrence of war. But the war cred- 
its passed the Reichstag without one 
dissenting vote. 

"Does that seem to you to indicate 
that the people of the German na- 
tion have been forced into a war 
which they have no wish to fight? 
No individual, high or low, con- 
nected with the German government 
made this war, or, even after Russia 
had made it, entered into it autocrat- 
ically. 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



"The Socialist leader in the Reichs- 
tag said: — 

" 'Notwithstanding the dislike of 
Socialists to war, on general princi- 
ples, the entire Socialistic party in 
the Reichstag votes for these war 
credits because Germany, without 
reason, has been attacked by the 
most autocratic power in the 
world.' 

"So, as far as Germany is con- 
cerned, it is a people's war, not a 
rulers' war, is it not? Remember, 
this was the speech of the leader of 
the Socialists, who are opposed to 
war." 

From the nature of the case the 
public statement in the Reichstag of 
a responsible Social Democrat is evi- 
dence as to the origin of this Euro- 
pean war. The German Social Dem- 
ocrats have often proved that they 
keep well Informed as to the secret 
moves of the German government. 
They may not know about these 
moves at the exact moment, but they 
know about them at practically the 
exact moment afterward. How they 
do It nobody knows except them- 
selves, but of the fact itself there Is 
no doubt; the imperial ministers 
have too often showed consternation 
and embarrassment at this knowl- 
edge of what was supposed to be 
confidential matters of diplomacy 
to leave any question as to the 
promptness and accuracy with which 
the Social Democrats get hold of the 
details of these matters. In the or- 
dinary course of events In the Ger- 
man Empire the Social Democrats 
acquire this knowledge in order to 
use it against the government. No 
one can pretend that they like the 
German government, whether Wil- 
liam II. be taken as the German Em- 
peror or as the King of Prussia. 
Politically they exist to down him 
and he exists to down them. The 
German Social Democrats carry their 
opposition to the present political 
constitution of the German empire 
a good distance outside the limits of 
an ordinary political opposition. The 
mass of them do not accompany the 
Reichstag members of other parties 
to the white hall of the Berlin pal- 
ace when Kaiser Wilhelm addresses 
them in what may be called, after 
the English model, the "speech from 
the throne" — a speech which, still 
following the model of that read by 
the English King in the House of 
Lords, is written by the German 
ministers — and such of them as now 



and then do attend these proceed- 
ings go in their ordinary clothes, 
without regard to court regulations. 
When, at the close of a Reichstag 
session. It is the custom to cheer the 
Emperor, the Social Democrats get 
up and file out of the chamber 
leaving the members of the other 
parties in that body to do the cheer- 
ing. So we might go on with the re- • 
lations existing between the Social 
Democrats and the German police 
to show that the former are in real 
opposition to the German govern- 
ment every day in the week and 
from the ground up, but It Is not 
necessary. No one, who has per- 
sonal knowledge of these details of 
the daily political life of Germany, 
doubts it. 

We say, then, that statements 
made in the Reichstag by Social 
Democrats as to the origin of this 
present war are evidence — intelli- 
gent evidence — as to the facts of that 
matter ; just as much as the state- 
ment of Sir Edward Grey In the 
House of Commons are evidence as 
to why England went into the war, 
and more so, in fact, than Sir Ed- 
ward's statements, because Sir Ed- 
ward was setting forth his own 
and the British government's view, 
whereas the German Social Demo- 
crats approved the acts of a govern- 
ment which they have always op- 
posed, and which has always opposed 
them. 

Of course, we are assuming that 
Count von Bernstorff has not forgot- 
ten or mistranslated the words 
quoted by him as spoken In the 
Reichstag in support of the war cred- 
its by the Social Democratic spokes- 
man.* What he quotes agrees with 
similar citations made by us earlier 
from English sources. It is also to 
be remembered that a story went 
through our press after the war 
broke out that Dr. Liebknecht, a So- 
cial Democrat of high standing but a 
hard political fighter, had been shot 
in Berlin for refusing to go into the 
German army. That story appears 
now to have been started out of pure 
partisan malice. There Is no need 
to get hot over the question of Ger- 
man responsibility or Russian re- 
sponsibility. It is purely a question 
of evidence, and history will finally 
have to decide on the evidence. If 
it is a fact that the German Social 
Democrats openly supported the 
course taken by Germany in bring- 
ing her armies into the field, on the 



ground that "Germany, without rea- 
son, has been attacked by the most 
autocratic power in the world," 
meaning Russia, this Is evidence that 
no intelligent man can disregard. It 
must be directly disproved or ac- 
cepted. 



•That Count von Bernstorff did 
"not forge or mistranslate" the 
words quoted by him has been 
proven. We refer our readers to an 
article entitled "Loyalty of German 
Socialists," reprinted on another page 
of this book. 

We quote from page 31 of Mr. 
Charles Tower's "Germany of To- 
day" (Williams & Norgate, London) 
the following: 

"The General Election of 1913 left 
the strength of the parties (In the 
Reichstag or Parliament of the Ger- 
man Empire) as follows: Social 
Democrats, 110; Centre, 99; Con- 
servatives, 56; National Liberals, 46; 
Radical, 43; Poles, 18; Relchspartei 
(usually voting with the Conserva- 
tives), 15; Independents, etc., 10." — 
Editor. 

We also refer our readers to 
the pamphlet just issued by The 
Germanistic Society of Chicago, en- 
titled, "The Session of the German 
Reichstag on August the fourth, 
1914," which contains the speeches 
of the Imperial Chancellor von Beth- 
mann-Hollweg, of Dr. Kaempf, Presi- 
dent of the Reichstag, and of Mr. 
Haase, Representative of the Social- 
ist Party, compiled and translated 
into English by Mr. Alexander R. 
Hohlfeld, Professor of German at 
the University of Wisconsin. 

In the closing paragraph of his in- 
troduction in this pamphlet, Profes- 
sor Hohlfeld says: 

"Every speech made, as well as 
the general attitude manifested by 
all the representatives of the German 
people at the session of August 4, 
prove beyond the shadow of doubt 
that the entire German nation has 
from the start stood squarely and 
enthusiastically behind the Emperor 
and his advisors. Not one word of 
disapproval came from any quarter 
in regard to the steps taken by the 
government. The Socialists might 
easily have censured the government 
severely for not having done all In 
its power to prevent this disastrous 
war — and still have voted the neces- 
sary equipment for war defense. 
— Editor. 



Germany's Moral and Sacred Trust to Posterity 



Her Defense 



"MISTRESS OF THE SEAS' 
WAR TIME. 



The Fatherland, New York. 
European Correspondent. 

The greatest navy in the world is 
doing nothing. Yet she is losing 
some of her best ships to the Ger- 
mans, but outside of these dubious 



activities the vaunted navy of Great 
Britain is chiefly conspicuous for its 
complete silence. 

Never before did the brazen bully- 
ing of the English in regard to the 
rule over all the seas claimed by them 
manifest itself so plainly as during 
the course of the present European 
war. The bold announcement of 
England that with the declaration of 



war, Germany would also suffer the 
annihilation of her fleet by British 
war ships, proved to be a common 
bluff, and the end result of the first 
two months the loss of three times 
as many British as German warships, 
although the English openly violated 
the rules of international law in war- 
fare at sea. The German war fleet 
lost about six small ships, aggre- 




KAISER WILHELM CANAL 

(From "The Navy," Washineton, September, 1914) 



A SACRED TRUST— GERMANY'S DEFENSE 



gating 20,000 tons, while the losses 
of England up to September 26, as 
published by the English papers, 
were as follows: 



Name. Built. 

AbouMr 1900 

Hogue 1900 

Cressy 1900 

Warrior 1905 

Aretliusa 1913 

Hawlte 1891 

Gloucester 1909 

Fearless 1912 

PatMnder 1904 

Ampliion 1911 

Druid 1912 

Laertes 1913 

Ptioenix 1912 



Flsgard 2. 



Displacement 
Class. Tons. 

Armored Cruiser 12,200 

Armored Cruiser 12,200 

Armored Cruiser 12,200 

Armored Cruiser 13,700 

Protected Cruiser 3,600 

Protected Cruiser 7,800 

Protected Cruiser 4,900 

Protected Cruiser 3,500 

Protected Cruiser 3,000 

Protected Cruiser 3,500 

Torpedo Boat Destroyer. 770 
Torpedo Boat Destroyer. 950 
Torpedo Boat Destroyer. 770 
Torpedo Boat Destroyer. 800 
Sclioolshlp 



™=" 72,090 

The success of the German ships 
whenever they set out for an attack 
has been splendid. The bombard- 
ment of Libau, the checkmate of the 
Russian Baltic fleet in the Gulf of 
Finland and the unchallenged rule 
over the Baltic formed the prelude 
to German success on the seas. Then 
followed the brilliant advances made 
in the North Sea: German cruisers 
and submarine boats forged ahead as 
far as the Shetland Islands while a 
small auxiliary cruiser laid mines 
right in the mouth of the Thames, 
resulting in the blowing up of several 
English ships. At the same time the 
cruisers "Goeben" and "Breslau" ap- 
peared off the African coast, bom- 
barded the naval depots of Algiers 
and threatened French communica- 
tions with their main colonies. Pur- 
sued by English and French war- 
ships, these bold "sea-hussars" suc- 
ceeded in breaking the blockade of 
Messina and escaping unmolested 
through the Dardanelles. Besides, 
already in the beginning of the war 
varied splendid successes of the Ger- 
man squadron in the Pacific and At- 
lantic Oceans. The "Dresden" on the 
Brazilian coast, the "Koenigsberg" 
on the east coast of Africa, and in 
particular the "Emden" in East India 
waters and the "Karlsruhe" in Amer- 
ican waters scored a number of sur- 
prising successes. * * * 



A GERMAN GIBRALTAR. 



Why Was Helgoland Ceded by 

England in Recent 

Years? 



The Boston Herald. 

The Island of Helgoland is called 
the Gibraltar of the North Sea. It 
dominates the approaches to all Ger- 
maa seaports on the North Sea and 
the Kiel Canal* and constitutes the 
greatest menace to the British fleet 
It It attempts a close-in blockade of 
German ports. It was ceded to Ger- 
many by England as recently as 
1890 In compensation for territorial 
concessions in Africa by Germany.f 

Discussion of the strategic value 
of the little Island less than a square 
mile In extent, which lies 25 miles off 
the mouth of the Elbe, waged back 
and forth between English military 
authorities while the bill for Its ces- 
sion was under discussion In Parlia- 
ment. Some asserted that it would 
be worth a fleet to England In case 




THE SONS OF THE GERMAN CROWN PRINCE 

The Stork is said to have brought them a companion recently — but we are not 

informed if a sister or another brother 



of war with Germany. Others con- 
tended it was of no value as a coal- 
ing station for a blockading force. 
Its nearness to the mainland would 
expose it to the risk of capture Im- 
mediately upon declaration of war, 
they said, and in case of war with 
any other power It would require a 
fleet to defend it. German and 
French critics both agreed, that in 
the event of war between their coun- 
tries, possession of the little Island 
would set free an army corps. 

Helgoland from the middle of the 
tenth century was an Independent re- 
public of Frisians, but became the 
possession of the Dukes of Schleswig 
in the fourteenth century. In the 
beginning of the eighteenth century 
Denmark captured it. It was taken 
from Denmark in 1807 by the Eng- 
lish, who used it during the late Na- 
poleonic wars as a storehouse from 
which to smuggle goods to the con- 
tinent. By the Treaty of Kiel it was 
ceded to England by Denmark In 
1814. The British Government 
wished to retain It then because of 
its proximity to Hanover, then united 
to England in the person of the sov- 
ereign, and because of its supposed 
cession to Germany it was used as 
the headquarters of the English fish- 
ing fleets in the North Sea and was 
also ■ a favorite watering place lor 
Germans and Danes. 

After the formation of the Ger- 
man Empire, Bismarck made many 
liberal offers to England for the pur- 
chase of the island, and the desire 
for its possession by the Germans 
was ardent. When the bill for its 
cession came up in 18 90 in the Brit- 
ish House of Commons, Mr. Glad- 
stone and Sir W. Vernon Harcourt, 
with many of their followers, re- 
fused to vote, declaring that the Con- 
servative Ministry had tampered 
with the constitution and abandoned 
the treaty-making prerogative of the 
Crown by submitting the question of 
a cession of territory to two Houses 
of Parliament. 



The weight which the Germans at- 
tached at the time to the acquisition 
of Helgoland, after Prince Bismarck 
had repeatedly made offers of sub- 
stantial compensation, suggested the 
suspicion when the island was 
handed over to William II., after his 
dismissal of the old Chancellor for 
apparently inadequate cause, that 
some secret pact or alliance was at 
the foot of the matter. The British 
subjects on the island opposed the 
transfer, saying that they would lose 
their fishing and bathing privileges 
when Germany started building her 
fortifications on their home. Their 
rights as British subjects were to 
have been preserved in the trans- 
action. 

On August 8, 1890, the British 
Governor, Arthur C. S. Barkly, re- 
ceived the German representative 
Herr von Botticher, and the next day 
Kaiser Wilhelm landed, hoisted the 
German flag and informally took pos- 
session, declaring: 

"This island is chosen as a bul- 
wark of the sea, a protection to Ger- 
man fisheries, a central point for my 
ships of war, and a strong place and 
harbor of safety in the German ocean 
against all enemies who dare to show 
themselves upon it." 



♦The correct name is Kaiser Wil- 
helm Canal (consult map Editor. 

fThe compensation was the Island 
of Zanzibar off the coast of German 
East Africa. — Editor. 



THE DIFFICULTY QP DIGGING 
OUT THE GERMAN 

NAVY. 



Editorial, New York Sun. 

The destruction of three cruisers 
of 12,000 tons in the North sea by 
a German submarine occurred as 
Englishmen were unfolding their 
morning newspapers to read Mr. 
Churchill's speech at Liverpool, In 
which he declared that "if they (the 



1% 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 




THE GERMAN EMPEROR AND HIS SIX SONS 



Germans) do not come out and fight 
In time of war they will be dug out 
like rats from their holes." On the 
same day the English people learned 
the bitter truth that one small unit 
of the Germany navy had taken the 
Initiative with direful results to the 
blockading fleet; three fine ships had 
been sent to the bottom, and no less 
than sixty oflncers and more than 
1,000 men had died futilely for Eng- 
land, despite her command of the 
sea. The humiliation was intolera- 
ble, and men clamored from one end 
of the country to the other for the 
execution of Mr. Churchill's threat. 
About three years ago Prof. Wil- 
liam Hovgaard, who had been com- 
mander of the Royal Danish navy, 
wrote an elaborate paper upon the 
subject of "Naval Strategy in a War 
Between England and Germany." A 
perusal of it at this time would de- 
press those countrymen of the sport- 
ing first lord admirality who are cry- 
ing that the enemy must be dug out 
of his hole and be made to fight the 
British fleet. It is comparatively 
easy to blockade the stretch of Ger- 
man coast from Borkum, near the 
mouth of the Ems, to Cuxhaven, 
where the Elbe pours its water to the 
sea, but bringing the German navy 
to battle is a very different thing, 
chiefly because the Kaiser Wilhelm 
canal gives it a wide and deep wa- 
terway to the Baltic sea. The canal 
was opened just in time to baffle the 
British naval strategists in the event 
of war between the two countries. 



It is extraordinary how many things 
happened in the first six months of 
1914 to make the undertaking of a 
great war by Germany propitious. 

To understand the naval problem 
which England finds herself con- 
fronted with one must know how by 
connecting canals, naval bases, tor- 
pedo boat stations and fortifications 
Germany has been preparing for "the 
day"; almost as important is a 
knowledge of the waters and chan- 
nels north and east of Denmark. 
The topography of Denmark, by the 
way, is almost as great a safeguard 
to Germany as the Kiel canal. The 
German North sea coast forms, 
roughly, a right angle, containing, fif- 
ty miles out from the great naval base 
of Wilhelmshaven, the outpost of 
Helgoland, formerly a British posses- 
sion and parted with in an evil hour 
by a short-sighted statesman. The 
old English batteries were some time 
ago displaced by armored turrets 
mounting guns of the heaviest cali- 
ber, and a base for torpedo craft was 
recently constructed at a cost of f 8,- 
000,000. Very precious to Germany 
is Helgoland's little surface with a 
frontage of one mile. 

The coast, of which Helgoland is 
the vigilant sentinel, has a length 
from Borkum to the mouth of the 
Elbe of about 100 miles. It is irreg- 
ular. Between the River Ems on 
the extreme west to the principal 
naval base, Wilhelmshaven, on Jade 
bay is a broad peninsula through 
which runs the Ems-Jade canal, nav- 



igable for destroyers. Between Wil- 
helmshaven and Cuxhaven at the 
mouth of the Elbe is a bay thirty 
miles in width, into which flows the 
Weser. Almost at the Weser's mouth 
is Bremerhaven, and forty miles up 
the river the port of Bremen. On 
the Ems at Emden is a torpedo boat 
station. Forty miles due north of 
strongly fortified Cuxhaven, guard- 
ing the mouth of the Elbe and Ham- 
burg, is another torpedo base at the 
mouth of the Elder in Holstein, a 
river that is connected with the Kiel 
canal. Cuxhaven is not the only 
protection of Hamburg and the Kiel 
canal. On the south side of that 
dreadnaught waterway, and between 
Brunsbuettel and Kudensee, a new 
naval station costing $8,000,000 has 
Just been finished. Thus it will be 
seen that there are abundant "holes" 
for submarines and destroyers from 
Borkum, at the mouth of the Ems, 
to the Eider, and no less than three 
interior waterways to give them time- 
ly passage, while at Wilhelmshaven 
and Cuxhaven, also at Kiel, the Bal- 
tic entrance to the canal, the whole 
German fleet can lie at anchor. An 
attack upon the defences of the Ger- 
man North sea coast would therefore 
be likely to cost the British fleet dear, 
and would probably be vain and fu- 
tile. Digging out the enemy has the 
look of a forlorn hope. Moreover, 
he cannot be dug out if he doesn't 
want to fight. He can withdraw 
through the great canal to Kiel on 
the Baltic. 



A SACRED TRUST— GERMANY'S DEFENSE 



It is obvious that if the British 
navy plans to try its fortunes in the 
Baltic, the fleet must be divided, be- 
ing most perilous tactics. What of 
the passage round the north of Den- 
mark to the Baltic? To get at Kiel 
the British warships would have to 
traverse the Skagerak, a deep body 
of water sixty miles wide, and the 
Kattegat, of about the same width, 
to the east of Denmark. They would 
then have to pass through the chan- 
nel of the not very broad Great Belt, 
which can be easily mined or domi- 
nated by torpedo boats. Even in the 
wider Kattegat large warships have 
to move cautiously, navigation being 
difficult, and the German navy by 
using mines and submarines would 
have a tremendous, almost insuper- 
able advantage. A British fleet 
might get as far as the eastern en- 
trance of the Skagerak without 
great risk, for, according to Prof. 
Hovgaard, it cannot be mined, but 
beyond it every mile of the way 
would bristle with hidden perils and 
ambushes. High Admiral von Tirpitz 
would probably ask nothing better 
than invasion of the Baltic by Ad- 
miral Jellicoe. 

In conclusion there seems to be 
nothing for the British navy to do 
but to patrol the North sea and 
blockade the German coast, and be 
content to bottle up the German 
battle fleet, and thus control the sev- 
en seas with the consequence that 
the enemy can get no food and sup- 
plies from abroad. 



THE V-9 — THE BEGINNING OF 
THE END. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 
New York. 

Herman Ridder. 

The destruction by submarine tor- 
pedoes of three of Great Britain's 
armored cruisers is Germany's an- 
swer to the blatant threat of Winston 
Churchill, First Lord of the Admir- 
alty, that unless the German fleet 
comes out and fights in the open sea 
it will be dug out "like rats from 
holes." 

The loss of the Cressy, Hogue and 
Aboukir may not be' an overwhelm- 
ing disaster to the British navy, re- 
garded from the point of view of 
ships as such, but its effect can not 
be limited to tons of metal. The 
New York "Times" is inclined edi- 
torially to minimize the German 
achievement in the statement that 
"three of Great Britain's oldest and 
least valuable armored cruisers have 
been sunk by German torpedo boats." 
The "Herald," on the other hand, and 
the "Herald" Is by no means pro- 
German in its sentiments, says: "The 
loss of these armored cruisers is too 
serious to be minimized by any de- 
claration that they were obsolete. 
* * * But the vessels were far 
from obsolete, as they were laid down 
between 1899 and 1901, and should 
have had on an average of six years 
further good work before them." 
When such discussions occur in the 
camp of the enemy, what are we to 
expect? 



The material fact is this: Great 
Britain has lost three armored cruis- 
ers of 12,000 tons each, with the 
greater portion of their combined 
personnel of 2,200 men. The more 
important fact is that British naval 
prestige has been sorely wounded. 
There can be no cry here of atro- 
cities, barbarism or want of fair 
play. The German navy worked with 
tools with which the enemy is super- 
abundantly equipped. Initiative won 
the day. 

Those who, like Winston Church- 
ill, wish to see the German fleet 
emerge from its protected base and 
try the chances of war on the open 
sea with a fleet which outnumbers 
it three to one, certainly are friends 
neither of Germany nor of fair play. 
The German fleet is but a unit in 
the military defenses of the Empire, 
and its utilization is subject to the 
general necessities of the war. To 
send it out to meet the British squad- 
rons at the present time would be 
but poor strategy. The question of 
valor or of the ship-to-ship qualities 
of the two fleets does not enter into 
the present situation. The German 
fleet is hopelessly outnumbered and 
therefore compelled to play a defen- 
sive game. Only the most desperate 
straits would warrant the abandon- 
ment of such a policy. 

If any adverse criticism is in place 
at this juncture, it should be directed 
not against the German, but against 
the British naval leaders. If Great 
Britain is to "dig German warships 
out like rats from holes" it is about 
time that she commenced her fer- 
reting operations. As long as the 
British fleet is content only to main- 
tain a blockade in the North Sea, 
it will be open to attacks similar to 
that which has already occurred. One 
by one its ships will be whittled down 
until its numerical superiority over 
the enemy ceases to be. Then it will 
have to meet the German fleet in 
open battle, under circumstances dic- 
tated by the foe, and the outcome 
will not necessarily be as London 
fain would have it. 

A reef must be faken in the 
vaunted fighting qualities of the 
British navy. It may be a cruel 
thought, but the daughter may some- 
times teach the mother. When Far- 
ragut broke out from the mast-head 
of his flagship: "Damn the torpedoes 
— go ahead," he spoke for heroic men 
of all times. When Commodore 
Dewey ran the mine-strewn channel 
of Corregidor, the words of Farra- 
gut were his motto. It may be ex- 
pecting too much, however, to think 
that the British fleet commanders 
should proflt by such lessons. When 
three years or so ago the text-books 
in London schools were scanned to 
see how much pro-American senti- 
ment could be deleted from them, it 
is probable that Farragut's signal 
and Dewey's achievement met the 
same fate as the biographies of 
Washington, Lincoln and other prom- 
inent Americans. 

The destruction of the three Brit- 
ish cruisers discloses not simply the 
German naval policy, but also the 
fact that Germany is beginning to 
realize who her most irreconcilable 
enemy Is. The Russian danger can 



be handled in the open — although 
one of flrst importance it is at the 
same time one which can be dealt 
with on the field of battle, and no 
German fears for the outcome. But 
too much has developed recently of 
the insidiousness of British diplo- 
macy to permit of anything but the 
most retaliatory measures against 
Great Britain. We may expect, there- 
fore, to see Germany's major efforts 
from now on directed toward the 
humiliation of this proud mistress of 
the seas. Sir Edward Grey has an- 
nounced that there can he no peace 
until Germany is humbled. This self- 
constituted spokesman for the Allies 
has dictated Germany's policy. If 
I am not mistaken, it will be Eng- 
land, and not Germany, that will cry 
out in its humiliation for peace. 
England had her warning — Sir Ar- 
thur Conan Doyle has told us so. 
The operations of the German sub- 
marines against the British fleet and, 
when the time comes, the operation 
of the German dirigibles will bring 
home to the British people the fact 
that war is not simply a commercial 
scheme in which "our allies" go to 
their death in order that British 
purses may wax fat. 

When the British army in Belgium 
and France ran away from the Ger- 
man, it was a "strategic retreat" — 
characterized, if I remember rightly, 
as "brilliant." When the German 
submarines destroy three British 
cruisers the Official Press Bureau in 
London class the lost vessels as 
"comparatively obsolete." The truth, 
however, will not down that the 
British fleet has been imbued with a 
wholesome fear of the enemy and 
that the British people are coming 
to see in the initiative of the Ger- 
man sailor something to respect. A 
few more exploits of this sort and 
the tenor of the First Lord of the 
Admiralty may be altered. 

The names of the destroyed British 
cruisers have a certain significance 
in this war of British commercial ag- 
gression. All three were named for 
victories over the French dupes of 
present day British diplomacy. At 
Aboukir, Lord Nelson destroyed a 
French fleet; off La Hogue, Edward 
Russell, with his Dutch ally, anni- 
hilated the fleet of Louis XIV.; and 
at the battle of Cressy, England, 
under the third Edward, placed her 
mailed fist so well upon France that 
it remained for Jeanne d'Arc to 
wriggle from under it. Today France 
is fighting on the side of England. 
Germany has nothing against France. 
She respects her and pities her. Only 
as the ally of England and Russia 
has she called down the wrath of war 
upon her own head. Germany would 
spare France if she could. There is 
but one enemy from now on, one ir- 
reconcilable, determined and com- 
mercially motived enemy, England, 
and against her the German attack 
will be directed. The breach has 
been opened, three British cruisers 
have been sent to the bottom of the 
sea, and that is only the beginning 
of the end. When England started 
out to effect the destruction of Ger- 
man commerce, German culture in 
Europe and the world at large, she 
struck her own death-knell. 



198 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



WON'T PIjAY any more. 



Translation of Editorial Which Ap- 
peared in the "Illinois Staats- 
Zeitung" Chicago, Septem- 
ber 25, 1914, in German. 

For ten years both England and 
France boasted of their great lead 
over Germany in the construction of 
submarine boats. The cautious Tir- 
pltz was saving the costly expense 
of experiments for vi'hich the two 
western powers were throwing mon- 
ey out of the windows. But when 
the German marine office finally de- 
cided to complete the German navy 
by an addition of submarines, we 
could rest assured that the type of 
boats built by the Germans met the 
requirements of the most critical. 
But of course the British-French lead 
could not be overtaken and because 
of the six-fold superiority of their 
submarines, London and Paris felt 
they had every reason to boast. Only 
until, however, half of the Cressy 
class of cruisers had been sent to 
the bottom of the North sea by Ger- 
man submarine boats. Then sud- 
denly the authorities in London dis- 
covered the brutality of this sort of 
warfare and cried for treaties and 
agreements that would be stamped 
with the humanity of the age. Brit- 
ish logic, British insolence. After 
England has felt the stick on its own 
body no one else should get hold 
of it. London pleads for humanity? 
The German minister to Copenhagen 
has just published sworn statements 
of German sailors, to the effect, that 
at the seat fight off Helgoland, Eng- 
lish seaman had sunk boatloads of 
rescued Germans by the use of hand 
grenades. This London admits, but 
claims that the British sailors were 
provoked. 

Thus English humanity! And new 
treaties, new agreements? There is 
hardly an article of the treaty of 
The Hague or the London Naval act, 
that has not been violated by Eng- 
land in this war. England cut the 
German cable, England ignored the 
stipulations in reference to private 
property in naval warfare, England 
intercepted ships belonging to neu- 
tral nations, boarded them and car- 
ried off German subjects, England 
ignominiously disregarded the stipu- 
lations governing contraband of war, 
and England confiscated in and out- 
going German mail aboard Dutch 
vessels. No, it is no longer possible 
to arrange treaties with England, 
and the wall of the Times will die 
away without an echo. The Britons 
desire an extension of the naval act, 
but have just shown by the sink- 
ing of the "Kaiser Wilhelm der 
Grosse" in neutral waters, that all 
declarations and restrictions are 
naught to them, whenever they are 
not to their advantage. 

The German steamer was lying at 
Rio del Oro flying the black-white- 
red colors, at a distance on a little 
fort could be seen the red-yellow 
stripes that formerly ruled the world, 
what cared the commander of the 
"Highflyer" for the neutrality of 
the roads. The seas belong to the 
pirates of King George the unctuous, 
moral and piety soaked. Damn in- 



ternational rights and all silly para- 
graphs. Hoist the red flag of piracy 
and then let the six-inch guns play 
against unprotected broadsides. "The 
work of five minutes," the London 
papers say in their accounts of this 
heroic deed. The Spanish govern- 
ment naturally protested, but the 
protest was smilingly chucked away 
in a file marked "Rubbish, don't 
answer." The piratical feat at Rio 
del Oro and the destruction of life 
boats at Helgoland will give all 
doubters a right idea of English hu- 
manity. These filibusters have now 
been struck and with their own wea- 
pons and they will be forced to stay 
in this bloody game to the finish, 
which will be decided by Germany 
and not by them. 



GERMANY WILI. SEIZE ALL 
GRAIN IN NATION. 



New Orders for Conservation of Food 

Are Proclaimed by Federal 

Council. 



MEAT SUPPLY IS SET ASIDE 



Distributing Offices Regulate Con- 
sumption — "Plan to Starve Ger- 
many Will Be Upset." 



(By the Associated Press.) 

From "The Daily News," January 
36, 1915. 

Berlin, Germany (by wireless to Lon- 
don), Jan. 26. — The federal council has 
put into effect sweeping regulations for 
the conservation of the food supply, as 
follows : 

1. All stocks of corn, wheat and 
flour are to be seized by Feb. 1. 

2. Business transactions in these 
commodities are forbidden after today. 

3. All municipalities are charged 
with the duty of setting aside suitable 
supplies of preserved meats. 

4. Owners of corn are ordered to 
report their stocks immediately, where- 
upon confiscation, at a fixed price, will 
follow. 

5. A government distributing office 
for the regulation of consumption will 
be established, distribution being made 
according to the number of inhabitants. 

"Necessity for the Nation." 

The Imperial Gazette today pub- 
lishes the following notice regarding 
the confiscation of grain : 

"There is no doubt that the measure 
ordered cuts much deeper into the eco- 
nomic life of our people than all the 
economic regulations hitherto adopted 
by the federal council during the war. 
It is, however, necessary in order to 
make certain the suflicieut and regular 
supply of our people with breadstuffs 
until the next thrashing of the new 
harvest, and is, besides, a necessity of 
life for the government and nation. 

Previous Efforts Not Effective. 

"The steps heretofore taken have 
proved themselves not far reaching 
enough to bring about the sparing use 
of our limited supplies of breadstuffs, 
which, however, are in reality suHieient 
for our needs. In particular, the 
measures hitherto introduced have not 



prevented the feeding of bread grain 
to cattle. 

"The present order gives us the cer- 
tainty that our enemies' plan to starve 
Germany will be upset and assures us 
of plentiful bread until the next har- 
vest." 



JOBLESS IN GERMANY FEWER 
THAN YEAR AGO. 



Unemployment Is Decreasing Despite 

Industrial Upheaval Caused by 

the War. 



Revival in Industries. 



Railway Income Almost Normal, Al- 
though Troops Travel Free — Few 
IJuxui'ies Sold. 



By Oswald F. Schuette — Special Cor- 
respondence of "The Daily News." 

From "Chicago Daily News," Feb., 
1915. 

Berlin, Germany, Feb. 1. — Unem- 
ployment in Germany is steadily de- 
creasing in spite of the revolutionary 
industrial changes that have resulted 
from the war. Figures have been is- 
sued concerning the unemployment in 
1914. For December the statistics 
show a marked decrease from the fig- 
ures for earlier months of the war. 
This condition, it is asserted, has 
continued. In Berlin the demand for 
labor has been increasing steadily, 
until the municipal officials have is- 
sued a warning against giving charity 
to unemployed men who are capable 
of work. 

The figures concerning the condi- 
tion of the labor market put the num- 
ber of positions vacant in December, 
1914, at 297,000, with 390,000 ap- 
plicants — an average of 13 6.31 for 
each 100 positions. In December, 

1913, there were 445,000 applicants 
for 228,000 positions — an average of 
195.17 for each 100 places. In July, 

1914, the number was 342,000 appli- 
cants for 237,000 positions, or 144.30 
for each 100. 

In August, 1914, the first month of 
the war, the number of the applicants 
jumped to 706,000 for 299,000 posi- 
tions. But this condition quickly 
changed. In September there were 
645,000 applicants for 330,000 posi- 
tions, an average of 195.45 for 100; 
in October, 568,000 for 348,000 
places, or 163.2 for 100, and in No- 
vember, 491,000 for 326,000 places, 
or 150.61 for 100. 
Railroad Receipts Almost Normal. 

Another interesting feature of the 
condition of Germany in the war is 
given by the railroad statistics. Al- 
though the export and import busi- 
ness, which naturally is a heavy part 
of the traffic, has virtually been elim- 
inated from the freight receipts, al- 
though the tourist business has been 
similarly cut off and although mili- 
tary transportation, which frequently 
ties up an entire system for days and 
weeks, is not paid for at all, the De- 
cember freight receipts showed a de- 
crease of little more than 8 per cent 
from December, 1913, while the pas- 
senger receipts showed a decrease of 
only 16.33 per cent. The November 
passenger figures showed even a more 
interesting result, as they were only 



A SACRED TRUST— SPIRITUAL VALUES 



199 



6.87 per cent below those of Novem- 
ber, 1913. These figures back up 
the statement made by German indus- 
trial leaders that the industries of 
Germany are practically doing the 
business which formerly was done by 
foreign exporters. 

The industry which suffered the 
least from the war was the textile 
industry. In many ways it made 
notable increases over the preceding 
year. According to the labor figures 
of this industry, 28.2 per cent of the 
textile workers in Germany were on 
the unemployed lists at the end of 
August. At the end of September 
this percentage had fallen to 17.1, 
by the end of October to 9.1, and by 
the end of November to 4.9. 

Mining Industry Revives. 

In the coal mining industry pro- 
duction is gradually resuming a nor- 
mal tonnage. The potash production 
is about one-half of that preceding 
the war. In the iron and steel in- 
dustry the production has suffered 



heavily through the paralysis of the 
export business and the available fig- 
ures show an activity ranging from 
45 to 55 per cent of that which pre- 
ceded the war — although in the lines 
particularly affected by the demand 
for war supplies there has been a no- 
table increase. 

The war also depressed the ma- 
chinery industry and many plants are 
on short time, without immediate 
prospects of betterment. Some of the 
automobile factories, under the pres- 
sure of war business, report in- 
creases; others, however, have lost 
considerably. 

Falling Off in Ijnxuries. 

In lines devoted to luxury the 
losses, of course, have been heaviest. 
This includes the manufacture of 
musical instruments, particularly 
pianos. 

The depression which the war 
brought to the export phases of the 
electrical industries has been largely 
offset by the ability with which these 



companies have been able to devote 
their plants to the manufacture of 
other lines, particularly of war ma- 
terial. The result has done much to 
ease the labor markets in cities which 
otherwise would have suffered heav- 
ily under the war. 

I have taken these statistics and 
opinions largely from the summary 
which is soon to be issued by the Dis- 
conto Gesellschaft, one of Germany's 
most important banks. It adds this 
comment: 

"From these items it may be 
plainly seen that the social economy 
of Germany has not only evidenced its 
health and its- strength in the last 
few months, but, thanks to the scien- 
tific and thorough foundation of its 
general output and to the high effi- 
ciency and tireless diligence of Ger- 
man technical achievement, it has 
been able to meet revolutionary cir- 
cumstances with wonderful elasticity 
and at least to a great degree avert 
the damage of war." 



Germany's Moral and Sacred Trust to Posterity 
Spiritual Values 



GERMANY'S DECLARATION. 



Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 
Editorial, Horace L. Brand. 

Germany declares that it is bat- 
tling to preserve Western culture and 
civilization from conquest by the 
Slav. Let us analyze, as far as is 
in our limited power and knowledge, 
this declaration. 

Germany showed most remarkable 
progress in art, literature, science 
and commerce — in fact, in practically 
every branch of human thought and 
energy — which we, citizens of the 
United States, define as civilization. 
Fairly judged we cannot and can- 
didly confessed we do not deny that 
Germany represents the brightest 
type of western culture and civiliza- 
tion. By admitting this we do not 
detract nor subtract anything from 
the claims of England or France that 
these two nations also represent the 
highest type of western culture and 
civilization. 

Why, then, this war among similar 
nations? 

The only plausible answer, in the 
last analysis, is fear of Russia. This 
giant Slav power, which already con- 
trols more people and more land 
than any other nation in the world, 
is the ever alert menace to peace, 
because it is ever eager to enlarge 
the sphere of influence of the Slav; 
Thus, England and France should be 
allies of Germany against the com- 
mon enemy — Russia. 

That this is not the case is due to 
causes — although important by them- 
selves, still minor to the main under- 
lying cause of the giant struggle of 
Slav against Teuton, of oriental civili- 
zation against occidental culture. 

Thus, Germany is fighting in a 
righteous cause, if it is right to stop 
the westward march of Russia and 
all that Russia stands for, righteoua 
If it is right to advance the sphere 



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FRENCH PRISONERS OF WAR 

Notwithstanding all reports that Germany has mistreated her prisoners of war, 

this photograph, taken of the interior of the Zussen Barracks, shows how well 

they are cared for, judging from their appearance 



of influence of art, literature, science 
and commerce, such as Germany has 
developed and given to the world 
with which to alleviate human suffer- 
ing, to lessen human toil and increase 
human enjoyment. 



WHAT THE TEUTON DEFENDS. 



The Milwaukee Free Press. 
Herbert Sanborn, Professor of Phi- 
losophy in Vanderbilt University. 

The recent letter of Dr. Charles 
Eliot, as well as the vehement pro- 



tests of several well-meaning clergy- 
men against the German Emperor, 
show plainly enough how little 
thought the majority actually gives 
to the real problems of civilization. 
Since the outbreak of the war, I have 
not yet read a single protest that has 
not laid bare, even in the case of 
clergymen, the purely materialistic 
philosophy of the individual making 
it. Underlying all such protests 
there is the dread of some form of 
physical pain or physical loss of vari- 
ous kinds, together with the false 
assumption that the idealistic Schil- 
ler repudiated once for all when he 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 



said: "Das Leben ist der Gueter 
Hoechstes nicht" — the claim of the 
martyr throughout the ages. Of 
course, not all materialists nor only 
materialists would like to see univer- 
sal peace, but it is safe to say that 
only they see nothing worth fighting 
for and that only they are In favor 
of peace and at cost. 

The unintelligent and almost crim- 
inally dangerous agitation for uni- 
versal arbitration proceeds upon the 
monster fallacy of assuming that in- 
ternational justice is, at the present 
stage of barbarism and Philistinism 
of the world as a whole, a possibility. 
It cannot be realized because of the 
fact that the vast majority of the 
nations of the earth, like the vast 
majority of individuals in most na- 
tions, does not clearly apprehend the 
highest aims of civilization, nor the 
fact that Christianity must advance 
beyond materialism and Philistinism 
before it can become a safe guard- 
ian of culture. It would be ex- 
tremely dangerous to the real aims 
of life to allow the majority of the 
nations (who demands of civiliza- 
tion merely panem et circenses) to 
determine the justice of the most im- 
portant claims, and for that reason 
all nations that do apprehend those 
aims and who are, furthermore, well 
aware that most nations do not, will 
always refuse to permit certain ques* 
tlons to be settled by the mob. Truth 
and justice cannot yet be determined 
by majority vote. 

Most individuals, even in enlight- 
ened America, believe that the real 
purpose of civilization is the acquisi- 
tion of material wealth. If asked 
what this Is for, they can answer 
only in terms of luxury or at the 
best in terms of this or that improve- 
ment of the physical well-being of 
the community. Others will think 
of material wealth as a foundation 
for "education," hut they think 
nevertheless of "education" as some- 
thing strictly vocational, as some- 
thing merely instrumental to "get- 
ting on in the world" and the like. 
The Individual, as Ruskin says of 
his compatriots, desires that educa- 
tion shall enable him to "ring with 
confidence the bell at the double- 
belled doors and then after awhile 
to have a double-belled door for him- 
self " 

Of course this is all quite neces- 
sary as a mere preliminary to self- 
development, and dangerous only 
when it comes to be, in the indi- 
vidual or in society, the only aim 
conceived, then civilization degener- 
ates into mere luxury or into the 
mad scramble for ever-increasing 
wealth. 

Now when we study the various 
movements of history, we find, in ad- 
dition to the superficial causes that 
he who runs may easily discern, cer- 
tain antitheses of real principles in- 
volved. Our own Revolutionary war, 
for example, appears to those who 
merely contemplate the surface of 
events as a revolt against the taxa- 
tion imposed by England on her 
colonies, but in reality this revolu- 
tion was merely one phase of an op- 
position between the principles of 
autocracy and democracy, which was 
at work then and much later in Eng- 
land herself. In laying a tax on the 



American colonies, the crown was 
merely trying out a policy destined 
chiefly to be carried out in the home 
country. 

From one point of view the war 
of the Revolution had for its aim 
the defeat of England and the free- 
ing of the colonies, but from another 
point of view the struggle meant and 
resulted in the union of what had 
previously been separate units. The 
colonies were not fighting for union 
consciously, but that is what they 
were really fighting for without be- 
ing aware of it. The union against 
a common enemy revealed to them 
how much they really had in com- 
mon. This real struggle for a more 
perfect union is seen again clearly 
in the transition from the govern- 
ment under the articles of confed- 
eration to the constitution and again 
in the struggle of the civil war; in 
fact, our whole history may be 
summed up as a continuous struggle 
toward a more nearly perfect union 
— a struggle toward self-conscious- 
ness. So it is with many other move- 
ments of history; their inner mean- 
ing is not fully realized by most peo- 
ple at the time of their occurrence. 

That which will go down in hist- 
tory in the present struggle is the 
unquenchable patriotism of Ger- 
mans throughout the world; I doubt 
if there has ever been a war waged 
where there has been such a united 
people, and it seems as though this 
fact alone should give those who go 
on prattling about the "despotic kai- 
ser" and the "struggle between au- 
tocracy and democracy" some food 
for reflection, particularly when we 
stop to consider what people this is. 
This is not the war of one man or a 
clique of men, but the war of the 
whole, peace-loving, home-loving 
German people, naturally the most 
phlegmatic, deliberative, and reflec- 
tive race of the world. If we tell 
them, as England's representative 
Mr. Wells dbes, that much learning 
hath made them mad, I am sure that 
they can with perfect right make 
the answer that Paul did to Pestus. 
They are not mad and the kaiser in 
whom they trust is not mad; these 
descendants of Luther, Kant, Fichte, 
Schelling, Hegel, etc., know far bet- 
ter than their horror-stricken critics 
that they are waging war for that 
which is dearer to them than life it- 
self and something no peace confer- 
ence of all the nations would be will- 
ing or competent to adjudicate 
fairly. 

In an article in the last number 
of the "Fatherland" I have endeav- 
ored to point out that the contest for 
material values which has precipi- 
tated this war between Germany and 
the rest of the world can only be 
judged fairly when we consider what 
claims the various nations involved 
can put forward to justify their pos- 
session of material values. 

Germany has beaten England fair- 
ly and peacefully in the commercial 
contest for the markets of the 
world, and hence England has 
sought to ensnare and deliver her 
over to those who are her enemies 
for this and similar reasons. It is 
not unneutral to say this, for Eng- 
land herself has admitted It time and 



again, both before and since the war 
began. A recent article in Boston 
and New York papers entitled "Why 
England Fights," makes it clearer 
than ever that England is bent on 
the commercial ruin of Germany. 

Apparently England's claim to the 
exclusive possession of this com- 
merce, which she has acquired by 
means of a chain of fortunate acci- 
dents of history, can have before 
the parliament of man no more jus- 
tification than the right of Germany 
to secure it if she can; but when 
we inquire, from a higher point of 
view, what this wealth in the two 
cases is to be used for England's 
claims vanish into trivial signifi- 
cance, as compared with those of 
this teacher of the nations. We then 
see plainly that it is a struggle ul- 
timately of the highest aims known 
to the human races against the sordid 
aims of races merely veneered by 
culture. 

England and all the other nations 
of Europe desire material wealth for 
luxury and a purely materialistic 
life. England, France and Italy, as 
is well known, have degenerated 
from Shakespeare to Shaw, from 
Descartes and Molifere to Zola, and 
from Dante to d'Annunzio; whereas 
in Germany Shakespeare, Dante and 
Moli6re still live, so that in Munich 
for example, more plays of Shakes- 
peare are given in a year, according 
to statistics than in all England and 
America taken together? The Ger- 
man university is still incomparable, 
and in the midst of her great mate- 
rial prosperity, and in spite of oc- 
casional inroads of French and Eng- 
lish materialism, Germany has never 
as a people forgotten the reason for 
which alone material values exist. 
Germany is consecrated to the devel- 
opment of the highest spiritual 
values; in Germany material values 
are consciously and unremittingly 
transmitted into culture. 

It is because she is as a people 
conscious of the fact that the other 
nations of the world either have had 
or have ceased to have this aim that 
she will never submit to the decision 
of the majority concerning its value. 
For her it is the supreme aim of life, 
that for which material wealth is 
merely the means. For this reason 
she has armed to defend herself 
from the barbarian and the no less 
dangerous Philistine, and she per- 
ceives more clearly than the latter 
that even on the material plane the 
horrors of peace may well outweigh 
the horrors of war. 

Those who corner wheat and 
meat on the stock exchange, who 
carry on Erie and New Haven and 
Hartford deals, refuse sufficient pro- 
tection against fire in crowded in- 
flammable factory buildings, are 
among those who are apt to protest 
most loudly against the horrors of 
war. They seldom see their own 
mute and inglorious victims — the 
tuberculosis patients from the 
crowded tenements, the infanticides, 
suicides, murders, robberies, and 
other horrors of peace that follow in 
their train — horrors of peace that 
far outweigh those of war because 
they destroy not merely the body but 
the soul. » * * 



LOVE AND PATRIOTISM 



A Word From Emperor Francis Joseph to His People 



LETTER OP EMPEROR FRANCIS 

JOSEPH TO THE CHIIiDREN 

OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



Tbe Crucible. 

(Translated by Clare Benedict.) 
To the Dear Children of Our Empire: 

If, on the threshold of the grave 
and in such a serious hour, I turn 
to you, beloved children, it is for 
more than one reason. Once you 
were the joy, the consolation — yes, 



mains to me after a life rich in ca- 
lamity. It was my wish when I 
ascended the throne of my fathers — 
so young and full of hope — it will be 
the wish which perhaps will soon 
be on my dying lips as the last word 
of love and care for my realm and 
for my people. 

May God direct all things as He 
wills, we human beings can do noth- 
ing without Him. As you, dear child- 
ren, stand nearest to God, your Em- 
peror-King begs you to pray that He 



teen Red Cross units have been -sent 
to the front and four depots have been 
formed. These depots have to provide 
for the regular supply of all medical 
necessities for the medical branch of 
the Army and for the Red Cross. Three 
hospital ships, also provided by the 
Red Cross, have been used to a very 
small extent only. Much good work 
has been done, on the other hand, by 
the Epidemic Laboratories, all under 
the direction of prominent bacteriolo- 
gists. These laboratories have suc- 




CAPTURBD RUSSIAN CANNON IN VIENNA 
(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 



often in the darkest moments of my 
long life the only consolation and the 
only joy — of your Emperor-King. 
When I saw you a sunbeam fell once 
again across the shadow of my exist- 
ence. It is you, children, who are 
nearest to the heart of your Emperor- 
King, the flowers of my kingdom, the 
ornament of my people, the blessing 
of the future. 

But it is not only to your Emperor- 
King that you are nearest, but to One 
before Whom the mightiest of this 
world are helpless. creatures, God our 
Lord; in your eyes the light of the 
creation morn still shines, about you 
is still Paradise — is still Heaven. 
God is all powerful, in His hand lies 
the fate of all peoples. Everything 
bows to His will, by Him the stars 
and mankind are directed. That this 
almighty hand of God may guard 
and keep Austria-Hungary, giving 
her the victory over her many ene- 
mies and strengthening her in vic- 
tory to the honor and glory of God 
— this is the only wish which re- 



may bless us and bestow His grace 
upon our cause. God grants the 
prayers of innocence, because He 
loves it. He recognizes in it His own 
image. Therefore cease not to pray 
with clasped hands, you little ones 
and you smallest ones of all. 

If the children of the realm pray 
for their Fatherland, I know that all 
will be well with our star. Then you 
will have a part in the day of victory 
and honor of the Empire. You have 
called down the blessing upon our 
colors, upon our army. 

Dear children, do not forget the 
empire to which — on earth — you be- 
long, or its old Emperor. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



The Austro-Hungarian Red Cross. 

The Austro-Hungarian Red Cross 
Society has organized two field hospi- 
tals for 300 men each, equipped with 
up-to-date instruments, etc. In con- 
nection with these field hospitals four- 



ceeded in checking the outbreak of epi- 
demic diseases over a wide area. 

The institutions, managed by the Red 
Cross at home, chiefiy consist of Re- 
serve Hospitals, Convalescent's Homes, 
Stations for soldiers who have become 
ill, etc. Under the agreement with the 
War Office the Red Cross was supposed 
to provide beds for 518 officers and 
16,000 men, but the total number of 
beds available at present amounts to 
85,000, five times as many as were 
asked for. These institutions are sup- 
ported, of course, not by the Red Cross 
Society alone, but also by corporations, 
societies, committees, etc., of any de- 
scription, as also by individual contri- 
butions. 

The Society has been anxious to in- 
crease the number of nurses for the 
wounded by voluntary helpers, women 
and girls who had to go through a few 
weeks' training. This arrangement is 
found to work satisfactorily In general. 
The transport of wounded soldiers In 
the different towns and cities has also 
been taken over by the Red Cross So- 



THE ALLIANCE AND THEIR ALLIES 







ciety, which for these purposes has 
enlisted the different fire brigades; 700 
units in all, with a total of 17,000 
members. 

Other branches of the Red Cross 
work are concerned with providing re- 
freshment to soldiers at the railway 
stations and on the roads ; with the pro- 
vision of underclothing and other 
things found suitable for the comfort 
of the men ; with information ofiBces 
for the relatives of soldiers; and with 



COUSIN TO "BUST BERTHA" 

(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 

the censoring of letters written home 
by the prisoners of war in half a dozen 
more or less known languages. 

The Red Cross has also undertaken 
to get information about the Austro- 
Hungarian military and civil prisoners 
of war in hostile countries and has re- 
cently been obliged to protest to the 
International Committee in Geneva 
against the cruel and barbarous treat- 
ment of Austro-Hungarian civil prison- 
ers in Russia. 



All this extensive work could not 
have been done, of course, without the 
ready support it found among the popu- 
lation of all nationalities, creeds and 
classes within the Monarchy. More 
than seven and one-half million Kronen 
have been collected in Austria-Hungary 
for the Red Cross, and 800,000 Kronen 
by Austrians and Hungarians abroad. 
About one million Kronen have been 
sent in besides by the affiliated 
societies.— "The Continental Times." 



THE NEUTRAL NATIONS 

Their Interests and Rights 



THE EUROPEAN TEUTONIC NATIONS LOYALLY NEUTRAL 

England Excepted 

The European Non-Teutonic Nations Generally Not Firm 

Ofificial and Popular Neutrality 

The United States 



Some Neutral Nations — Spain and Portugal 



THE POSITION OF HOULAND IN 
THE EUROPEAN WAR. 



In the Open Conrt. 

By Albert Oosterheerdt. 

The position of Holland in the great 
European war is both a difficult and 
a delicate one. In the center almost of 
the conflict, related to the principal 
warring nations by ties of blood, com- 
merce and trade, herself an exponent 
of international law, which it is charged 
from many sides has been rudely 
broken, suffering greatly from the ef- 
fects of the war in her trade, industry 
and general condition, compelled in ad- 
dition to relieve a multitude of refu- 
gees, Holland has, though neutral, a 
most unenviable position, incurring 
nearly all the evil results of war with- 
out experiencing at the same time that 
national exaltation which is often a 
complement of it. Officially, of course, 
the Netherlands are neutral, and, as 
far as the government is concerned, this 
neutrality has been admirably kept, 
nor have the people at large been com- 
mitting overt acts of hostility toward 
any of the powers involved; but it 
would be idle to assume that the Dutch 
are wholly without sympathies in this 
war, or that they alone have attained 
that state of philosophic calm which 
seems an absolute requirement for a 
complete neutrality. 

The ties of blood and racial origin 
alone make the position of the Dutch 
peculiarly difficult. One of the purest 
Germanic nations, although not with- 
out a strong admixture of Roman blood, 
speaking an almost entirely Teutonic 
language, which is perhaps a better de- 
velopment of the ancient German than 
the modern German with its artificial 
constructions and ponderous word-for- 
mations, the Dutch have at all times 
been an outpost of das Deutschtum, of 
equal rank with the other nations of 
Teutonic extraction. Part and parcel 
of Germanic civilization, their relations 
with Belgium, and especially Brabant 



and Flanders, populated by the Flem- 
ish people, practically of the same stock 
and using the same language, have been 
particularly close. Formerly, when the 
seventeen Netherland provinces were 
united under the scepter of Charles V, 
only to be driven apart during the reign 
of his son Philip II, there existed the 
most intimate relationship between Bel- 
gium and Holland, two parts indeed of 
one country. From the southern 
Netherlands the northern provinces de- 
rived much, in fact, nearly all of that 
which afterwards made the Dutch Re- 
public famous in art, industry, trade 
and commerce. When the southern 
Netherlands were subdued by Don 
Juan of Spain and Alexander of 
Parma, the trade and commerce of the 
great Flemish cities were moved almost 
bodily to Amsterdam and the other 
cities of Holland and Zealand, which 
owe their growth and industry in great 
part to the Flemish artisans, weavers, 
merchants and bankers who came flee- 
ing from Antwerp and Flanders after 
the Spanish fury of 1585 had done its 
fearful work in that city. Henceforth 
the connection between the two Nether- 
lands is broken, and Holland profits at 
the expense of Belgium. The political 
separation is accentuated by the reli- 
gious and commercial antagonism ; the 
northern Netherlands wax great and 
mighty, the southern Netherlands lead 
a miserable existence under foreign 
domination. 

This condition lasts for two centuries, 
and is ended by the effects of the great 
French revolution. France wrests Bel- 
gium from Austria, while, soon after, 
the Dutch republic comes to an inglori- 
ous end in 1795, the Prince of Orange 
taking refuge in England, and Holland 
as well as Belgium falling under French 
domination. The fall of Napoleon sees 
both countries once more united; to 
Holland, already independent in 1813, 
Belgium is added in 1815, at the com- 
mand of the Vienna Congress. The 
union, although quite promising at first, 
comes to naught in 1830, when the cleri- 



cal and liberal parties of Belgium form 
an alliance, set up a revolutionary gov- 
ernment and defy the northern prov- 
inces and the king. An attempt by the 
Dutch government to suppress the re- 
volt culminated in the famous "Ten 
days' Campaign," at the end of which 
all Belgium lay at the feet of the vic- 
torious Dutch army. At this juncture, 
however, foreign powers intervened ; 
both England and France assumed a 
threatening attitude, and by means of 
a French army compelled Holland to 
relinquish her hold upon Belgium. A 
long period of suspense followed, to be 
concluded finally by the neutrality 
treaty of 1839, signed by Great Britain, 
France, Russia, the Germanic Confed- 
eration, and Belgium and Holland them- 
selves. 

The first period of Belgian independ- 
ence was necessarily very French in 
spirit and culture, thereby suppressing 
the old national character of Flanders 
and Brabant. A natural reaction fol- 
lowed, in which the ancient Flemish 
verse and prose regained their former 
pre-eminence — a new period of youthful 
vigor and noble expression in the old 
language of the people. The connection 
with Holland, never entirely lost, be- 
came more intimate as the literatures 
of both countries became the common 
property of each. Many strands of dif- 
ferent kinds continued to form an al- 
most indissoluble link between the two 
peoples, not the least of which was the 
General Dutch Alliance (Algemeen 
NederlandscJi .Ter'b07id). Little wonder 
then that Dutch sympathy for Belgium 
in this war is ardent and sincere, and 
that the manifestations of charity and 
esteem have been universal and full 
throughout the whole of Holland. As 
indicative of Dutch feeling toward un- 
happy Belgium the following quotations 
from "Neerlandia," the official organ of 
the General Dutch Alliance, which has 
its members in every civilized country 
in the world, will be found illuminat- 
ing. Editorially, "Neerlandia" says: 
"Being published in a neutral country,. 



204 



SOME NEUTRAL NATIONS 



'Neerlandia' must also be neutral. As 
Holland does not share in the fight- 
ing, the' Dutch people must, both in 
speech and writing, withhold itself from 
making attacks. But as far as Belgium 
is concerned — for the major part inhab- 
ited by a people of Dutch race and 
Dutch language, accordingly, from the 
view-point of our Alliance and 'Neer- 
landia,' inhabited by our race — we 
must, in all calmness and sincerity, 
utter a word of protest against this in- 
vasion. 

"In fact, Germany herself has, in the 
utterances of her chancellor, admitted 
that she was doing Belgium an injus- 
tice. We do not enter here into an In- 
quiiy as to which power or which group 
of powers bears the blame for the out- 
break of this world-wide war. We also 
do not raise the question whether Ger- 
many has good reasons for saying that 
she fights for her existence and not for 
conquest, and that she was compelled 
in self-defense to go through Belgium; 
willing or unwillingly, she committed 
injustice. 

"But we have confidence in the Ger- 
man people. They will, in case they 
are victorious, make amends and rectify 
what they have done to Belgium. And 
they will leave the country its freedom 
and independence. When the anger 
and the fever of war have passed they 
will have admiration and respect for 
the small nation which was too proud 
to allow invasion of its territory, and 
which, in defense of its honor and in- 
dependence, dared to fight with a power- 
ful enemy. And they will understand 
that the Dutch nation, although it re- 
mains firmly neutral, sympathizes with 
the heroic Belgian nation, in part a 
related nation, and gives expression to 
its admiration and pity."^ 

In perfect agreement with the 
thought and sentiment of this noble 
protest has been the hospitality and 
treatment accorded to the hundreds of 
thousands of Belgian refugees in Hol- 
land. The government itself has done 
everything possible for these poor peo- 
ple, and besides the national fund for 
home charity another fund has been de- 
voted exclusively to the Belgians. 
While greatly suffering herself, Hol- 
land has nobly responded to this addi- 
tional burden, refusing to receive the 
proffered aid of Great Britain and 
America to help in caring for the thou- 
sands of destitute Belgians. A duty 
voluntarily undertaken would be ful- 
filled in the spirit in which it was be- 
gun ; this and national patriotism urged 
the government to reject these other- 
wise welcome offers of aid. That the 
Belgians have appreciated this gener- 
osity and unlimited hospitality on the 
part of Holland, which dispelled for- 
ever the unjust suspicions held against 
the Dutch in the beginning of the war, 
may be conclusively seen from an ad- 
dress to Queen Wilhelmina, sent by two 
Flemish representatives in the Belgian 
parliament and signed by many promi- 
nent refugees and others. The text of 
this eloquent address is too long to 
quote in full, but a translation of part 
of it will indicate its fervent feeling 
and heartfelt gratitude. "Not only," 
says the address, "have tens of thou- 
sands of Belgians to thank Holland for 



'Page 199, Nov., 1914. BngUsh trans- 
lation.* 

»See Index for full reference to publica- 
tion and pp. quoted. — Editor. 



the preservation of their very lives, but 
also for their re-quickened faith in life 
and humanity. . . . Through her 
magnanimous love of humanity has 
Holland, in these days, gained more 
than a battle of arms. She has earned 
the eternal, gratitude of a sister na- 
tion, compelled the admiration of all 
combatants and brought upon herself 
a blessing from on high."" 

While bleeding Belgium is thus a 
recipient of Dutch (and American) 
bounty, the relation of Holland with 
the other combatant nations are no 
less close and essential. Germany, as 
might be expected, looms very large 
in the Dutch consciousness. From Ger- 
many their language and customs are 
derived, the royal house of Orange is 
of German descent, as are also many 
Dutch citizens whose forefathers fled 
to the Netherlands during the religious 
wars in Germany, or who themselves 
are of more recent immigration; 
much of their science, philosophy and 
arts is of German importation, while 
the phenomenal growth of their com- 
merce, industry and trade within the 
last forty years has been in great part 
due to the equally remarkable develop- 
ment of Germany in the same period. 
In the great exodus of foreigners out 
of Germany at the beginning of the 
war the Dutch took little or no part; 
even more than the Americans they 
were honored and trusted by the Ger- 
mans. While there was a fear in Hol- 
land at first that they would be drawn 
into the war, events have shown that 
Holland has nothing, for the present 
at least, to fear from Germany. The 
Germans have scrupulously respected 
Dutch neutrality, firmly as it has been 
kept. After the fall of Antwerp there 
was a great temptation to Germany 
to take possession of the mouth of 
the Scheldt, an undertaking which 
would certainly have resulted in war 
with the Dutch. But as England had 
refrained from sending her warships 
up the Scheldt, so Germany refrained 
from doing anything which would vio- 
late Dutch neutrality. 

The Netherlands have grievances 
enough, however, against both England 
and Germany. Dutch trade is well- 
nigh suspended, thanks to the ubiquit- 
ous use of mines by these great 
powers. As the English admiralty 
board has declared, the entire North 
Sea is dangerous to shipping, greatly 
to the detriment and loss of the Scan- 
dinavian countries and Holland, thus 
illustrating the direct loss and danger 
to neutral lands in this most sanguinary 
war. At Rotterdam, where sixty boats 
normally enter port daily, there are 
now only a few steamers docking, and 
there is thus an almost total cessation 
of commerce and trade, making it diffi- 
cult even to procure sufficient food- 
stuffs from abroad. Thanks to the en- 
ergetic action of the Dutch government 
there is no famine in the land, all 
hoarding of grain being strictly forbid- 
den, and in many communities it is be- 
ing sold under the direct control of the 
government. While there is not, and 
cannot be, a comparison with conditions 
in Belgium, there is acute distress and 
a serious condition of affairs, which 
cannot be allowed to last indefinitely. 

That the Dutch are among the prin- 
cipal sufferers from the war may easily 



be inferred from the fact of their being, 
for their population, the greatest com- 
mercial and trading nation on earth. 
In actual exports and imports the 
Netherlands are only exceeded by Great 
Britain, France, Germany, and the 
United States. With one-seventh of 
the population, Holland has a total for- 
eign commerce nearly equal to that of 
France, with one-tenth of Germany's 
millions, more than one-half her trade. 
According to the Statistical Abstract 
of the United States for 1911, French 
imports and exports for the year 1910 
amounted to $1,384,453,000 and $1,203,- 
124,000, respectively ; those of Ger- 
many, $2,126,322,000 and $1,778,969,000; 
the British figures are $3,300,738,000 
and $2,094,467,000; and the American, 
$1,527,966,000 and $2,013,549,000 ; while 
the imports of little Holland in 1909 
were $1,249,423,000, and her exports 
$984,897,000,= amazing totals for such a 
small country of but six million in- 
habitants. It is true, of course, that 
this marvelous foreign trade is to a 
great extent a carrying trade and does 
not represent the country's industry 
accurately, but it indicates emphatical- 
ly the dominant trading character of 
the Dutch nation and the absolute 
necessity of keeping open the great 
trade-routes and neutral waters. That 
the principles of international law have 
been violated by the indiscriminate 
sowing of mines in the North Sea is 
indisputable, and that Holland, already 
handicapped by the great war at her 
borders, has thus innocently been de- 
prived of a great . part of -her main 
source of making a living, is equally 
beyond cavil or doubt. 

It is, indeed, one of the tragic ironies 
of this war that the countries which 
have been among the foremost defend- 
ers of international law and justice 
have also been cruelly suffering be- 
cause of their violation. Belgium, 
whose very existence depends on the in- 
violability of an international treaty, 
herself the creation of the great pow- 
ers of Europe, has seen her life-blood 
slowly ebbing away in defense of it; 
Holland, the home of world-jurisprud- 
ence, whose great son, Hugo de Groot, 
laid the foundations of international 
law in his famous book, De Jure Belli 
ac Pacts, the seat of the Permanent 
Court of Arbitration at The Hague, 
where it has its quarters in the Palace 
of Peace — the most hopeful building of 
modern times — has seen her trade and 
industry paralyzed in defiance of her 
neutrality; both countries victims, al- 
beit not in the same degree, of a cruel 
war which they were powerless to pre- 
vent. The Netherlands certainly did 
not deserve the fate meted out to them, 
for no country has done more for inter- 
national comity and justice than Hol- 
land. As Motley says on this subject: 
"To the Dutch Republic, even more 
than to Florence at an earlier day, is 
the world indebted for practical in- 
struction in that great science of polit- 
ical equilibrium which must always 
become more and more important as 
the various states of the civilized 
world are pressed more closely to- 
gether, and as the struggle for pre- 
eminence becomes more feverish and 
fatal."* It is on this account that the 



"Neerlandia," Nov., 1914, page 208. 



»U. S. Statistical Abstract, pp. 762-3. 
* Rise of the Dutch Republic, Preface, 
p. iv. 



THE SPIRIT OF SOME NEUTRALS 



205 



neutral nations like Holland and the 
United States will have much to say 
as to the final terms of peace. There 
can be no lasting peace which leaves 
neutrality undefined and unprotected, 
which does not limit the scope and area 
of a confiict, or which does not pre- 
vent the visitation of war upon inno- 
cent nations. 

It is a matter of uncommon interest 
to Holland that the positions of the 
great neighboring powers with respect 
to her have apparently completely 
changed from what they were histor- 
ically. Thus for centuries France was 
the most dangerous enemy of the Neth- 
erlands, and the famous Barriere in 
the southern Netherlands was directed 
against her possible sudden attack, just 
as the Triple Alliance between England, 
Holland and the Emperor during the 
eighteenth century was for the purpose 
of checking the ambitious designs of 
France. In this war, however, Hol- 
land and France have no differences, 
the Dutch having no fear from the 
French, while Germany and England, 
formerly Holland's protectors against 
France, have become menacing to 
Dutch interests. England, to be sure, 
has not always been friendly to the 
Dutch, as the three wars in the period 
between 1650 and 1674 clearly indicate, 
but otherwise Dutch and English in- 
terests were by no means mutually 
exclusive, but rather parallel, if not 
quite identical. The Dutch war for 
independence from Spain was greatly 
aided by England's fight in behalf of a 
common Protestantism, which required 
the undivided support of both mari- 
time powers in order to win against 
a recrudescent Catholicism, as per- 
sonified in the house of Hapsburg. A 
century later, when William of Orange 
had become king of England, the alli- 
ance between England and Holland was 
formed, which, together with their 
common alliance with the emperor, was, 
as Professor Blok terms it, "a political 
and economical necessity." 

At present, however, England has at 
least temporarily endangered the ex- 
istence of Holland, although she claims 
of course that her measures are purely 
defensive, and necessary as counteract- 
ing the offensive naval tactics of Ger- 
many. That England should desire a 
permanent foothold on the continent, for 
example at the mouth of the Scheldt, 
is strongly to be doubted. Such a posi- 
tion wovild be precarious to hold, and 
it would ensure the lasting enmity of 
Holland as well as of Germany. It is 
equally improbable, however, that Ger- 
many would care to lord it over the 
Dutch, or annex their country. The 
Germans knew too well the history and 
character of the Dutch, and have al- 
ways been too friendly to them to doom 
them to national extinction. It is quite 
possible, however, that Germany and 
the Netherlands will be somewhat more 
closely related after the war than be- 
fore, and that the Dutch will prefer 
the friendship and protection of power- 
ful Germany rather than her possible 
distrust, and perhaps conquest at her 
hands. That the Dutch race, whether 
in Holland or Flanders, will draw 
nearer together. Is already certain. Of 
one other thing the world may be cer- 
tain, that Holland wishes "heroic Bel- 
gium restored to the fulness of her ma- 
terial life and her political independ- 



ence," as Premier Vivlani has stated, 
"that it may be possible to reconstruct, 
on a basis of justice, a Europe finally 
regenerated." 



THE NEUTRAL COUNTRIES. 

Scandinavia. 

In Germany, the underlying principle 
of the meeting of the three Northern 
Kings has- met with sympathy, and 
the sentiment is general that the con- 
sultation of the Scandinavian coun- 
tries contains no menace for Germany. 
The declaration made at Malmo an- 
nouncing the readiness of the Scandi- 
navian countries to defend themselves 
seems to be looked upon In London 
as a threat aimed at their pet practice 
of sea piracy. This alone constitutes 
sufficient Indication of the direction 
from which a breach of Scandinavian 
neutrality is to be feared. This neu- 
trality is, however, permanent and un- 
conditional, since not one of the three 
Teutonic kingdoms entertains any de- 
sire of entering actively Into Euro- 
pean politics and for this very reason 
these countries have a right to de- 
mand that their Interests be not inter- 
fered with. The "Globe" writes : Our 
fieet Is our chief weapon against Ger- 
many. We must make the most of 
it. We will attempt however to make 
matters as easy as possible tor the 
neutral countries. The "Westminster 
Gazette" writes : Tie Scandinavian 
countries may rest assured that we 
will accept with pleasure all sugges- 
tions relative to a recognition of their 
interests. — "Hamburger Fremdenblatt," 
Hamburg, Germany. 

Teutonic Nations. 

The Kings of Sweden, Norway and 
Denmark have held a consultation in 
Malmo to discuss the difficult economic 
position of Scandinavia. 

It is apparent from French papers 
that Germany's enemies have begun to 
work against Prince von Bulow, even 
before his entrance into Rome, Inasmuch 
as they make the statement that he is 
bringing the Trentino with him. Such 
a stupid Intrigue cannot catch the 
clever Italian politicians. Germany 
cannot bestow that which she does 
not possess and must leave such 
manoeuvres to other countries. The 
Italians must not be surprised when 
the German offer, suggested by the 
French, Is not forthcoming. Our op- 
Itonents must employ some other means 
If they wish to destroy the confidence 
placed In Prince von Biilow In Italy. 

Great Indignation Is prevalent In 
Rome over the confiscating of more 
than ten steamers headed for Italian 
harbors, chiefly Intended for Italy and 
laden principally with grain. DifCer- 
ent governmental bodies and heads of 
grain companies called upon Sonnino, 
to prevent the confiscation, which 
would be a threatening danger to the 
food supplies of Italy. The direction 
of the Grain Exchange of Milan sent 
a telegraphic request to Sonnino de- 
manding the immediate release of the 
grain steamers "Haijall," "Basey" and 
"Tellas" held at Gibraltar, Nice and 
Malta by the English and French gov- 
ernments. 

In Washington, a more just concep- 
tion of neutrality has finally been 



reached. The idea has at last become 
general that the delivery of such in- 
disputable war material as arms, am- 
munition, etc., is not suitable. If strict 
and honest neutrality Is to be ob- 
served. — "Hamburger Fremdenblatt," 
Hamburg, Germany. 

The United States and Spain. 

The feeling in the United States 
seems to be changing in favor of 
Germany. Anyway, the efforts of the 
German propaganda to bring about 
a German-American and an Irish- 
American political organization are 
obviously gaining ground. This or- 
ganization should force the govern- 
ment to give up Its "careful neutral- 
ity."* 

In Italy, too, the feeling is becom- 
ing more and more favorable to Ger- 
many. They admire the German vic- 
tory at Soissons, attributing it to the 
good leadership and maneuvering 
capacity of the Germans. They ac- 
knowledge that Germany still has 
strength enough to take up the of- 
fensive, whereas France is compelled 
to wait for assistance from abroad, 
assistance that England is unable to 
render at the present time. They 
admire the fact that Germany knows 
how to be strong and invincible and 
they wonder at her strong will which 
extends her own sway and influence 
in the world. 

A similar reaction in the public 
feeling seems to be gaining ground 
in Roumania. 

In Spain the great majority of the 
cabinet moved a vote of confidence 
in the Prime Minister Dato, in re- 
newed support of neutrality on prin- 
ciple. The whole of the opposition. 
Including the Republicans and the 
Carllsts, congratulated the Prime 
Minister on his declaration. The 
Cortes will probably be adjourned as 
soon as the projects for the army and 
navy are done with. 

According to news received from 
Portugal there was a serious insur- 
rection in all the barracks on De- 
cember 30 and 31, which spread to 
the streets, when additional troops 
were to be sent to the African col- 
onies. As a matter of fact these 
troops were never Intended for 
Egypt, as the people feared, but were 
to be taken to the colonies. The 
crowds of people prevented the em- 
barkation of the troops, while even 
the officers did not seem to give 
themselves the slightest trouble to 
overcome the soldiers' aversion to 
the war. In spite of all efforts the 
government was scarcely able to 
muster any further troops, as the 
majority of the men capable of bear- 
ing arms are leaving the country. In 
Portuguese waters the English fleet 
has been playing the despot for some 
time past. 

The Portuguese Cabinet has now 
decided to adjourn the question of 
Portugal's taking part in the war, 
without the legal consent of the Sen- 



*This article was written in Ham- 
burg soon after the German victory at 
Soissons; the information, similar to 
that contained in an article from 
Sweden, also from "The Hamburger 
Fremdenblatt," is evidentlv from 
friendly sources, a practice to which 
we Americans are little accustomed In 
this war. — Editor. 



206 SOME NEUTRAL NATIONS 

ate. On this subject we hear from the commercial intercourse with scarce at that. The bonded stores 
■i? There has been a notice- Germany is beginning to be keenly are empty and there is but little im- 
able reaction in the general feeling felt here and many articles which porting going on. The victories in 
towards Germany. Many Germans used to be obtained from Germany, the East and in the West have not 
have availed themselves of the per- such as medicaments, drugs, incan- been without effect here. The mall 
mission lately granted them to leave descent mantles, woolen goods, mil- connections have been better of late 
the country, and it Is supposed that linery, sugar, etc., have gone up in so that the post of December 14 ar- 
oniy about half the German colony price enormously. Sugar of anything rived on the 5th of January, and the 
is staying on. The majority of the like an acceptable quality now costs "Hamburger Fremdenblatt" of De- 
Germans who have left were com- 32 centavos (25 cts.) per kilogram cember 25 on January 6. — Hambur- 
mercial clerks. The interruption of and cube sugar 36 centavos, and is ger Fremdenblatt. 



5 



t 



POPULAR NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



The Popular Neutrality of the United States in the World War 



americajV neutrality and 

REAIi NEUTRALITY. 



By William R. Shepherd, Professor 
of History, Columbia University. 

No phase of the war is more 
astounding than its reflection in the 
mirror of American public opinion, as 
held up by press, pulpit and plat- 
form. Never have sympathies about 
a struggle, in which the people of 
the United States have no direct con- 
cern, been so curiously manipulated 
to subserve alien interests. To 
judge from vociferous externals at 
least, we seem to dwell in topsy- 
turvy land. 

Before the war the country looked 
to young men for guidance. The 
age of forty was the dividing line, in 
the popular view, between the prom- 
ise of adolescence and the presump- 
tion of senility — on the sunny side, 
the hopefuls of a nation's pride; on 
the shady, the "superforties," doomed 
to a painless "Oslerization." Now 
the positions have been reversed. 
Twice forty, or near it, is the age 
of discretion, and its voice is law. 
Youth, as in the good old days, is 
to be seen and not heard. 

Politically united and independent, 
the American people seem ethnically 
to have fallen apart and mentally to 
have yielded up their freedom. A 
year ago had anyone asked whether 
we could think and act as Americans 
in the face of a foreign crisis, no 
matter how terrific, the questioner 
would have been laughed at. Had 
we not won our detachment from 
Europe in ages past, and had we 
not welcomed to our shores the chil- 
dren of all the nations, so that a new 
and better nation might arise in a 
new world? For upward of a cen- 
tury and a quarter we had striven 
to amalgamate ethnic elements, many 
and divers, into a compact, homo- 
geneous people. We were proud in 
our belief of having accomplished a 
feat of which Europe all along had 
been skeptical. Yet in the twinkling 
of an eye the cosmopolitan covering 
has been torn off, and we appear to 
stand revealed as a mere agglomera- 
tion of twisting, writhing strands 
without organic cohesion. 
* * * 

In sober truth our non-American 
and pro-European sympathy comes 
but in faint degree, if at all, from 
conviction based on reasoning. A 
few of our people, doubtless, are 



moved by considerations of financial 
gain or loss. More of them are stir- 
red by the impulses of the heart, 
skilfully set a-going by the press, 
and hence ignore the ordinary 
processes of the mind or force them 
to convert emotions into beliefs. 

Were this division of sentiment 
along ethnic lines likely to be per- 
manent, were it really representative 
of the American people in all sec- 
tions of the country, and were not 
the most of us in reality hostile to 
neither party and friendly to both, 
the future of our republic might be 

"GOTT MIT UNS." 



No doubt ye are the people: Wis- 
dom's flame 
Springs from your cannon, — yea 
from yours alone. 
God needs your dripping lance to 
prop his throne, 
Y'our gleeful torch His glory to 
proclaim. 
No doubt ye are the people: far from 
shame 
Your captains who deface the 
sculptured stone 
Which by the labor and the blood 
and bone 
Of pious millions calls upon His 
name. 

No doubt ye are the folk; and 'tis 
to prove 
Your wardenship of Virtue and of 
Lore 
Ye sacriflce the Truth in reeking 
gore 
Upon your altar to the Prince of 
Love. 
Yet still cry we who still in darkness 
plod: 
" 'Tis Antichrist ye serve, and not 
our God!" 

C. H. JACOBS. 



The Advocate War Poem Prize. 

Dean Briggs and Professor Bliss 
Perry, the Judges of the Advocate 
War Poem Prize Competition have 
awarded the prize to C. Huntington 
Jacobs, '16. The prize poem "Gott 
Mit Uns" appears in this number of 
the Advocate. — The Harvard Advo- 
cate, April 9, 1915. 

It will be recalled that this is 
the famous prize poem that caused 
Dr. Kuno Meyer, the great Irish 
philologist, to send his resignation 
to Harvard University. — Editor. 



dark with foreboding. But those 
who reflect, that practically every 
word or deed of ill feeling put forth 
by the American advocates of one 
European cause or the other Is simp- 
ly a reproduction on a small scale 
of the excitement and passion kindled 
by our own Civil War, cannot fail to 
gather hope for the outcome. After 
all, whatever the meanness, of the 
sneers, whatever the harshness of the 
invectives and whatever the occa- 
sional alienation of friendships, they 
are altogether feeble in comparison 
with the intense hatred and hostility 
of fifty yearq ago, which rent the 
land asunder. The enmity of those 
days is gone and the country is re- 
united. Remembrance alone is left, 
but it is the remembrance of admira- 
tion for the Blue and the Gray alike; 
not of their strife, but of their 
heroism, for they were Americans 
all! 

If, then, we are obliged for the 
moment to cherish private sympa- 
thies because they are apparently in- 
herent and inevitable, if racial bonds 
reaching across the seas cannot yet 
be severed, we can do something at 
least to lessen the possible dangers 
lurking in them to the welfare of 
our republic. Let us divide in our 
sympathies for the Old World if we 
must, but let us not share in its ani- 
mosities. Let us be Americans first 
and foreigners last, netural without, 
however partisan within. 



TWO LETTERS. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 
New York. 

Church of the Good Shepherd, 

Norwood, Ohio. 

Francis H. Richey, Rector. 

Mr. Herman Ridder, 
New York, N. Y. 

If Germany is such a place as you 
picture in the seemingly mending 
articles appearing in the public press, 
Why do you not go there? Leave 
other people alone. You are at lib- 
erty to go and live in Germany and 
worship at the feet of the superman. 

Allow me to suggest you secure 
transportation and go and live in 
Germany and relieve the American 
reading public of your pro-German 
views. 

Who cares what you think? 
Yours sincerely, 

F. H. Richey. 



208 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



New Yort City, November 7, 1914. 
Reverend F. H. Richey, 

Churcli of tlie Good Shepherd, 
Norwood, Ohio. 

Dear Sir: 

•I have your letter of the 3rd in- 
stant, and am taking the liberty of 
sending you a few words in reply. 

The last three months have 
brought me several communications 
of the same nature. They have been 
so overwhelmingly outnumbered, 
however, by the expressions which I 
have received of sympathy for Ger- 
many and the German cause in this 
regrettable war and from, persons of 
such obvious illiteracy and misin- 
formation as to require no answer. 
Your own communication, under 
acknowledgment, coming as it does 
from a man of presumed intelligence, 
in a position to do a great deal of 
good and at the same time, judging 
from the intemperance of your 
language, a certain amount of evil, 
falls within another category. This 
fact alone impels me to acknowledge 
it. 

I am not going to discuss Germany 
with you. If you will forget the 
war for a moment, and will take 
that small space of time to reflect 
upon the history of the German 
people during the last forty years, 
you will see why no discussion of 
the subject is necessary. I will say 
this only: if I were to choose any 
country but my own in which to 
dwell, I should choose Germany. I 
say this not because German blood 
is in my veins. I have lived for 
well nigh two generations at a dis- 
tance from Europe which has 
allowed of an impartial and unbiased 
contemplation of the developments 
which have taken place therein. At 
the end of that time I am still con- 
vinced of the superiority of German 
intellectual, moral and social life 
over that of any country but my 
own. The reason why I do not "go 
and live in Germany" is that I was 
born in the United States, have lived 
my life there, and hope, when the 
time comes, to find my final resting 
place there. 

The tenor of your letter generally 
is of more significance than the in- 
dividual points which you raise. It 
challenges my right to address the 
American people on questions with 
which their interests are intimately 
involved. I shall not defend my 
right to this, which every intelligent 
and fairminded jnan admits. I will 
only give you my reason for doing 
so. 

If you will recall certain utter- 
ances of President Wilson immedi- 
ately after the outbreak of the war, 
you will remember that they enunci- 
ated a "higher neutrality" in the 
discussion of the issues involved. A 
beautiful idealism inspired the Pres- 
ident's words, but it was an idealism 
doomed to early dissipation. The 
President's injunction could have 
been obeyed, but it was not. The 
words had scarcely left his lips, be- 
fore the British press and a con- 
siderable element of our own opened 
a campaign of vilification against 
Germany and the German people 
which has no parallel in the history 
of our own or any other country. 
All the praise which had been 



heaped upon an industrious and 
peave-loving people over a quarter 
of a century was hurriedly closeted, 
and paper vied with paper in con- 
demning what a year ago they had 
lauded. I ask you, frankly: was 
that neutrality? was it fair play? 
was it American? Is it the duty of 
a power standing apart and sup- 
posedly an unbiased spectator of a 
war such as this, to allow the whole 
burden of its press to be thrown by 
one contestant against another? 
The essence of neutrality is bal- 
ance; and the only way in which 
such balance could be maintained 
was to offset like with like. I saw 
this, as did a great many other 
Americans, and it was only then 
that I sought to do what little 1 
could to counteract the baneful in- 
fluence which so apparently was 
being exercised by England upon 
this country. You need but read the 
articles with which our papers have 
teemed from English pens, to realize 
the danger with which we have been 
threatened. 

I do not know who cares what I 
think. I know only that hundreds of 
thousands of Americans think with 
me. If you are one of those who 
would willingly surrender our na- 
tional mind, preparatory to the 
rendition of our sovereignty, to the 
British croAvn, you have the same 
right to maintain your views that 
I have to express mine. It would 
seem, however, to comport but ill 
with that true Americanism which 
we should be able to expect from 
those of your holy calling especially, 
to challenge any American for the 
e.xpression of opinions designed only 
for the good of the American people. 
I ask for Germany only fair play, 
and that, primarily, not for Germany, 
but for our own country. To render 
her less is to violate our own sacred 
standards. 

I am taking the further liberty of 
publishing your letter and my reply 
thereto in The Staats-Zeitung of the 
8th instant. You are privileged to 
give what publicity you like to them. 
Very truly yours, 

Herman Ridder. 



COLONEL WATTERSON ON 
THE WAR. 



Editorial, The Fatherland, New York. 

Col. Henry Watterson, the editor of 
the Louisville "Courier-Journal," 
speaks of despot-ridden Germany ^nd 
says the Kaiser's government "is 
to our seeing the sum of all iniquity. 
Who believes in it cannot believe 
in the United States." 

"Marse Henry" thus arrays him- 
self on the side of those who would 
like to introduce gag measures to 
stop German sympathizers in this 
war from expressing their opinions, 
while reserving for themselves the 
right to monopolize the American 
press and the British cable to work 
up sentiment in favor of their side. 

We can easily understand that men 
with this un-American mental bias 
are praying for the triumph of Rus- 
sia and Japan. Watterson, in other 
words says, any one who doesn't co- 
incide with his point of view can- 
not believe in the United States. 



Since when has Col. Watterson 
begun to believe in the United States? 
Not in 1861-65. Not for many, many 
years afterward. How did he obtain 
his title of "Colonel" unless it was 
in fighting against the United States? 
To him nothing was so odious as a 
Northern man — not even a European 
despot; and just as he fulminated 
against the Union then, he is now 
hurling his thunders at the Ger- 
man government. 

We resent Col. Watterson's insult to 
German sympathizers, and knowing, 
that good Americans, as good as he is 
and perhaps Ijetter. are actively sym- 
pathizing with Germany, we w'ill tell 
him why German sympathizers cannot 
be outdone by the reconstructed Col. 
Watterson in "believing in the United 
States."* 

They believe that nothing but the 
overshadowing authority of the Ger- 
man Emperor preserved peace of Eu- 
rope for twenty-three years; that un- 
der his rule and influence the cause 
of civilization was farther advanced 
than has been the case in England, 
France, Russia or Japan; that the 
question of poverty was almost solved 
in Germany; that the per capita 
wealth shifted from Prance to Ger- 
many; that personal liberty and the 
just administration of the laws have 
had a higher vindication in Germany 
than anywhere else; that municipal 
government reached its_highest de- 
velopment and that more small land- 
holders exist within the same area 
than in England. The Kaiser's prin- 
cipal opponents, as vindictive as the 
Colonel himself, the Socialists, ral- 
lied to his standard in defense of 
the intellectual and national treas- 
ures which the Kaiser had fostered 
and protected for the German nation. 
Two of the most distinguished mem- 
bers of the British Cabinet, Mr. 
Burns and Lord Morley, resigned 
from the ministry rather than ap- 
prove the war. Great Americans like 
Dean Burgess of Columbia University, 
and many other scholars of inter- 
national fame, are protesting against 
England's part in the war and es- 
pousing the cause of Germany. 

Does Marse Henry mean to say 
that Prof. John W. Burgess, Prof. 
Herbert Sanborn of Vanderbilt Uni- 
versity; Mrs. Barclay Hazard, of the 
Florence Crittenden Mission, and 
countless other intellectual leaders 
and philanthropists not of German 
ancestry "cannot believe in the 
United States" because they don't 
agree with his point of view? They 
didn't agree with his point of view 
on the Civil War, in which 187,000 
Gerrhans enlisted while the Colonel's 
English friends were destroying the 
commerce of the United States and 
buying Confederate bonds to further 
the destruction of the country In 
which he now tells us no one can 
believe who believes in the justice 
of the Kaiser's cause. 



* Note — The phrase, in italics, "as 
good as he is, and perhaps better," 
is my own, to make the idea clear. 
— Editor. 



There Is no place like home, if one 
lives In the United States. — From 
"The Daily News," August 28, 1914. 



POPULAR NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



209 



lilE OR DIE. 



Translation of Editorial. 
Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 

The senile Dr. Eliot, formerly presi- 
dent of the Harvard University, has 
in view of the fact that everybody is 
talking, found it impossible to remain 
silent. The senile scientist unbur- 
dened his mind in an article in the 
"New York Times" in favor of Eng- 
land — as a matter of course. 

Dr. Eliot needs show no consider- 
ation when expressing his sympathy 
for England. He has the undisputed 
right to make sure that his expres- 
sions of sympathy are delivered to the 
right address, and we think we have 
the same right. And though we re- 
gret that this light of America's in- 
tellect is — according to our view of 
the matter — wasting his sympathy on 
those unworthy of it, we can hardly 
reproach him for doing so. It is an- 
other thing, however, when the for- 
mer university president does not 
content himself with an expression 
of his views, but insists on rendering 
a verdict, which he claims admits of 
no recall. In this Instance a critical 
inquiry is not only timely, but abso- 
lutely necessary. 

When Dr. Eliot boldly declares 
that a perusal of German publica- 
tions has convinced him that German 
editors and professors were ignorant 
of the true causes that led to this 
war, he shows an insolence that 
should not only be branded as such 
but also ridiculed. 

It is making a show of his bound- 
less conceit, when Dr. Eliot attempts 
to prove that he, sitting in his study 
on this side, had a better opportunity 
to fathom the real causes of the war, 
than, for instance, Herbert Kraus 
of the University of Leipzig, who is 
known the world over as an author- 
ity on matters relating to interna- 
tional law. And it is an unheard of 
insult to such men as Haeckel, 
Eucken and others to claim that they 
were not acquainted with the sub- 
ject they were writing on. 

Professor Eliot undoubtedly had a 
more reliable and truthful source of 
information than these gentlemen. 
Dr. Eliot gets his Information from 
English sources and from American 
papers, and as a matter of course his 
statements are more reliable than 
those of German scientists. 

Anything bearing an English 
stamp is accepted as true in America, 
by Tom, Dick and Harry, even 
though mendacity is written on its 
face and its odor penetrates the 
clouds. And even Professor Eliot 
wishes to be no exception, for it 
would be an easy matter for him to 
learn how to make history in Eng- 
land. 

The American journalist, .James 
O'Donnell Bennett, has informed 
"The Chicago Tribune" — his paper — 
that in England it is either lie or die. 
He published a letter received from 
his wife, who is in London at the 
present time, in which she states that 
she has had trouble, because he took 
the privilege of sending reports con- 
taining the truth to America. One 
of his colleagues has already been 
imprisoned and his papers confis- 
cated. 



Perhaps Dr. Eliot is planning a 
trip to England and as a precaution- 
ary measure has advertised his pass- 
port in the columns of the "New 
York Times" to enable him to wan- 
der about undisturbed in the free 
British kingdom. 

In this case the stand taken by 
the American scientist is easy to un- 
derstand, but can hardly be excused. 
Dr. Eliot should follow the example 
of his colleague Burgess. Professor 
Burgess, also an American, prefers 
to scan the pages of the world's his- 
tory with the aid of the lenses of 
truth. 



industrial and commercial import- 
ance, and for this reason are ready 
and anxious to destroy her as a peo- 
ple. 

"We hereby request the Associated 
Press to forward a copy of this paper 
to the President of the United States 
and the Secretary of State." 



BESOIiUTION ADOPTED BY 300 

PASSENGERS ON BOARD THE 

HOIiLAND LINE STEAMER 

"ROTTERDAM." 

NEW YORK, Sept. 7. — Passengers 
on the Holland-America liner Rotter- 
dam, which arrived from Rotterdam 
today, signed a statement declaring 
false the reports that Americans had 
been ill-treated in Germany. The 
statement closed with the request 
tliat a copy be forwarded to President 
Wilson and Secretary Bryan and was 
signed by Rev. J. F. Ohl of Phila- 
delphia; Rev. August Rohrig, Hazel- 
ton, Pa.; Dr. J. J. Buel, Cleveland, 
Ohio; Dr. A. W. Stilliams, Chicago, 
111.; Max Wester, New York; Rev. 
Henry Tappert, Covington, Ky. ; Rev. 
Dr. T. Soentgrath, Columbus, Ohio; 
Rev. M. Rleger, Duluth, Minn.; Rev. 
J. A. Rossenbach, Darien, Conn., and 
several hundred others. The state- 
ment follows: 

"The undersigned American cit- 
izens, passengers on the steamship 
Rotterdam, all of whom were in Ger- 
many during the present hostilities, 
ask the Associated Press, through its 
various channels, to give publicity to 
the following statements: 

"That the reports regarding ill- 
treatment of Americans by Germans, 
emanating from English and French 
sources, are absolutely false. 

"Travel through Germany, as far 
as the extraordinary circumstances 
permitted, was altogether safe, as of- 
ficials and all classes of the people 
were, without exception, very friend- 
ly and helpful. 

"No well-authenticated atrocities 
were perpetrated by German troops. 
"All of the German official bulletins 
regarding the progress of the war 
were in every case subsequently con- 
firmed, and thus the reports coming 
from English, French and Belgian 
sources disproved. 

"In our judgment the distorted re- 
ports which have reachel America 
were sent out with the deliberate pur- 
pose of deceiving Americans and thus 
creating a sentiment in favor of the 
powers now arrayed against Ger- 
many. 

"We ask all Americans to suspend 
judgment until they have had oppor- 
tunity to make an Impartial investi- 
gation of the causes which have led to 
the present conflict, and especially to 
study the diplomatic correspondence. 
It is our conviction that Germany 
has not been the aggressor, but that 
the war has been forced upon her 
by the envy and greed of those na- 
tions that are jealous of her growing 



CHARGES OF GERMAN CRUEL- 
TIES DENIED BY U. S. 
CORRESPONDENTS. 

The Associated Press has received 
by wireless from Berlin a message 
which follows. It was sent from Aix- 
la-Chapelle to Berlin for transmis- 
sion. The authors, all of whom 
were originally assigned to Brussels, 
and when that city was taken they 
were returned to Alx-la-Chapelle, 
from which city they have been en- 
deavoring to reach London, but with- 
out success. The telegram was partly 
mutilated by interference and certain 
words are missing, but the text here 
given is clearly that intended by the 
authors: 

In spirit we unite in rendering (sic) 
German atrocities groundless, as far 
as we are able to. After spending 
two weeks with and accompanying 
the troops upward of 100 miles, we 
are unable to report a single Instance 
unprovoked. We are also unable to 
confirm rumors of mistreatment of 
prisoners or of non-combatants with 
the German columns. This is true of 
Louvaln, Brussels, Luneville and 
Nantes while in Prussian hands. 

We visited Chateau Soldre, Sambre 
and Beaumont without substantiating 
a single wanton brutality. Numerous 
investigated rumors proved ground- 
less. Everywhere we have seen Ger- 
mans paying for purchases and re- 
specting property rights, as well as 
according civilians every considera- 
tion. 

After the battle of Biass (probably 
Barse, a suburb of Namur), we found 
Belgian women and children moving 
comfortably about. The day after 
the Germans had captured the town 
In Merbes Chateau, we found one 
citizen killed, but were unable to con- 
firm lack of provocation. 

Refugees with stories of atrocities 
were unable to supply direct evi- 
dence. Belgians in the Sambre Val- 
ley discounted reports of cruelty in 
the surrounding countries. The 
discipline of the German soldiers is 
excellent, as we observed. 

To the truth of the statements we 
pledge our professional and personal 
word. 

ROGER LEWIS, 

The Associated Press. 

IRVIN S. COBB, 

Saturday Evening Post and 
Philadelphia Public Ledger. 

HARRY HANSEN, 
Chicago Daily News. 

JAMES O'DONNELL BENNETT 
and 

JOHN T. M'CUTCHEON, 
Chicago Tribune. 



War fever apparently is the most 
contagious disease on earth. — From 
"The Dally News," August 28, 1914. 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



SPEECHES MADE AT A MASS 

MEETING OF GERMANS IN 

FANEUIIi HAIjL, BOSTON. 



From the "Boston Globe," Monday, 
August 31, 1914. 



By Robert Sturm. 

It is with deepest regret that we 
feel ourselves obliged to meet here 
today for mutual consolation on ac- 
count of the unjust attitude which 
our press has taken against every- 
thing German, but which, however, 
has now been somewhat modified 
through President Wilson's appeal for 
neutrality. 

A few very intelligent writers are 
possessed of a neutral view, but these 
are exceptions to the rule. Our posi- 
tion as German-Americans is to be 
doubly deplored because it compels 
us to resort to the unpleasant task of 
reminding the press what the Ger- 
mans have done for America — and, in 
fact, for the whole world. 

We have been told that the papers 
are obliged to print the news as it 
comes, but it is not the news we find 
fault with; it is the placing of the 
headlines on the news which exhibits 
the animosity and lack of neutrality 
CD the part of our papers. 

Some of the manufactured news we 
get from the other side is an insult 
to American intelligence. 

Just recall the difference of the 
published reports when war was de- 
clared — of the meeting of the House 
of Parliament in London and the 
meeting of the Reichstag in Berlin. 
What England does and invents 
seems to our press the most import- 
ant news of the world; what Germany 
does, our press is content with sim- 
ply publishing the manufactured 
atrocities of the "barbarians." 

When the German cable was cut at 
the Azores, it was surmised that the 
English had cut it, and it caused great 
joy in the editorial rooms of the 
papers; it was considered an awfully 
clever trick of the English, just like 
them to isolate Germany completely 
from the rest of the world. 

Germany's doom was now a fore- 
gone conclusion and the papers pre- 
dicted this doom with great elation 
and satisfaction, and we German- 
Americans threw the paper aside, 
thinking the end of the world had 
come, and we felt like imitating the 
ostrich until the catastrophe was 
over. 

Two weeks afterward the rumor 
penetrated our editorial rooms that 
Germany herself had cut the cable 
to isolate herself against reports 
leaking out about the movements of 
her armies. This rumor caused con- 
sternation among our editorial staffs. 
When the English cut it it caused joy 
and when the Germans cut it, it 
aroused the hateful spirit. 

We are told that this animosity is 
not directed against the German peo- 
ple, but against the "Kaiser" and the 
army. It is strange that other coun- 
tries has kaisers and armies and not 
a word is said about them, and we 
ourselves here are endeavoring to en- 
large our army and keep a big navy, 
and we think we are justified in do- 
ing so. Why not give Germany the 
same privilege? 



We are told that the German peo- 
ple are the most intelligent in the 
world; that they represent the school 
of education for the world; that they 
are on the top notch of the sciences, 
music, literature and everything 
which represents human culture — • 
but the Kaiser and the army ought to 
be ousted. 

The gist of these supposedly flat- 
tering remarks is that Germany 
should drop the Kaiser and the army 
to give the other powers an easier 
chance to disintegrate her into the 
former number of States, which then 
could be easily debarred from com- 
mercial competition. 

As Americans, we boast our ad- 
miration for a good fighter for com- 
mercial competition, and because 
Germany has proven to be a good 
fighter for commercial competition, 
and because Germany, has proven to 
be a good fighter, we rejoice at see- 
ing her knocked out. This is strange 
fair play. We forget that against our 
own disintegration we fought for 
four and one-half years with the then 
welcome assistance of the "barbari- 
ans" for the preservation of our 
Union, because we thought a whole 
was stronger than two halves. Ger- 
many needs her army to keep her 
union whole. 

Germany's phenomenal rise in com- 
mercial competition frightened the 
other world powers of Europe and 
they concocted the scheme to fight 
Germany's growth with printer's ink 
by incessant and systematic slander 
all over the world. 

At the same time these very powers 
have prepared to force Germany into 
a fight so as to crush her by combi- 
nation, because singly no one dared 
to do it. They did not even trust 
their European combination, so they 
whispered into the Jap's ear: "It 
was the Kaiser who swung the flag of 
the yellow peril." 

We are now confronted with the 
inglorious spectacle of four world 
powers courageously bombarding a 
little German town in China, and, as 
is customary in war, they are now 
fervently praying for the success of 
their united arms. 

The German bears no inborn 
hatred or ill-will against any other 
nationality or people. On the con- 
trary his admiration for everything 
foreign is a fault. 

We ask no one's sympathy. We 
have met here today to express our 
regret for the slandering statements 
and the exhibitions of undeserved 
hatefulness in a neutral country. 

When we consider what Germans 
have done for America, we feel that 
we have a right to come to this hal- 
lowed hall, to this Cradle of Liberty, 
to ask for fairness and for justice. 



By Prof. J. A. Walz, of Harvard 
University (in part) : 

This hall has always been the 
refuge of the maligned; of those who 
have been unjustly treated, and it 
is here that we plead for justice and 
fairness to the German cause. 

Fortunately, our country is neu- 
tral. Our noble and peace-loving 
President has made it clear that the 
United States Government will ob- 
serve neutrality in letter and in 



spirit; he has called upon all loyal 
Americans to be neutral. We are 
loyal Americans and we are proud of 
it. In calling this meeting, we have 
not disregarded the President's re- 
quest, nor have we come here to stir 
up animosities among our fellow 
citizens. 

All we ask is suspension of judg- 
ment, willingness to listen to the 
other side, fair play for Germany. 
We know that the American people 
love fair play, but we also know that 
the average American knows little 
about European politics and cares 
less about them. 

We believe that the German people 
and the German Government have 
not been fairly treated by a large 
part of the American press. We 
should fail in our duty as American 
citizens if we did not stand up for 
what we believe to be the truth. 

The greatest war of history has be- 
gun and the iirst question is: Who 
is responsible for the catastrophe? 
It will be the task of future histori- 
ans to unravel all the entangled 
threads that led up to this conflict, 
but at the present time England and 
Prance point at the German Emperor 
as the aggressor, the disturber of 
peace, and many of our American 
papers repeat the cruel charge. 

A man must be judged by his 
deeds. Even those who have not 
been admirers of the German Em- 
peror must admit that his acts have 
always been in the interest of peace. 
In the Boer War he kept strictly 
neutral, though the German people, 
yes, the whole non-British world, 
were loud in their condemnation of 
British aggression. 

It was the German Emperor who 
prevented the joint action of Russia 
and France against England in favor 
of the Boers by refusing to take part. 
When Russia's army was fighting 
Japan ten years ago, the German 
Government assured Russia that 
Germany would make no hostile 
move, though the Russian frontier 
was bared of troops and defeat had 
demoralized the Russian army. 

In the Morocco affair, when France 
fully recognized Germany's claims by 
offering her a part of Morocco, Eng- 
land stepped in and the German Em- 
peror, rather than plunge Europe 
into a war, waived the German claims 
to Morocco and accepted a small 
compensation in Central Africa. 

It has been urged by well-meaning 
friends of peace that the German 
Emperor should have waited until 
Russia actually invaded German ter- 
ritory to avoid the odium of a de- 
claration of war. 

But to have waited until then 
would have deprived the German peo- 
ple of almost every chance of vic- 
tory. No Government, Republican or 
monarchial, has the right to throw 
away the future of its people. The 
Russian bear saw the opportunity for 
his long-planned conquest of Eastern 
Europe. He was determined upon 
war and he was sure of French sup- 
port, he was sure of England. 

In this supreme moment, when the 
fate of the German people was in the 
balance, the German Emperor and 
the federal council of the Empire had 
the moral courage to take upon them- 
selves the odium of a declaration of 



POPULAR NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



211 



war — the most terrible odium that a 
government can take upon itself in 
our times. 

Now, if you believe that a man has 
the right to strike if his enemy is 
reaching out for a mortal blow, you 
must admit that the German people 
had the right of self-defense. 

"Germany must expand," they say, 
"but she must expand along economic 
lines, through the application of 
brain power, through unremitting 
industry, through scientific attain- 
ments, through arts and letters." 

This policy the German people, and 
the German Emperor, have pursued 
with might and main during the last 
25 years; yes, ever since the founda- 
tion of the Empire. 

"The German Emperor is crazy," 
was a remark frequently heard at 
the outbreak of the war. But how is 
it that a nation of 67,000,000 men, 
I women and children stand by this 
Emperor in the present hour of 
stress? Social Democrats and Con- 
servatives, Catholics and Protestants, 
capitalists and workmen, Jews and 
Gentiles, have joined hands with this 
Emperor in defense of the nation's 
life and future. We see the whole 
German people transfixed with the 
passion for self-sacrifice. 

What then is the crime of Germany 
that has brought about this unholy 
alliance against her? In the British 
and French press and in certain arti- 
cles in our own papers we find all 
sorts of explanations. We read of 
the bad manners of the Germans, of 
the insolence of the military caste, of 
the arrogance of the ofiicials. 

We are told that the German Gov- 
ernment is despotic, that the people 
are down-trodden, that there is no 
liberty. Some of these charges 
doubtless contain some truth. There 
are bad mannered Germans; you do 
find insolent officers and arrogant 
officials in Germany; certain external 
aspects of German Government and 
administration are irritating to 
Americans, though the average Ger- 
man does not mind them very much; 
there is less self-government in Ger- 
many than among us; the parliamen- 
tary bodies of the Empire wield less 
power than in this country. 

But there is no despotism in a 
country with a written Constitution, 
where the law is supreme and is en- 
forced among high and low. Our 
own reformers point again and again 
at the excellent administration of 
German municipalities. These rea- 
sons do not explain why the great 
powers of Europe have united to 
strike a death-blow at the life of the 
German people. 

Much has been written during the 
last few weeks about the sinister de- 
signs of Germany, but I have not seen 
any reference to an article Which ap- 
peared 17 years ago in the British 
periodical, the "Saturday Review," 
September, 1897. The article is 
known to every student of European 
politics of the last 20 years. 

The author says: "If Germany 
were extinguished tomorrow, the day 
after tomorrow there is not an Eng- 
lishman in the world who would not 
be richer. Nations have fought for 
years over a city or a right of suc- 
cession; must they not fight for 



$250,000,000 of yearly commerce? 
England is the only great power who 
can fight Germany without tremen- 
dous risk and without doubt of the 
issue."* 

The article closes with the Latin 
phrase, "Germaniam esse delendam" 
— Germany must be destroyed. Sim- 
ilar statements, though not quite so 
bald, have since been made in pub- 
lic and in private by Englishmen of 
standing. 

It is the German view that this 
catastrophe is due primarily to eco- 
nomic causes. Because German 
women were willing to bear children 
and German men were willing to sup- 
port the children; because German 
men and women used their brains 
and their bodies to build up German 
industries and commerce; because 
the Germans built a navy to protect 
that commerce and because they were 
guilty of getting rich — for these rea- 
sons, England formed the all-power- 
ful alliance, enlisting in her cause 
the desire for revenge of the French, 
the desire of conquest of Russia, the 
desire for supplanting the white race 
in the Pacific of the Japanese. Ed- 
ward VII prepared the unnatural alli- 
ance and Nicholas II set it in motion. 
What will be the outcome of the 
war? We can judge of the future 
only by the past. Russian victory 
will mean the domination of Russian 
despotism on the European conti- 
nent. There will be a dismember- 
ment of Germany; there will be chaos 
in Central Europe. 

Then we shall see other great 
wars, for Russia will make herself 
mistress of Asia, and England will 
have to fight her former ally for the 
possession of India and Asia Minor. 
But how does England hope to fight 
the huge armies of Russia then? Her 
fleet will avail her nothing and her 
natural ally, the German Empire, she 
has helped to destroy. 

There will be war in the Pacific, 
for Japan, after crowding out, with 
England's help, one white nation, 
will try to make herself master of 
the Pacific. Then our own country 
will be affected, and we shall have to 
build a navy two and three times as 
large as now to keep our commerce 
and our possessions in the Pacific. 

Let no one be deceived. Russian 
Czardom aims at world dominion. 
For 300 years Russia has steadily ad- 
vanced over Asia and Europe, to the 
east and to the west, to the north 
and to the south. She has at times 
been checked, but she has never been 
defeated. 

If Germany and Austria-Hungary 
are victorious, it will mean law and 
order in Central Europe. There will 
doubtless follow the establishment of 
a Central European customs union 
which will unite the various economic 
interests of the large and small na- 
tions, Germanic and Slavic, and which 
will still permit Independent national 
life and development. 

Then the war drum will be heard 
no longer on the blood-drenched 
fields of Europe. Humanity, prog- 
ress and civilization will have a new 
lease of life. 



France will forever bury her 
thoughts of revenge; England will 
still be a great colonial empire, but 
she will have to share the dominion 
of the sea with other powers and she 
will never be able again to embroil 
the continent. 

Russia will still be a great country 
with boundless possibilities of inter- 
nal development, but she will have no 
opportunity to crush small nations 
within her dominion. Democracy 
will be triumphant in Europe, though 
the form of government will remain 
the constitutional monarchy. 



The following resolutions were 
adopted: 

RESOLVED, That we, American 
citizens residing in Greater Boston 
and representing different racial ele- 
ments of the United States, particu- 
larly the German element, assembled 
in Faneuil Hall, approve unreserved- 
ly the policy of strictest neutrality in 
the present European conflict pro- 
claimed by the President of the 
United States as solely compatible 
with the interests of the United 
States. 

RESOLVED, That we sympathize 
with the German people and the Ger- 
man Government in the present war, 
which has been wantonly forced upon 
them by the aggressive jealousy of 
powerful nations. 

RESOLVED, That we regret and 
condemn the unwarranted attacks 
upon the German people and Govern- 
ment by a large part of the American 
press. 

RESOLVED, That we see a great 
danger to the future of our country 
in the attack upon Germany by Japan 
as England's ally, which is clearly an 
attempt to dominate the Pacific polit- 
ically and commercially, to the detri- 
ment of the United States. 



COMMENT ON DR. CHARLES W. 

ELIOT'S ADDRESS TO THE 

BUSINESS WOMEN'S 

CLUB, BOSTON, 

MASS. 



•Possibly so, if she can succeed, by 
hook or crook, to get the rest of the 
non-Teutonic world to light her battles 
for her. — Editor. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 

New York. 

Herman Bidder. 

The note sounded by Dr. Charles W. 
Eliot in his address to the Boston Busi- 
ness Women's Club on the 15th instant 
is ominous. If Dr. Eliot's words have 
been correctly reported they amount to 
no less than the assertion that the 
United States is called upon to go to 
the assistance of the Allies should they 
become exhausted in the conflict against 
Germany. We have become accustomed 
to England's campaign to capture the 
moral support of the American people 
in its most immoral of connections with 
the present war in Europe, a campaign 
In which Dr. Eliot himself has been a 
banner-carrier, but we cannot but ex- 
press a degree of surprise at the dis- 
covery that our moral support was to 
be captured only as a preliminary to 
securing our military support. I can- 
not refrain from calling attention to the 
fact that the suggestion comes not from 
Arthur Conan Doyle or H. G. Wells, 
Arnold Bennett or Sir Gilbert Parker, 



212 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



but from an American who has a cer- 
tain claim upon our ears, and one who 
was originally selected to be the Amer- 
ican Ambassador to England. As such, 
it shows the depth to which the ene- 
mies within are willing to sink in their 
attempt to surrender the United States 
to England, and the craft with which 
England, working to the end of our 
moral-military support, is conducting 
its propaganda in this country. 

I venture to suggest that if Professor 
Muensterberg should have called upon 
the United States to lend its military 
strength for the defense of Germany, 
President Eliot would have arisen in 
horror at the suggestion and have 
added another $10,000,000 argument for 
the removal of the belligerent profes- 
sor. I do not know how much Harvard 
needs money, but I do know that in 
the handling of this question Dr. 
Eliot's advice has been registered in 
his Boston address. 

I do not suppose that President Wil- 
son had any meed of confidence in the 
powers of his utterance on that higher 
neutrality of silence which he proposed 
to the American people, to effect its 
acceptance. In any case, the results 
have been disappointing, and were des- 
tined to be. Our hearts could not be 
chained against feeling for one side or 
another, nor could our voices be pre- 
vented from giving expression to those 
feelings. I do not think, however, that 
any great amount of harm can come 
from the logomachy which we have en- 
gaged in. It is natural and inevitable 
that nations going to war should seek 
the sympathy of neutral peoples. It is 
as natural and inevitable as the desire 
of the individual about to commit an 
act of questionable legality to buttress 
his reputation before his fellowmen. 
Both Germany and England sought our 
goodwill — the one by a frank state- 
ment of its case, the other by attempt- 
ing to defile the fair name of its oppo- 
nent. Both have secured a certain 
share of sympathy in America. We are 
quite ready to judge the facts of the 
case as they are presented to us and 
to allot our moral support where it 
seems most to be deserved. But there 
we stop. 

The designs of England to force the 
United States into the war, along with 
Russia, France, Japan and Portugal, 
have been observable for some time. 
The invitation to send an American 
fleet against Turkey was but one of the 
disclosatory symptoms of these designs. 
And now we have them absolutely and 
unmistakably enunciated to us by the 
Doyen of Harvard. 

I call attention to Dr. Eliot's re- 
marks only as a warning to the Ameri- 
can people. They carry no more weight 
than the earlier recriminations lodged 
against Germany by their author. Dr. 
Eliot cannot claim the right to speak 
for the United States, but as an hon- 
ored leader of American thought, his 
words have a double significance. They 
will be significant both in this country 
and in England. We cannot do better, 
therefore, than to remind our cousins 
across the water that the suggestion of 
military support conveyed in Dr. 
Eliot's words has no substantial basis 
in fact. 

We do not want war. Our feeling 
toward the European conflict is one 
primarily of regret that it ever was 



made necessary. Our great desire is 
that it may come to an early end. And 
least of all do we wish to become in- 
volved in it. Separated from the scenes 
of action by a thousand leagues of 
ocean, secure in our alliance with the 
Atlantic, we still have sufEered from 
the folly of Europe. Shall we cut loose 
from that alliance and precipitate our- 
selves into the fray? Dr. Eliot says, 
"Yes !" The American people say, 
"No!" Wherever our sympathies may 
lie, our Interests are unquestionably 
bound up with peace. Were Germany 
the monster which Dr. Eliot paints her, 
I would still say that the war in Eu- 
rope is a concern of Europe, and that 
our interference therein would be but 
the adding of fuel to a fire already 
great enough. 

The right of Dr. Eliot to declaim 
against Germany is as well established 
as is that of those who can still see in 
Germany something to admire and re- 
spect, to defend her cause. And this 
right has been worked by Dr. Eliot for 
all there is in it. Only when he slops 
over so far as to say that we are mor- 
ally bound to go to the assistance of 
England, do his remarks come within 
the category of the indefensible. If my 
memory does not play me false, Dr. 
Eliot has until recently posed as a man 
of peace. In fact, he was sent, not so 
long ago, on a world-junket in the in- 
terest of the Carnegie Foundation for 
Universal Peace. Today, the preaching 
of a long lifetime is abandoned, and 
war is his text. I cannot but think 
that all that Cicero wrote "de Senec- 
tute" was written in vain. The youth 
of our land is crying out today for 
peace, and it is advanced senility that 
is clamoring for conflict. 

I do not think that Dr. Eliot's propa- 
ganda will carry much weight in 
Washington or Washtenaw. It wiU 
certainly require a more logical defense 
of the cause of the Allies than we have 
had to date to bring to their support 
the army and navy of the United 
States. And granting the possibility of 
such defense, it will demand a greater 
amount of logic than Dr. Eliot has been 
able to bring to the support of his con- 
tentions, to justify the suggestion that 
we wish in any way to become a party 
to the conflict. Our position is, co- 
gently, that if the nations of Europe 
wish to cut each other's throats they 
are privileged to do so. It is none of 
our business. We wish equally to let 
alone and to be left alone; and wher- 
ever our sympathies may lie, with Ger- 
many or with her enemies, one thing Is 
unmistakable: we do not wish to get 
mixed up in the mess. The greatest 
condemnation of Dr. Eliot's attitude is 
to be found in the fact that It Is fla- 
grantly opposed to this well-known 
stand of the American people. 



REFUSING TO AID SliAUGHTEB. 



JOHN J. STEVENSON 

Who refuses "to be a party to the 
bloody war in Europe" though his 
business has been the manufacture 
of munitions. "It is better to make 
things that are useful." 



It is not for Germany's diplomatic 
reasons that one American accedes 
to Germany's demand that America 



cease furnishing the Allies with war- 
munitions. "It is so much better to 
make things that are useful to man- 
kind than to make things that de- 
stroy mankind," says John J. Steven- 
son, president of the Driggs-Seabury 
Ordnance Corporation; and his com- 
pany refuses to furnish munitions for 
the war now raging. They have de- 
clined orders for millions of dollars' 
worth in the last four months, he tells 
a correspondent of the New York 
"Sun," orders that would have kept 
their plant going on full shifts night 
and day, but would have been "a 
contributing factor to the carnage 
now putting millions of men in Eu- 
rope under the ground and on 
crutches." Agents of the Russian, 
French and British governments, he 
asserts have for months tried to get 
his company to manufacture shells 
for them, and just as persistently as 
these requests have come so have 
they been refused. The company of ' 
which Mr. Stevenson is the head was 
originally organized to manijifacture 
war-munitions, and in its early his- 
tory prospered on carnage. Altruism 
is not wholly the cause of the com- 
pany's conversion, however, as Its 
president humorously acknowledges: 

"The last time we made war-mu- 
nitions was for the United States 
Government about eight years ago. 
We manufactured 119,000 shells and 
we lost some money. I then joined 
Andrew Carnegie's peace society — 
and have heen an active member 
since. 

"A man's experience in life some- 
times quickens his conscience. That 
is what happened to me, I suppose. 
The loss of that money opened my 
eyes to a better realization of the 
horrors of war. Since then I have 
put the notion of manufacturing war 
materials out of my mind. . . . 

"I would rather, far rather, that 
the Driggs-Seabury Ordnance Corpo- 
ration never again make any arti- 
cle that might he used to destroy 
life. . . . 

Convert Them aU — Governor 
Included. 

"It is a crime that men such as 
the great artists of France are In the 
field being shot at — and shot — when 
they could and should be at home ad- 
vancing the world's civilization in- . 
stead of tearing it down and being i 
cut down themselves with bullets. I 

"Modern warfare is merely a ques- ■ 
tion of the best guns, the most mod- 
ern war machinery and implements, 
and the longest purse — and 

"When the billions upon billions 
of dollars have been expended and 
the millions upon millions of men 
killed or maimed or so shattered in 
health that they are unahle to follow 
their daily work, the conflagration 
ceases. Then falls the burden of this 
ruthless butchery upon the under 
dog, and he must stagger through 
life under the load. He must foot 
the hills, must pay, pay, and pay, 
until patience ceases and rebellion 
rules. Then comes repudiation of 
the so-called government bonds, and 
revolution. . . . 

"When the democracy of Europe 
comes into its own, as it surely will 
as one of the results of the conflagra- 
tion now raging, I think there will 



POPULAR NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



213 



be such a panic as will surpass the 
French revolution of 1793. 

"The income tax today in England 
is twelve times greater than in the 
United States, with only half the lat- 
ter's population to draw from. There 
is already talk and a probability of 
this taxation being doubled before 
the year is out. That is why I say 
that a man in such a game who wins 
loses." — The Literary Digest. 



THE OTHER SIDE. 



The Fatherland, New York, 
liouls Sheiwin. 

Nothing is more natural, more in- 
evitable than the grievous Prusso- 
phobia with which nine out of ten 
non-German Americans enter into 
any discussion of war. A widespread 
unthinking almost vindictive hatred 
of Germans, a cruel desire for the 
defeat, humiliation and dismember- 
ment of the German empire seems 
to greet the German sympathizer 
wherever he goes. It is depressing, 
it is baffling, it is almost maddening 
at times. But when you consider 
its causes it is easy to understand. 
The average American has only 
one source of information — his 
newspaper. His newspaper gives 
him either half truths or — in the 
case of the rabid, jingo Anglophile 
press, absolute lies. And the Amer- 
ican reader, as a rule, cannot read 
between the lines. He cannot sift 
the truth from the lies, however dis- 
ingenuous they may be. The chances 
are that he has been educated at an 
American school or university. Con- 
sequently he has not the thorough 
grounding in history to enable him 
to determine what the truth is. 

For instance, the New York morn- 
ing newspapers nearly all have their 
own correspondents in Paris and 
London. But in Berlin, for some 
reason, they have not hitherto seen 
fit to send any men from their own 
staff. They obtain their German 
news via London. Now it is per- 
fectly obvious that German news that 
comes filtering through England will 
have an anti-German flavor. Some 
of the Berlin correspondents of the 
American papers are also correspond- 
ents of London dailies. The corre- 
spondents of the New York Times, 
for instance, is also correspondent 
of the jingo Daily Mail.. He is a 
man of undoubted probity, a sincere, 
self-respecting journalist. But the 
most honest man in the world will 
have his own opinions and prejudices. 

But you would imagine that on 
questions of history at least a news- 
paper might be accurate. Now let 
me give an instance. In the New 
York Times last Sunday appeared 
the following statement: "No out- 
sider knows the terms by which Ger- 
many, Austria-Hungary and Italy 
are bound together." If the word 
"outsider" is here meant as a syno- 
nym for a writer on the New York 
Times the statement Is perhaps ac- 
curate. But speak for yourself, John. 
The terms of the Triple Alliance 
have been known to the world at 
large for nearly 30 years. It Is 
nearly 30 years ago that they were 
published in all the newspapers. 



They were reprinted in the New 
York Staats-Zeitung t«n days ago. 

This amazing confession of ignor- 
ance appeared under the signature 
of Albert Bushnell Hart. Who is 
Bushnell Hart? Professor, so please 
you, professor of government at Har- 
vard University! Can you imagine 
what chance the average American 
has to be correctly informed when a 
professor at one of the foremost uni- 
versities in the country will allow 
such a thing to appear under his 
signature? 

Again this erudite trainer of the 
young, talks repeatedly of the as- 
sassination of King Milan by his pre- 
vious Servians in 1903. Well, what 
is a historical fact or so between 
friends? To be sure it was Alex- 
ander who was murdered. However, 
I suppose accuracy is mere bric-a-brac 
in the mind of a professor of gov- 
ernment. 

But how can a man who makes 
such a statement give American 
readers correct information about 
the causes of the war? How can 
American readers hope to learn the 
truth when that is the best approach 
to it they can get from even aca- 
demic sources? 

After this can you be surprised 
that scantily informed writers turn 
out such editorials as those of the 
Evening World? I quote a sample: 
"The wolf is forced to eat the lamb 
forsooth because the lamb bleated! 
An arrogant and bellicose old man in 
Vienna backed by the eager warrior 
watching from Berlin, mumbles sanc- 
timonious nonsense about tranquillity 
while all Europe shudders at the ap- 
palling ring of war preparations." 

I trust the Pulitzer School of 
Journalism will hold this up to its 
pupils as being almost everything 
that editorial comment should not 
be. For bad taste, sloppy thinking, 
superficiality of information it would 
be hard to match. But the humorous 
part of it is that in another editorial 
the same Evening World declares 
that "general continental wars are 
not made nowadays by monarchs or 
even by fierce militarists panting for 
careers." Now which of these two 
statements are the readers of the 
Evening World asked to believe? 

Here is another gem from the same 
palladium of our civic liberties: 

"When history comes to look for 
the causes of the appalling crisis 
which darkens Europe, what will it 
find? The pretended cause an off- 
shoot of the Balkan problem, which 
has been settling itself these forty 
years. The real causes: Senile 
Hapsburg arrogance generations old; 
the inveterate belligerence of a 
Kaiser whose throne rests upon mili- 
tary power and privilege; and the 
fatalistic war spirit of a great des- 
potism where men are born to be 
sacrificed." 

When history comes to look for 
the appalling causes, etc., it will 
hardly, I think, come to the editorial 
columns of the Evening World. 

Editorial comment, we have been 
taught, should explain, interpret and 
review the news of the day, going 
beneath the surface and bringing out 



the meaning of apparently unrelated 
facts in the light of historical pre- 
cedent. What can a man know of 
history who makes the pompous, 
slovenly statement that the Balkan 
problem has been "settling itself 
these forty years?" What can a 
man know of German history, Ger- 
man institutions, the character of 
the German people who has the 
spread-eagle notion that the Kaiser's 
throne "rests upon military power 
and privilege?" Has he paid any at- 
tention to the news that in this crisis 
every party in the empire including 
the Social-Democrats has rallied not 
in any sentimental support of Wil- 
liam II., but out of sheer self-defense 
against the aggression of the Slav 
and the sentimental jealousy of the 
Frenchman? 

I have lived in Germany; some of 
my best friends are Germans. Never 
have I met a German who had 
any animosity towards French peo- 
ple or France as a country. Neither 
I nor anybody else has found in alJ 
Germany any trace of such animosity. 
The hatred of the Frenchman for Ger- 
many, on the other hand, is proverbial. 
Never for a moment has the idea of 
"Revanche" been allowed to die down. 
Talking with the average American I 
find that he sympathizes with this. All 
he can remember is that Prussia took 
Alsace-Lorraine from France in '71. 
Why does not somebody tell him that 
Alsace and Lorraine were originally 
German provinces, that they were vio- 
lently taken over and colonized by the 
French? As long as such misunder- 
standings are suffered to persist how 
can you expect the people of the United 
States to form a fair judgment of the 
rights of this quarrel? 

For extreme examples of malignant, 
violent nonsense I quote the following 
excerpts from the Evening Telegram.* 
Of course any person expecting intelli- 
gence or enlightenment from an Even- 
ing Telegram editorial would be cap- 
able of expecting humor from a comic 
supplement, good cooking in an English 
home or an original thought from 
Arthur Brisbane. But here, I submit 
as an instance of deliberate infiamma- 
tory malice: 

"Wake Up, England!" 

"With Europe in a state of war from 
the Bay of Biscay to the Ural Moun- 
tains and from the Kara Sea to Crete; 
with Germany disregarding treaties so 
far as invasion of neutral territories 
go ; with her friends in the Triple En- 
tente going to the front by land and 
sea. Great Britain lags behind; sits 
supinely ; is mute ; holds Cabinet meet- 
ing after Cabinet meeting and says she 
will later announce her position. 

"Members of the British Cabinet of 
peace party tendencies are responsible 
for the disgrace of a nation. Dodder- 
ing old fossils or men who think more 
of their own pockets than of the honor 
of England and the sacredness of na- 
tional understanding are overriding the 
will of the populace. They should be 
out picking buttercups rather than try- 
ing to dictate policies." 

But again the amazing, pitiful thing 
about this piece of rubbish is not so 
much its obvious malice as its ignor- 
ance. * * * 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



NEW YORK SPEAKS IN THUN- 
DEROUS TONES. 



Thousands Crowd the Great Hippo- 
drome Demanding Respect for 
American Flag and No Entangl- 
ing Alliances — Presidents Jef- 
ferson, Madison and Roose- 
velt Forbade the Shipping 
Arms. 



From "The Irish Voice," March 17, 
1915. 

New York City — The great Hippo- 
drome was packed to the doors by an 
enthusiastic audience at a Washing- 
ton's Birthday mass meeting held un- 
der the auspices of the "For America 
League." All in the audience were pro- 
vided with small American flags, which 
rose and fell with the applause. 

The one topic discussed by the 
speakers, who were ex-Gov. O. B. Col- 
quitt of Texas, Congressman Stephen 
G. Porter of Pennsylvania, and Con- 
gressman Eben W. Martin of South 
Dakota, was America's stand in the 
present war. 

Debasing the American Flag. 

England's "navalism" was attacked 
as a menace to the United States, the 
flying of the American flag by a Brit- 
ish ship passing through the English 
Channel was denounced as a "debase- 
ment of the American flag," the men- 
tion of the name of Secretary of State 
Bryan by one of the speakers evoked 
hisses and hoots that lasted for just 
sixty seconds, and a resolution which 
was adopted by acclamation declared 
the seizure of the steamship Wilhel- 
mina by the British government as "a 
clear invasion of our rights as a neu- 
tral nation," and demanded "the un- 
hampered right of our merchants to 
transport foodstuffs to neutral nations 
and to non-combatants in the belliger- 
ent nations." 

To Organize Throughout the Country. 

The resolution also resolved that the 
"For America League" should be or- 
ganized throughout the United States 
immediately. The league was planned 
about three weeks ago at a meeting 
at which Bainbridge Colby presided, 
and that Sunday night's gathering was 
the organization meeting. 

Judge J. H. Tiemey, who presided, 
introduced as the first speaker Con- 
gressman Porter of Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Mr. Porter urged his auditors to 
help remove the opposition to the bill 
in Congress to stop the shipment of 
arms and ammunition to belligerent 
countries. There was only one prac- 
ticable way to minimize war, he said, 
and that was to establish an interna- 
tional court of arbitration. When this 
failed neutral countries should refuse 
to ship anything to belligerent coun- 
tries. It was Mr. Porter's mention of 
the Secretary of State that caused the 
hisses, which were repeated whenever 
Mr. Bryan was mentioned either by 
name or as "the prince of peace." 

The speaker quoted Mr. Bryan as 
saying that this country would violate 
the laws of neutrality by preventing 
the shipment of arms to the Allies. 
The statement was laughed at, as was 
mention of the fact that President 
Wilson had set apart a "day of prayer 
for peace." England's navy, he said, 
could close every port in the United 



States in forty-eight hours. One of 
my colleagues in Washington asked 
me the very pertinent question : Is 
there not a probability of these guns 
we are sending over, being turned on 
our soldiers? 

German Militarism and English 
Navalism, 

"If German militarism is such a 
menace to the United States," he said, 
"why is it that all of our clashes have 
been with English navalism?" 

Congressman Martin, the second 
speaker, said he believed in absolute 
neutrality, which was our only hope 
of keeping peace at home and of being 
of service in the ultimate settlement 
of the European war. The use of the 
American flag by British ships was, in 
his opinion, a violation of interna- 
tional law. He declared that the admin- 
istration should lodge a stronger pro- 
test with the English government on 
account of it. If Great Britain was 
allowed to use the flag other belligerent 
nations should have the same privi- 
lege, and it would be only a brief time 
before the flag would cease to be a 
protection to Americans on sea or 
land. 

"Paint our national colors in bold 
design on the hull of every American 
ship that sails the high seas," he said. 
"This could not be mistaken and would 
not be counterfeited." 

The main speaker of the evening 
was ex-Gov. O. B. Colquitt of Texas, 
who was introduced by Judge J. H. 
Tierney as "the man who would have 
settled the Mexican question with his 
Rangers over a year ago if it had not 
been for the Prince of Peace in Wash- 
ington." 

The audience rose and cheered as 
ex-Governor Colquitt of Texas took 
the stand and the orchestra played 
"Dixie." Mr. Colquitt said: 

"I am sure we're all American citi- 
zens here and love this country more 
than any other." He devoted consider- 
able time to reciting many of the in- 
stances in which German and Irish- 
Americans had done patriotic service 
in America's history. 

Continuing he said: 

"Why do we who claim to be free 
and undivided in our sympathies fol' 
low so much the wishes and fashions 
of the British? We have done that 
ever since the birth of the Republic. 
In the time of Washington, many of 
our people were aping British cus- 
toms, mimicking British ideals and 
worshipping British gold. Many are 
doing that still. 

We Had to Fight England in 1812 
for Self-Protection. 

"The War of 1S12 was due to the 
treatment of our ships and seamen by 
the British and that nation continued 
to trample under foot the laws of na- 
tions until this little Republic had to 
fight her for self-protection. In the 
last few months she has been doing 
the same things that brought about 
the War of 1812. 

The First Neutrals. 

"George Washington wrote the first 
neutrality proclamation ever issued by 
the United States, at the time of the 
war between Great Britain and 
France, when he insisted that there 
should be no entangling alliances with 
other nations. Jefferson, Madison and 



Roosevelt all asked for neutrality that 
forbade the shipping of arms. Now 
President Wilson says that we would 
break the laws of neutrality if we 
stopped shipping arms. 

"Compare what the Germans have 
done for this country with what the 
British have done. Von Steuben de 
Kalb and Herkimer were of our brav- 
est generals. Look at the British in 
the Revolution, hiring Indians and 
paying them $8 for every scalp of a 
patriot. Look at the Mason and Slidell 
affair and the assistance given the 
Confederacy in the Civil War by Eng- 
land. 

"I am the son of a soldier of the 
South, yet I love that old flag that is 
being made an object of ridicule on 
the high seas by its use to shelter the 
ships of a belligerent power. If the 
belligerents are allowed to use it, neu- 
trals will soon follow their example, 
and the flag will become the laughing 
stock of all nations. 

Honest Neutrality, Not Diplomatic 
Neutrality. 

"I believe in honest neutrality, not 
diplomatic neutrality. Our govern- 
ment that now refuses to forbid the 
shipping of arms, because it says it is 
unneutral, is the same government that 
two years ago put an embargo on arms 
going into Mexico. With an honest 
neutrality and a real neutrality, this 
war would be over in ninety days. 

"If I were President we would send 
battleships as escorts to our boats car- 
rying bread abroad, and there would 
be an embargo placed on the shipment 
of guns, swords and cannon. Didn't 
we issue orders prohibiting the export 
of arms to Mexico a short time ago? 
I would build a navy sufficient to com- 
pel the respect of Great Britain." 

The resolutions, which were read 
amid cheers, were as follows : 

The Resolutions. 

"We American citizens in mass 
meeting assembled In the New York 
Hippodrome upon the eve of Washing- 
ton's birthday, renew our fealty to the 
principles laid down by the fathers of 
this republic, which shall be allowed 
to work out Its great destiny, free 
from the influence or domination of 
any foreign power. 

"Desiring peace vrith all nations, we 
earnestly urge upon our people and 
our government the maintenance of 
real neutrality In this lamentable 
world war. We insist, however, upon 
the preservation of our rights as a 
neutral nation, and demand that the 
American flag shall adequately protect 
American citizens, native and natural- 
ized alike. In every phase and sphere 
of this war. 

"We protest against the use of the 
American flag by any belligerent as 
tending to lower Its dignity and dimin- 
ishing Its Inherent protective force. 

"If we allow the merchant marine 
of belligerent countries to fly our flag 
to deceive their enemies It will soon 
cease to afford protection to American 
citizens and to the American mer- 
chant marine. When the American 
flag floats over a ship at sea. it should 
mean that the ship. Its passengers and 
cargo, will he protected to the full 
limit of American power. 

"We approve the declaration of this 
government that it will hold the Ger- 



POPULAR NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



215 



man government to strict accountabil- 
ity for the unwarranted loss of Amer- 
ican lives or ships in the British 
waters, but if the misuse of the Ameri- 
can flag by Great Britain shall be a 
contributing cause to such calamity, we 
demand that our nation shall hold the 
British Government to strict account- 
ability equally with the German gov- 
ernment. 

"Believing with Thomas JefCerson 
that a belligerent might feel the de- 
sires of starving an enemy nation, but 
she can have no right of doing it at 
our loss, nor of making us the instru- 
ment of it,' we demand the unham- 
pered right of our merchants to trans- 
port foodstuffs to neutral nations, and 
to noncombatants in the belligerent 
nations. 

"We declare the seizure of the Wil- 
helmina, an unquestionably American 
ship, loaded with products from 
American farms and shipped by Amer- 
ican citizens, a clear invasion of our 
rights as a neutral nation, and con- 
sider untenable the position of the 
British government that it had a right 
to seize the Wilhelmina's cargo, be- 
cause destined for the use of the Ger- 
man government, as that government 
expressly excluded from its control 
foodstuffs imported by other nations. 

"We declare our dissatisfaction with 
the purchase by Ijelligerent nations of 
any cargoes seized by it, because it 
interferes with our unequivocable 
right to ship innocent goods in neutral 
bottoms to any neutral nation and to 
the non-combatant population in any 
belligerent nation to whom we choose 
to sell ; and for the further reason 
that we believe that such seizure and 
appropriation tends to cripple our 
commerce and impair our sea prestige. 

"We favor a policy, well within our 
rights, of withholding arms and muni- 
tions of all kinds, from any nation 
abridging our rights as a neutral 
power. 

"We recognize commercial rivalry 
as a primary cause of wars, are op- 
posed therefore to a monopoly of the 
seas by any nation, favor the freedom 
of the seas for all the peoples of the 
world, and urge the upbuilding of an 
American merchant marine, so that 
in peace or in war American ships, 
manned by American seamen, carry- 
ing the American flag, can take inno- 
cent American goods to the further- 
most parts of the world, free from re- 
s^aint or interference by any nation. 

"Be It Further Resolved, That a 
copy of these resolutions be sent to 
the President of the United States, to 
the Secretary of State, Members of the 
United States Senate and of Congress. 

"Be It Further Resolved. That the 
'For America League,' under whose 
auspices this meeting was held, shall 
be organized throughout the United 
States, and steps to that end be taken 
immediately." 

It was resolved to send copies of the 
resolutions to President Wilson and the 
members of the Senate and House of 
Representatives. 



SHALL AMERICA FURNISH ARMS? 



Question of Neutrality Is Sanely 

Treated by Chief Juctice Dr. 

Noldeke. 



We pray for peace, but lose no op- 
portunity of selling firearms, dyna- 
mite, powder, cartridges and other 
articles of war to the Allies, so as to 
enable them to kill more "German 
barbarians." — The Publisher of 
"War Echoes." 



From "Hamburger Fremdenblatt," by 
Chief Justice Dr. Noldeke. 

The fact that citizens of the United 
States are supplying the Allies with 
arms and ammunition has become a 
matter of great interest on both sides 
of the Atlantic. The announcement 
of the vastness this traflSc has as- 
sumed has justly aroused the atten- 
tion of all concerned. A strong move- 
ment is making itself felt in the 
United States in favor of prohibiting 
such traffic. This movement, how- 
ever, is opposed not only by our ad- 
versaries, but also by the numerous 
American manufacturers who are 
gaining large profits from this trade. 
Those who are favoring the abolish- 
ment of the exportation of arms may 
be interested to know that Germany 
has by no means become reconciled 
to the fact that these arguments are 
being made. 

It is true that Germany is aware 
of the fact that the wording of The 
Hague convention does not demand of 
any neutral government the passing 
of laws prohibiting their citizens from 
dealing in war materials with belli- 
gerents. Forbidden only is the fitting 
out or arming of ships for the belli- 
gerents within neutral territory, and 
it is the duty of the government to 
prohibit such unneutral acts by all 
possible means. Thus the American 
Government has forbidden the deliv- 
ery of submarines to the belliger- 
ents. 

The former Lord Chancellor of 
England, Lord Loveburn, in his book 
on "Private Property in Naval War- 
fare" criticizes the absence of logic 
in the present state of affairs. Says 
Lord Loveburn: "Thus private indi- 
viduals may be allowed to load a ship 
full of bombs and shells, providing 
she is only going to carry them to a 
belligerent fleet. If, however, the 
ship is to take actual part in this 
hostile operation the neutral govern- 
ment is obliged to prevent her depar- 
ture by all available means. As to 
the war material, it is left to the belli- 
gerent to help himself." 

If, as international law stands at 
present, a neutral government is not 
obliged to prohibit the exportation of 
arms, such prohibition, if resorted to 
by a neutral state, could not be 
regarded as a hostile act by the belli- 
gerents. Thus if one of our adver- 
saries should be guilty of another 
violation of international law, If the 
report be true that they have de- 
clared to the Swedish government 
that they regarded its decree, pro- 
hibiting the transit of weapons 
through Swedish territory as an un- 
friendly act, the only condition for 
such a prohibition is that it must be 
applied to all belligerents without dis- 
crimination. 

This expressed mile of The Hague 
convention may well be considered 
with reference to the present attitude 
of the American government. Ac- 
cording to international law, all belli- 
gerents are to be treated equally by 
the neutrals. It is plain that actual 
conditions, especially on account of 



the geographical situation, make an 
equal treatment somewhat difficult. 
Still, the unequal treatment which al- 
lows shipments of arms to some of the 
belligerents is in no way compatible 
with the principle laid down in The 
Hague convention. 

It seems significant that the United 
States not only has quietly looked on 
while some of our adversaries have 
secured millions of dollars' worth of 
war materials, but that the govern- 
ment of the United States is taking 
no firm stand against the fact that 
England, in contradiction to well- 
established rules of international law 
prevents the sending of food supplies 
not only to Germany, but to neutral 
countries, such as Holland, Italy and 
Scandinavia. 

If Secretary Bryan thinks that the 
American government is impartial to- 
ward all belligerent powers he may 
be literally correct. If, however, this 
"legal equality" is compared with the 
actual facts, one sees at a glance that 
there is anything but "actual equal- 
ity" of treatment. The inequality is 
so glaring that the Americans cannot 
help seeing it if they are truly de- 
sirous of keeping a real neutrality. 



FALK CENSURED FOR MAKING 
ALLY SHELLS. 



German-American Alliance Is Told 
A.-C. Co. Manufactures Shrapnel. 

Investigating Committee Urges R©- 
Election of Present Board Mem- 
bers Because of Views on 
Languages. 



From "Milwaukee Free Press," 
March 20, 1915. 

The Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing 
company and Otto H. Falk, its presi- 
dent, were censured at the annual meet- 
ing of the German-American Alliance 
last night in the West Side Turn Hall, 
when a committee named to make an 
investigation reported that the concern 
is turning out shrapnel shells for the 
Allies. 

The report says : 

"Shrapnel shells are manufactured by 
the Allis-Chalmers company of West 
Allis. Upon investigation of A. J. Lin- 
demann, Milwaukee, president of the 
Neutrality League, it was stated that 
Otto H. Falk was not in any way con- 
nected with that organization. 

Report on School Candidates. 

"We greatly regret that in our beau- 
tiful city shells are being made for 
such purposes. Furthermore, we regret 
that a man in whose veins there runs 
German blood is the head of the con- 
cern that makes weapons to be used 
to kill the Germans and against the 
German cause." 

President J. Meyer in his report on 
investigations as to the attitude of 
school board candidates upon teaching 
a second language — German or French 
— in the public schools, said that he had 
received unsatisfactory answers from 
four men. He advised that they be 
opposed in the coming election. 

Membership Now 15,000. 

The membership of the alliance is 
now more than 15,000, an increase of 
.^,000 in the last year. 



216 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



$25,000,000 liOAN TO CZAB RE- 
VEAIiS MORGAN BENT. 



Father of Present Head of Firm — A 
Deeply Religious Man — Favored 
Russia; Son Believed to Fol- 
low Him. 



By Boersianer. 
(Chicago Examiner, Jan. 17, 1915.) 

Through J. P. Morgan & Co., Rus- 
sia borrowed $25,000,000 here last 
week. It is stipulated that the money 
must be "used in the purchase of sup- 
plies for export." 

Necessarily, "supplies" must mean 
other than foodstuffs; for of cereals, 
meats and edibles, Russia has a super- 
sufficiency. It is an over-abundance 
that, despite the war, threatens to 
render Russia uncomfortable finan- 
cially. 

Although farming is anything but 
scientific in Muscovy — the most prim- 
itive means are employed — Czardom 
grows a fourth of the world's wheat 
crop, the same proportion of oats, a 
third of the barley and 60 per cent of 
the rye yield. But the war has 
stopped Russia's exports. She cannot 
dispose of the usual surplus as usual. 
The Baltic Sea and the Black are 
closed to the Northern giant. West- 
ern European countries, so much in 
need of Russian grains, are depend- 
ing upon America for their defici- 
encies. 

The cost to Russia of the loan ar- 
ranged by Morgan & Co. is not 
known. The chances are the lend- 
ers are richly remunerated. When 
the Russian wants money he will 
pay the price, no matter how high. 

Is the Morgan loan a good loan? 
The probability favors the affirma- 
tive. Intrinsically Russia is incal- 
culably wealthy; extrinsically, appall- 
ingly poor. As suggested above, her 
agriculture possibilities are limitless, 
her population, physically, among the 
best. But the government and the 
mental morale of the people are the 
disquieting factors to political econ- 
omists. 

The former owes to foreigners 
some $4,000,000,000; the latter as 
much. For a nation of 171,200,000 
inhabitants the indebtedness appears 
not large. But when the policy and 
the people are scrutinized, the debt is 
serious, indeed. 

Above 90 per cent of Russians are 
illiterate. Aside from the Czar and 
his ministers there is no government- 
al responsibility — the Duma is mere- 
ly a ministerial puppet. France, with 
a population of only 39,600,000, with 
only a tithe of Russia's area, has a 
per capita debt of $166, against Rus- 
sia's $26. Yet, the world would will- 
ingly lend France millions more, 
where it would reluctantly advance 
Russia hundreds more. 

The explanation lies in the govern- 
ment and the people; in civilization 
and semi-barbarism. Occidental or- 
der, probity and education could 
make of Russia the commercial and 
financial power of the eastern hemi- 
sphere, could extinguish her huge 
foreign obligation in a few years. 

Political and other affiliations have 
made it possible for Russia to bor- 
row abroad. Of Russia's debt, France 
holds 95 per cent, all borrowed since 



the Franco-Russian Alliance was 
formed in the eighties. Gossips have 
wondered at the friendliness of the 
Morgan house to the Russians. Dur- 
ing the war with Japan the firm of- 
fered a Russian loan here — without 
success. Malevolent hints are again 
heard that the Morgan attitude has 
been prompted by the anti-Russian 
position of Morgan's rivals in finance. 
But this must be erroneous. If senti- 
ment plays a part, it may not be of 
a spiteful or retaliative character. 

The pro-Russian bent of the Mor- 
gan firm was given by the late J. 
Pierpont Morgan, and therefore has 
been inherited by his son. The de- 
ceased Morgan, as his will revealed, 
was a deeply religious man; and for 
some religious people the East al- 
ways has had a more or less latent 
and mystic attraction. Some one has 
explained the attitude as nostalgia. 

Man came out of the East, and he 
subconsciously returns to the East; 
all his civilization has been but an 
attempt at forgetting, and, in spite 
of that long attempt, he still remem- 
bers. When he first approaches it, 
the East seems nothing more than 
one great enigma, presented to him 
almost on the terrifying terms of the 
sphinx. He seems on the threshold 
of some mystery, a curtain trembles 
over some veiled image, perhaps the 
image of wisdom. The grave faces of 
worshipers look into his face with- 
out curiosity; they come out into the 
light from behind the veil and go 
about their daily business, and they 
are as inscrutable to the Westerner 
as if really they were in communion 
with a wisdom of which the West is 
ignorant. 

Perhaps, after all, this secret with 
which the people of the East seem 
to go about is no more than certain 
ordinary and of necessity incom- 
municable thoughts. In the East 
everything is incommunicable. Pos- 
sibly the barrier is the Oriental con- 
tempt of learning and the Occidental 
reverence of it. 



CANDIDATES FOR THE "YQU- 
KNOWHAT" CliUB. 



The Hornet, Chicago. 

Miss Jenny Dufau, Chicago Opera 
singer, in an interview: 

"The Germans finally came to our 
house and accused my sister, my 
father, and myself of being spies be- 
cause they found a telephone there. 
The soldiers lined us up against the 
wall to shoot us, but we fell on our 
knees and begged them to spare the 
life of our father. They gave no 
heed until a German colonel came 
along and, after questioning us, 
ordered that we be set free." 



Mile. Trentini, another diva, on 
landing in New York: 

"I am at Roncegno, Austria, sing- 
ing, July 15. I am the only Italian 
in Roncegno, except my big sister, 
Celene. 

"We go to the hotel from the the- 
ater. The swine of a landlord, he 
says to me: 'You are an Italian! Bah! 
B-a-a-h-h! Get out of my house!' 

"He threw our bags into the street. 
Poor Celene must carry the bags 



five miles to the railroad station. 
I cannot; I am too small. As we go 
down the street I am mad like every- 
thing, I stick out my tongue at the 
swine and call 'You go to hell'!" 

If it were not impossible that the 
railway station in Roncegno is five 
miles from the hotel and if the two 
ladies were not of the operatic pro- 
fession one might doubt the object 
of their utterances. As it is, clever 
press agents' work must be suspected. 
Milles pardons, mesdames. 



Chas. E. Russell, of New York, on 
his arrival from Liverpool: 

"The city officials of Munich, Ger- 
many, invited many of us stranded 
foreigners in the city to a perform- 
ance of 'Parsifal' at a local theater. 
As a result of the invitation the the- 
ater was crowded, and many expres- 
sions of pleasure at the hospitality 
of the Germans were made. After 
the performance the rich Americans 
and others who had come in auto- 
mobiles found every machine in front 
of the theater had been confiscated." 

Sly dogs, those Germans. 

Elected without further proof of 
qualification. 



Mr. Sibour. Excerpt from a New 
York interview: 

Mr. Sibour reached Paris after 
passing through the country where 
much of the early fighting occurred. 
"On one field," Mr. Sibour said, he 
saw squares of dead German soldiers. 
Those on the outside had fallen, but 
the bodies toward the center of the 
squares were standing upright lean- 
ing against each other. Officers told 
him that the machine guns were re- 
sponsible for this wholesale killing. 

Is it not possible that the gentle- 
man was half shot himself when he 
saw that grewsome sight? Elected 
unanimously. 



Mrs. Henry Clews of New York 
permits herself to be quoted in a 
New York interview as follows: 

Mrs. Henry Clews, wife of the New 
York banker, a passenger on the Lus- 
itania, which arrived today, said that 
at Carlsbad, where she was one of 
a few Americans when the war broke 
out, she was made to submit to hav- 
ing her finger tip imprints taken by 
the authorities. • 

"Whenever I appeared in the 
street," she continued, " I was hooted 
and jeered at unless I wore a large 
American flag. On my way to Mu- 
nich, a German officer told me that 
it was true that the German soldiers 
had driven women and children of 
the enemy before them when they 
went into battle. The officer said 
that the life of each soldier was pre- 
cious and worth more than the lives 
of the women and children of the 
enemy." 

A woman capable of telling stories 
like these should be submitted to 
Bertillon measurements. However, 
Mrs. C. is elected by acclamation. 



Martin J. Spalding in a Chicago 
interview on what he saw in Bel- 
gium. After telling of the shooting 
of a trainload of British prisoners 
by the Germans, he further says: 



THE OFFICIAL NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



217 



"I also saw three nuns with their 
breasts cut off taken through Iii6ge 
on a German prisoners' train. I did 
not know their nationalities." 

Being a theological student in Lou- 
vain, Mr. Spalding evidently became 
infected with the well-known Bel- 
gian microbe of "Prevaricator Bel- 
giensis," the existence of which the 
following extract from the cable of 
a correspondent amply proves: 

"Sandbags protected them for some 
time, but at last the aid de camp was 
struck by shrapnel and had his face 
virtually blown away. 

"Unperturbed by this terrible proof 
of the danger of his position, the 
commanding officer stuck to his post, 
and for further shelter placed the 
body of his junior over his body. In 
this position he lay firing whenever 
possible, from 8 o'clock in the morn- 
ing until 4 in the afternoon." 

To fire for 8 hours with a corpse 
lying on top of one is something re- 
markable — not for a Belgian hero, 
however. 



TOMMYROT FOR WHICH THE 

AMERICAN PRESS PAYS 

CABLE TOLLS. 



The Anglo-Russo-Franco-Belgian- 
Portuguese-Japanese General Staff 
announces the opening of a special 
official news bureau on Park Row, 
New York. 

"Authentic war news made to 
order and always ready for print." — 
From "The Fatherland," New York. 



The Hornet, Chicago. 

An alleged Berlin wireless: 

"Count Beroldingen, whose mother 
is an American woman, ■ has been 
awarded two iron crosses for the 
following exploit: 

"One day he appeared among his 
comrades wearing the raincoat of an 
English officer and found that they 
did not recognize him. Consequently 
he slipped away to the French lines. 
To the English commanding officer 
he said: 'I am an English adjutant. 
When will you attack? What are 
your positions, and what is your plan 
of action?' 

"The English general gave the 
count the information he asked for. 

"Beroldingen returned to the Ger- 
man lines. The information thus ob- 
tained won the battle for the Ger- 
mans." 

We cannot believe it, even of a 
British general. They are not as 
dense as that. 



A London dispatch cites as proof 
of the scarcity of provisions in Ham- 
burg the following incidents at 
Hagenbeck's zoo: 

"When the meat supply failed, cer- 
tain of the less valuable specimens 



of deer and mountain goats were shot 
to supply the lions and tigers with 
meats. 

"A large boa constrictor was dis- 
covered digesting his female compan- 
ion. Prior to meeting her fate she 
herself sated her appetite on a 
younger and less lengthy sister which 
was a third inhabitant of the glass- 
fronted lair." 

Not a bad snake story at that! 



A correspondent of Reuter's tele- 
graphs this from Paris: 

"That the fumes of the famous 
French three-inch shell have a most 
deadly effect in an inclosed space is 
shown by a scene that met the eyes 
of the French penetrating a chateau 
occupied by the Germans and which 
they had just bombarded. 

"Entering the drawing room, they 
found a company of Wurttemberg- 
ians petrified in action. Some were 
at the windows taking aim with their 
fingers still pressing the triggers, 
while others were at the tables where 
they had been playing games with 
cards In their hands, while still others 
had cigarets between their lips. 

An officer stood with his mouth 
open as if in the act of dictating an 
order, and all the corpses looked ab- 
solutely lifelike." 

It is really petrifying to even read 
this. 



Official Neutrality of the United States injthe World War 



PRESIDENT WILSON'S NEUTRAL- 
ITY MESSAGE. 

"My Fellow Countrymen: 

"I suppose that every thoughtful 
man in America has asked himself 
during these last troubled weeks 
what influence the European war 
may exert upon the United States, 
and I take the liberty of addressing 
a few words to you in order to point 
out that it is entirely within our own 
choice what its effects upon us will 
be, and to urge very earnestly upon 
you the sort of speech and conduct 
which will best safeguard the nation 
against distress and disaster. 

"The effect of the war upon the 
United States will depend upon what 
American citizens say and do. Every 
man who really loves America will 
act and speak in the true spirit of 
neutrality which is the spirit of im- 
partiality and fairness and friendli- 
ness to all concerned. The spirit of 
the nation in this critical matter will 
be determined largely by what indi- 
viduals and society and those gath- 
ered in public meetings do and say, 
upon what newspapers and maga- 
zines contain, upon what ministers 
utter in their pulpits, and men pro- 
claim as their opinions on the street. 

"The people of the United States 
are drawn from many nations, and 
chiefly from the nations now at war. 
It is natural and inevitable that there 
should be the utmost variety of sym- 
pathy and desire among them with 
regard to the issues and circum- 
stances of the conflict. Some will 
wish one nation, others another, to 



succeed in the momentous struggle. 
It will be easy to excite passion and 
difficult to allay it. Those responsi- 
ble for exciting it will assume a 
heavy responsibility, responsibility 
for no less a thing than that the peo- 
ple of the United States, whose love 
of their country and whose loyalty 
to its Government should unite them 
as Americans all, bound in honor and 
affection to think flrst of her and her 
interests, may be divided in camps 
of hostile opinion, hot against each 
other, involved in the war itself in 
impulse and opinion if not in action. 
Such divisions among us would be fatal 
to our peace of mind and might seri- 
ously stand in the way of the proper 
performance of our duty as the one 
great nation at peace, the one people 
holding itself ready to play a part of 
impartial mediation and speak the 
councils of peace and accommodation, 
not as a partisan, but as a friend. 

"I venture, therefore, my fellow 
countrymen, to speak a solemn word 
of warning to you against the deep- 
est, most subtle, most essential breach 
of neutrality which may spring out of 
partisanship, out of passionately tak- 
ing sides. The United States must 
be neutral in fact as well as in name 
during these days that are to try men's 
souls. We must be impartial in 
thought as well as in action, must 
put a curb upon our sentiments as 
well as upon every transaction that 
might be construed as a preference 
of one party to the struggle before 
another. 

"My thought is of America. I am 
speaking, I feel sure, the earnest wish 



and purpose of every thoughtful 
American that this great country of 
ours, which is, of course, the first in 
our thoughts and our hearts, should 
show herself in this time of peculiar 
trial a nation fit beyond others to 
exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed 
judgment, the dignity of self-control, 
the efficiency of dispassionate action; 
a nation that neither sits in judgment 
upon others nor is disturbed in her 
own councils and which keeps herself 
fit and free to do what is honest and 
disinterested and truly serviceable for 
the peace of the world. 

"Shall we not resolve to put upon 
ourselves the restraints which will 
bring to our people the happiness and 
the great and lasting influence for 
peace we covet for them?" 



THE GERMAN-AMERICAN AND 
THE PRESIDENT'S N E U - 
TRALITY PROCLAMA- 
TION. 



The Fatherland, New York. 

Dr. Julius Goebel. 

President Wilson's recent appeal 
for neutrality was of the greatest in- 
terest to German-Americans. We 
may rest content if it was a result 
of the protest of the German-Amer- 
ican National Alliance against the 
hatred, the lies and the insults of 
the American press, long under the 
vicious domination of England. If, 
however, it is a warning directed 
against us, it is superfluous and calls 
for certain rectifications. 



218 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



It is not as German citizens that 
we protest, but as Americans, and, 
furthermore, from the same patriotic 
ipotives as those which inspired the 
President. We protest above all 
against the secret and insidious as- 
sumption at the bottom of all at- 
tacks upon Germany; that this coun- 
try IS a dependency of England. The 
spirit of antagonism against Germany 
adopted by ignorant newspaper 
writers could never have found so 
strong an echo in public opinion had 
not the latter for years been poisoned 
by the idea of a supposed Anglo- 
Saxonism of our people. 

We protest, further, against that 
pretended impartiality which dis- 
cards as biased and of questionable 
veracity whatever statements are is- 
sued by the Germans, meanwhile ac- 
cepting as gospel whatever is ad- 
vanced by the English, French or 
even Russians. This attitude — the 
famous "judicial attitude" of cer- 
tain circles in America — pre-supposes 
a state of mendacity and hypocrisy 
which seems incomprehensible to our 
German sense of truth. To the Ger- 
man mind truth is the expression of 
the most sacred ethical convictions 
and not a wax figure which may be 
modeled to suit the occasion We 
therefore consider it our sacred duty 
to give utterance to our convictions 
until the mask of hypocrisy has been 
torn away and truth has become vic- 
torious. 

We consider the present war a life 
and death struggle of the German 
people for their national existence 
and for their highest possessions 
We know that this war was forced 
upon the German people by their 
enemies and their jealous neighbors 
and that they did not seek it We 
are convinced that the downfall of 
Germany would be an irreparable 
blow to American culture, which Is 
more closely united to the higher 
civilization of Germany than to that 
of any other European nation. We 
decry every wanton war as infamous 
and as an inexpiable crime, and as 
Germans we know no more glorious 
and heroic ideal than that of peace 
bnnger. But we believe also in the 
ethical justification of a sacred war 
such as the German people are today 
waging for its very life and for its 
mission in the history of the world, 
and we cast aside as hypocritical all 
loose talk about world peace when it 
of a strong people is thereby to be 
destroyed. The desire to crush by 
force or by the power of arbitrary 
agreement, as in the days of the 
"Holy Alliance," the development of 
a people such as the Germans is a 
crime against life itself, and the Ger- 
mans would be a doomed people and 
not a nation of men, were they silent- 
ly to resign themselves to the fate 
which their enemies have decreed for 
them. 

I believe that every German-Amer- 
ican will fully agree with President 
Wilson that our country must pre- 
serve a strict and true neutrality in 
this war. This can only come about, 
however, when the American press 
ceases to influence public opinion In 
favor of England and Germany's 
other enemies by the publication of 
false reports and representations. 



thereby offending millions of citizens 
who are of a different opinion. In 
ordinary life we shun as a cad anyone 
who is Inconsiderate of the feelings 
of others. If we were to treat the 
anti-German press as we should treat 
such a person, the results would soon 
be apparent. Above all let us sup- 
port the German-American papers. 
Although at the moment they may 
not be able to give us any direct 
news from Germany, they, at least, 
act as a healthy corrective to the con- 
tradictory and antagonistic reports 
of doubtful value which are tele- 
graphed from London and Paris, and 
they stand united for the German 
cause. 

May the cry of rage against Ger- 
many which has swept the country 
during the past few weeks be a call 
to union for every German-American 
and every Anglo-American with Ger- 
man inclinations. When It Is a ques- 
tion of the existence or non-existence 
of a noble people and of a culture to 
which America owes Its best, we can- 
not stand cooly aside. Nothing is 
farther from our intention than to 
offend or antagonize our fellow-citi- 
zens of English, French, or Slavic 
origin, but we demand the right to 
stand for the truth according to the 
measure of our knowledge and to 
offer our struggling brothers all ma- 
terial and moral support of which 
the German spirit Is capable in hours 
of need. 



PRAYERS FOR PEACE. 



A Proclamation by the President of 
the United States, Designating 
Sunday, October 4, 1914, As a 
Day of Prayer and Supplica- 
tion for Peace in Europe. 

Whereas great nations of the world 
have taken up arms against one an- 
other and war now draws millions of 
men into battle whom the counsel 
of statesmen have not been able to 
save from the terrible sacrifice; 

And whereas in this as in all things 
it is our privilege and duty to seek 
counsel and succor of Almighty God, 
humbling ourselves before Him, con- 
fessing our weakness and our lack of 
any wisdom equal to these things; 

And whereas it is the especial wish 
and longing of the people of the 
United States, in prayer and coun- 
sel and all friendliness, to serve the 
cause of peace: 

Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, 
President of the United States of 
America, do designate Sunday, the 
fourth day of October next, a day of 
prayer and supplication and do re- 
quest all God-fearing persons to re- 
pair on that day to their places of 
worship there to unite their petitions 
to Almighty God that, overruling the 
counsel of men, setting straight the 
things they can not govern or alter, 
taking pity on the nations now in 
the throes of conflict, in His mercy 
and goodness, showing a way where 
men can see none, He vouchsafe His 
children healing peace again and re- 
store once more that concord among 
men and nations without which there 
can be neither happiness nor true 
friendship nor any wholesome fruit 
of toil or thought in the world; pray- 



ing also to this end that He forgive 
us our sins, our Ignorance of His 
holy will, our willfulness and many 
errors, and lead us in the paths of 
obedience to places of visions and to 
thoughts and counsels that purge and 
make wise. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto 
set my hand and caused the seal of 
the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington 
this eighth day of September, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand nine 
hundred and fourteen, and of the in- 
dependence of the United States of 
America the one hundred and thirty- 
ninth. 



[Seal.] 



Woodrow Wilson. 



By the President: 

William Jennings Bryan, 

Secretary of State. 



BELGIANS AND GERMANS AT 
THE WHITE HOUSE. 



Translation of Editorial Which Ap- 
peared in German in the "Illinois 
Staats-Zeitung," Chicago, Sep- 
tember 16, 1914. 

On their way to this country the 
Belgian commission stopped off at 
London to get Instructions. What- 
ever these gentlemen did not know 
was imparted to them by that past 
master of fabrication. Sir Edward 
Grey. Special efforts were made to 
impress the Belgians that the more 
they falsified the greater their chance 
for success would be, for the Ameri- 
can, they were told, loves the prodi- 
gious, and nothing but a description 
of wholesale brutality strikes him. 
Also that his sentimental credulity 
and his credulous sentimentality as- 
sured the Belgians of his sympathy 
from the start, and furthermore, that 
the Anglo-American press had pre- 
pared the field with touching unan- 
imity. The cruelties committed by 
the Belgians in the Congo that caused 
demonstrations of protest in this 
country are forgotten, also the scan- 
dalous examples set by their former 
King Leopold. Today Belgium is a 
morally pure country, the home of 
humanity, that feels fully justified 
in sending its representatives to 
America to complain of the bar- 
barism of Germany. That the 
same barbarians six years ago were 
praised to the skies by these very 
Belgians because they needed Ger- 
man generosity as a protection 
against England's selfishness is 
history; but nevertheless the Ger- 
mans are barbarians. It is also his- 
tory that the Lord Chancellor Hal- 
dane, at the time secretary of war, on 
April 7 a year ago remarked to the 
noted historian Dr. Robt. Davidson, 
that he was convinced that England, 
in order not to decline intellectually, 
must fertilize its mental fields with 
German culture. However, the Ger- 
mans are barbarians. The fact that 
the governor of this state and the 
mayor of this city, on the occasion of 
the unveiling of the Goethe monu- 
ment, both spoke of the Germans as 
the most peace-loving and law-abid- 
ing citizens, and that President Wil- 
son in his historical works accords 
the Germans full recognition, this is 



THE OFFICIAL NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



219 




UNCLE SAM'S OFFICERS IN GERMANY 

American Military Attaches on the Occasion of Visiting the "Franzerkasern" in Berlin 

(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 



all history, but is ignored, for the 
Germans must be branded as bar- 
barians and even if all the attain- 
ments of the Gerrnans be denied. 

The Belgians, who themselves ad- 
mit that they did not witness the 
cruelties alleged to have been com- 
mitted, were received with open arms 
In this country that claims to be neu- 
tral, and today they are to be re- 
ceived by the same President that re- 
quested the naturalized citizens of 
this country to show no feeling what- 
ever in the matter. He receives them 
as a matter of courtesy. The Presi- 
dent demanded that we show no feel- 
ing, and we complied. He is not will- 
ing to sacrifice his courtesy for the 
neutrality of the country. 

But this time the Germans have 
become active. In consequence of 
a movement begun by the ILLINOIS 
STAATS-ZEITUNG, a wave of pro- 
test has swept over the country and 
petitions were signed by the thou- 
sands, a great many by people not 
of German descent. Mr. Horace L. 
Brand, the publisher of this paper, 
has undertaken to deliver the thou- 
sandfold documentary evidence of in- 
dignation to the President. The pro- 
test of the voters against a violation 
of neutrality by a few foreigners 
and on the part of the President of 
this neutral republic cannot go 
amiss — because it is a protest of the 
voters. 



ing a friendly feeling toward Ger- 
many, has through its columns sent 
a dash of ice cold water at the Bel- 
gian commission at the very time the 
alliance of slander and adjectives 
celebrated orgies. 



PRESIDENT WHiSON'S GREETING 

TO THE BELGIAN ROYAL 

COMMISSION. 



A COLD DASH. 



Illinois Staats- Zeitung. 

The allies have not only suffered 
defeats on European soil but also on 
American. The "Tribune" which 
sTirelv cannot be suspected of evinc- 



Chicago Daily News. 

President "Wilson said to the com- 
mission: 

"Permit me to say with what sin- 
cere pleasure I receive you as repre- 
sentatives of the king of the Bel- 
gians, a people for whom the people 
of the United States feel so strong 
a friendship and admiration, a king 
for whom they entertain so sincere a 
respect, and express my hope that 
we may have many opportunities of 
earning and deserving their regard. 

"You are not mistaken in believing 
that the people of this country love 
justice, seek the true paths of prog- 
ress and have a passionate regard 
for the rights of humanity. It is a 
matter of profound pride to me that 
I am permitted for a time to repre- 
sent such a people and to be their 
spokesman, and I am honored that 
your king should have turned to me 
in time of distress as to one who 
would wish on behalf of the people 
he represents to consider the claims 
to the impartial sympathy of man- 
kind of a nation which deems itself 
wronged. 

Prays for End of the War. 

"I thank you for the document you 
have put in my hands containing the 
result of an Investigation made by a 



judicial committee appointed by the 
Belgian government to look into the 
matter of which you have come to 
speak. It shall luive my most atten- 
tive perusal and my most thoughtful 
consideration. 

"You will, I am snre, not expect me 
to say more. Presently — I pray God 
very soon — this war will be over. The 
day of accounting will then come, 
when, I take it for granted, the nations 
of Europe will assemble to determine 
a settlement. Where wrongs have been 
committed their consequences and the 
■relative responsibility involved will be 
assessed. 

"The nations of the world have, for- 
tunately, by agreement made a plan 
for such a reckoning and settlement. 
What such a plan cannot compass the 
opinion of mankind, the final arbiter in 
such matters, will supply. It would be 
unwise, it would be premature, for a 
single government, however fortunately 
separated from the present struggle, it 
would be Inconsistent with the neutral 
position of any nation, which, like this, 
has no part in the contest, to form or 
express a final judgment. 
Speaks Frankly, Voicing Friendship. 

"I need not assure you that this con- 
clusion in which I instinctively feel 
that you will yourselves concur, is 
spoken frankly, because in warm 
friendship and as the best means of 
perfect understanding between us — an 
understanding based upon neutral re- 
spect, admiration and cordiality. 

"You are most welcome and we are 
greatly honored that you should have 
chosen us as the friends before whom 
you could lay any matter of vital con- 
sequence to yourselves, in the confidence 
that your cause would be understwd 
and met in the same spirit in which It 
was conceived and intended." 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



PRESIDENT WILSON'S BEPMES. 



Editorial from "The Hartford Daily 
Courant," September 18, 1914. 

President Wilson's replies to the 
Belgian envoys and to the German 
Emperor were exactly what the coun- 
try expected them to be. They were 
friendly and sympathetic in tone and 
were expressed in words carefully 
chosen. He was right in saying that 
the time has not yet come for the 
passing of judgment. The Courant 
said several days ago that this much 
it was the President's duty to do and 
that there was nothing more that he 
could do. His course was so plain 
that there was no possibility for any 
but a blind man to stumble, and Dr. 
Wilson is not blind. It is surprising, 
therefore, to find certain Washington 
correspondents sycophantically rant- 
ing about the remarkable cleverness 
of the President in keeping out of 
trouble. There couldn't have been 
any trouble unless the President had 
made it. The way was so plain that 
a wayfaring man, though a fool, need 
not have erred therein. The Presi- 
dent performed a. simple task in a 
simple and straightforward way. 
Nothing is to be gained by trying to 
make it appear that he passed 
through a difficult ordeal with super- 
human wisdom and skill. 



SPECIFIC DUMDUM CHARGES. 



German Ambassador Gives Nam^es of 
Firms He Says Are Making Illegal 
Bullets for Allies. 

Washington — • Count von Bern- 
storff, the German Ambassador, has 
presented to the State Department af- 
fidavits and exhibits in an effort to 
prove his charges that dumdum bul- 
lets are being manufactured in the 
United States and shipped to the Al- 
lies. A month ago, when von Bern- 
storff made general charges of this 
nature. Secretary Bryan, after an in- 
vestigation, said they were without 
foundation. 

The new charges name several 
American firms, giving the quanti- 
ties of bullets turned out and the 
dates of shipment. Mr. Bryan would 
not give out the new affidavits, but 
referred them to Secretary of War 
Garrison, with the request that he 
make an investigation through offi- 
cers of the army detailed to all the 
great gun and ammunition factories. 



AMEBICAN NEUTBALITY. 



By Frank Harris. 

In a lietter Sent as a Special Favor to 

the Editor for "War Echoes." 

President Wilson at this moment 
is carrying a heavier burden of re- 
sponsibility than any man in recorded 
history. No prophet or saint, no 
statesman or hero has ever had such 
an opportunity, for it is my belief 
that he could bring about an almost 
Immediate peace and probably on his 
own terms; that is, on more equit- 
able terms than are likely to be 
reached by the combatants and the 
balance of their forces. 

The fact recently set forth in the 
"London Times" that Great Britain 



is suffering from a "shortage of or- 
dinary munitions of war" and this at 
"the beginning of the summer cam- 
paign," gives President Wilson his 
opportunity. A short time ago his 
mere expression of opinion that sub- 
marines should not be shipped to any 
of the combatants, stopped the expor- 
tation. In the same way he could 
forbid the exportation of munitions 
of war to any of the combatants as 
he forbade their exportation to Mex- 
ico. He has not thought it wise to 
do so; but the power gives him his 
great opportunity. 

He might inform Sir Edward Grey 
that as the deadlock in the present 
war had existed now for over six 
months and as there was no probabil- 
ity that it would be changed in the 
near future to the advantage 'of 
either of the combatants, it would be 
well if Sir Edward Grey would for- 
mulate reasonable conditions of 
peace. A mere expression of Presi- 
dent Wilson's opinion would be suffi- 
cient; but he might add that if Sir 
Edward Grey thought fit not to com- 
ply with this request made in the 
interests of humanity, he would be 
compelled to reconsider his refusal 
to interfere with the export of mu- 
nitions of war to the combatants. 

As soon as Sir Edward Grey's pro- 
posals were received, the President 
could lay them before the German- 
Austrian powers. It may be asked: 
What inducement could the President 
of the United States offer to the Em- 
perors of Germany and Austria to in- 
duce Germany to give up the portions 
of Prance and Belgium and Russian 
Poland which she has conquered? 
Germany has again and again de- 
clared that she has only taken up 
the sword because she was attacked 
and that she sought no advantage 
from the war. But if this declara- 
tion is hardly to be taken literally, 
President Wilson might point out 
that the main objects he proposed to 
himself to justify his interference 
were a general disarmament and the 
neutralization for all future time of 
the seas and the air. There can 
hardly be any doubt that Germany 
would regard these terms as worthy 
of very considerable sacrifices. It 
may be taken for granted that peace 
could be brought about on these lines 
by President Wilson, within this 
month. 

I am sure, from his public utter- 
ances, that President Wilson is fully 
alive to all the high responsibilities 
of his position and that he is re- 
solved to use his powers in the best 
spirit for the benefit of humanity. 
But sometimes a casual suggestion 
even from an outsider may open up 
a new line of thought; and I cannot 
help thinking that Sir Edward Grey, 
too, might be willing to have his 
share in the fame that will certainly 
belong to the men who shall bring 
out of this world war a lasting peace. 



IF WE HAD THOUGHT OF 
AlVIERICA FIRST! 

If we had thought neither of Eng- 
land nor Germany, should we have al- 
lowed the former to cut our cable con- 
nection with the latter? England 
harmed the United States as much as 
Germany, for it afforded England an 



opportunity to fill our press with lies 
— no other word would express our 
meaning — and the American mind with 
a false impression of Germany. Amer- 
ica was greatly harmed by this, for 
it will take long years to erase from 
the American mind the wrong impres- 
sion engraved on it by the libelous Eng- 
lish press bureaux. 

America, therefore, had a right to 
an uncensored communication with 
Germany, her friend, and it was be- 
cause we thought of England and not 
of America first that we did not force 
England to repair the German cable. 

If it had not been for our love and 
fear of England, if we had thought of 
America first, should we have allowed 
that country to tear to tatters the code 
of international law, to forge out of 
her necessity fetters for the whole neu- 
tral trade, ours included; to haul our 
vessels, against all law and custom, 
from off the high seas and into her 
ports, where she damaged the cargoes 
by unlawful and unnecessary inspec- 
tions and kept the vessels for weeks 
to await her pleasure? 

If we had thought of America first 
and disregarded our love and fear of 
England, should we have meekly stood 
by when .she trampled on our flag in 
the Oreenhriar case, for which she has 
not apologized as yet, seven weeks after 
it happened? 

If we had loved and feared Eng- 
land less and America more, should 
we have, as the "Gaelic American" con- 
tends, allowed three British war ves- 
sels to hold up our battleship Texas at 
our own shores, and then have sup- 
pressed the news of it? 

If we had thought of America first, 
forgetting for once our fear and love 
of England, should we have waited 
five months — from August 4th to De- 
cember 26, 1914 — before officially pro- 
testing against England's arbitrary and 
illegal interference with American 
trade and shipping? Should we have 
feared to claim the stars and stripes 
as our very own emblem, the misuse of 
which would be considered a hostile 
act? 

Should we have allowed England to 
hoist on her vessels the stars and 
stripes, the emblem of the free and 
the brave, to evade in fear and trem- 
bling the consequences of her acts, and 
endanger, again unlawfully, our own 
vessels? 

If we had thought of America first, 
should we have permitted England to 
force us to help her starve the German 
civilian population, by weakly allow- 
ing her to take the Wilhelmina, an 
American vessel, with foodstuffs for 
German civilians, into an English port 
to be kept there till an English prize 
court can decide upon an American 
case? 

If we had thought of America first 
in the Dacia case, should we not have 
sent an American war vessel along to 
see that England did not put into exe- 
cution her threat to capture her as a 
prize, and. once more, decide an Amer- 
ican case in an English prize court? 

Can anybody sincerely say, that in 
all these cases we have stood fairly 
and squarely on American rights, have 
thought of America first, without love 
or fear of any country, considering 
nothing but our righteous cause? — The 
Crucible. 



THE OFFICIAL NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



THE OFFICIAL NEUTRALITY OF 
THE UNITED STATES. 

Tlie following exchange of an of- 
ficial correspondence between the 
Secretary of State, the Hon. William 
Jennings Bryan, and the Hon. Sen- 
ator William P. Stone, will give a 
good exposition of the position of 
the government up to January first, 
1915. Up to this time (April 23d) 
the policy of the government seems 
to have changed very little, as Mr. 
Bryan's reply to the German Minis- 
ter at Washington of yesterday, also 
included under this head, will show; 
both the letters addressed to the De- 
partment are included, and the 
reader may judge for himself as to 
the justice in the case. — Editor. 



NEUTRALITY. 



Letter of Senator Stone. 

"January 8, 1915. 

"Dear Mr. Secretary: 

"As you are aware, frequent com- 
plaints or charges are made in one 
form or another through the press 
that this Government has shown 
partiality to Great Britain, France, 
and Russia as against Germany and 
Austria during the present war be- 
tween those powers; in addition to 
which I have received numerous let- 
ters to the same effect from sym- 
pathizers with Germany and Aus- 
tria. The various grounds of these 
complaints may be summarized and 
stated in the following form: 

"1. Freedom of communication 
by submarine cables, but censorship 
of wireless messages. 

"2. Submission to censorship of 
mails and in some cases to the re- 
peated destruction of American let- 
ters found on neutral vessels. 

"3. The search of American ves- 
sels for German and Austrian sub- 
jects — 

(a) On the high seas. 

(b) In territorial waters of a bel- 

ligerent. 

"4. Submission without protest to 
English violations of the rules re- 
garding absolute and conditional 
contraband, as laid down — 

(a) In the Hague Conventions. 

(b) In International law. 

(c) In the Declaration of London. 

"5. Submission without protest to 
inclusion of copper in the list of ab- 
solute contraband. 

"6. Submission without protest to 
interference with American trade to 
neutral countries — 

(a) In conditional contraband. 

(b) In absolute contraband. 

"7. Submission without protest to 
interruption of trade in conditional 
contraband consigned to private per- 
sons in Germany and Austria, there- 
by supporting the policy of Great 
Britain to cut off all supplies from 
Germany and Austria. 

"8. Submission to British inter- 
ruption of trade in petroleum, rub- 
ber, leather, wool, etc. 

"9. No interference with the sale 
to Great Britain and her allies of 



arms, ammunition, horses, uniforms, 
and other munitions of war, al- 
though such sales prolong the war. 

"10. No suppression of sale of 
dumdum bullets to Great Britain. 

"11. British warships are per- 
mitted to lie off American ports and 
intercept neutral vessels. 

"12. Submission without protest 
to disregard by Great Britain and her 
allies of — 

(a) American naturalization cer- 

tificates. 

(b) American passports. 

"13. Change of policy in regard 
to loans to belligerents: 

(a) General loans. 

(b) Credit loans. 

"14. Submission to arrest of na- 
tive-born Americans on neutral ves- 
sels and in British ports, and their 
imprisonment. 

"15. Indifference to confinement 
of non-combatants in detention 
camps in England and France. 

"16. Failure to prevent trans- 
shipment of British troops and war 
material across the territory of the 
United States. 

"17. Treatment and final intern- 
ment of German steamship "Geier" 
and the collier "Locksun" at Hono- 
lulu. 

"18. Unfairness to Germany In 
rules relative to coaling of warships 
in Panama Canal Zone. 

"19. Failure to protest against 
the modifications of the declaration 
of London by the British Govern- 
ment. 

"20. General unfriendly attitude 
of Government toward Germany and 
Austria. 

"If you deem it not incompatible 
with the public interest I would be 
obliged if you would furnish me 
with whatever information your de- 
partment may have touching these 
various points of complaint, or re- 
quest the counselor of the State De- 
partment to send me the information, 
with any suggestions you or he may 
deem advisable to make with respect 
to either the legal or political aspects 
of the subject. So far as informed 
I see no reason why all the matter 
I am requesting to be furnished 
should not be made public, to the 
end that the true situation may be 
known and misapprehensions quieted. 

"I have the honor to be, 
"Yours, sincerely, 

"WM. J. STONE. 

•'Hon. William Jennings Bryan, 
"Secretary of State." 



Letter of Secretary of State. 

"Department of State, 
"Washington, January 20, 1915. 
"Dear Mr. Stone: 

I have received your letter of the 
8 th instant, referring to frequent 
complaints or charges made in one 
form or another through the press 
that this Government has shown par- 
tiality to Great Britain, France, and 
Russia against Germany and Austria 
during the present war, and stating 



that you have received numerous 
letters to the same effect from sym- 
pathizers with the latter powers. 
You summarize the various grounds 
of these complaints and ask that 
you be furnished with whatever in- 
formation the department may have 
touching these points of complaint, 
in order that you may be informed 
as to what the true situation is in 
regard to these matters. 

In order that you may have such 
information as the department has 
on the subjects referred to in your 
letter, I will take them up seriatim. 

(1) Freedom of communication 
by submarine cables versus censored 
communication by wireless. 

The reason that wireless mes- 
sages and cable messages require dif- 
ferent treatment by a neutral Gov- 
ernment is as follows: 

Communications by wireless can 
not be interrupted by a belligerent. 
With a submarine cable it is other- 
wise. The possibility of cutting the 
cable exists, and if a belligerent pos- 
sesses naval superiority the cable is 
cut, as was the German cable near 
the Azores by one of Germany's ene- 
mies, and as was the British cable 
near Fanning Island by a German 
naval force. Since a cable is sub- 
ject to hostile attack, the responsi- 
bility falls upon the belligerent and 
not upon the neulral to prevent cable 
communication. 

A more important reason, however, 
at least from the point of view of 
a neutral Government, is that mes- 
sages sent out from a wireless sta- 
tion in neutral territory may be re- 
ceived by belligerent warships on the 
high seas. If these messages, 
whether plain or in cipher, direct the 
movement of warships or convey to 
them information as to the location 
of an enemy's public or private ves- 
sels, the neutral territory becomes a 
base of naval operations, to permit 
which would be essentially unneu- 
tral. 

As a wireless message can be re- 
ceived by all stations and vessels 
within a given radius, every message 
in cipher, whatever its intended des- 
tination, must be censored; other- 
wise military information may be 
sent to warships off the coast of a 
neutral. It is manifest that a sub- 
marine cable is incapable of becom- 
ing a means of direct communication 
with a warship on the high seas. 
Hence its use can not, as a rule, 
make neutral territory a base for the 
direction of naval operations. 

(2) Censorship of mails and in 
some cases repeated destruction of 
American letters on neutral vessels. 

As to the censorship of mails, 
Germany as well as Great Britain 
has pursued this course in regard to 
private letters falling into their- 
hands. The unquestioned right to 
adopt a measure of this sort makes 
objection to it inadvisable. 

It has been asserted that Amer- 
ican mail on board of Dutch steam- 
ers has been repeatedly destroyed. 
No evidence to this effect has been 
filed with the Government, and 
therefore no representations have 
been made. Until such a case is 
presented in concrete form, this 



222 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



Government would not be justified 
in presenting the matter to the of- 
fending belligerent. Complaints have 
come to the department that mail on 
board neutral steamers has been 
opened and detained, but there seem 
to be but few cases where the mail 
from neutral countries has not been 
finally delivered. When mail is sent 
to belligerent countries open and is 
of a neutral and private character it 
has not been molested, so far as the 
department is advised. 

(3) Searching of American ves- 
sels for German and Austrian sub- 
jects on the high seas and in terri- 
torial waters of a belligerent. 

So far as this Government has 
been informed, no American vessels 
on the high seas, with two excep- 
tions, have been detained or searched 
by belligerent warships for German 
and Austrian subjects. One of the 
exceptions to which reference is 
made is now the subject of a rigid 
Investigation, and vigorous repre- 
sentations have been made to the 
offending Government. The other 
exception, where certain German 
passengers were made to sign a 
promise not to take part in the war, 
has been brought to the attention of 
the offending Government with a 
declaration that such procedure, if 
true, is an unwarranted exercise of 
jurisdiction over American vessels in 
which this Government will not ac- 
quiesce. 

An American private vessel enter- 
ing voluntarily the territorial waters 
of a belligerent becomes subject to 
Its municipal laws, as do the persons 
on board the vessel. 

There have appeared in certain 
publications the assertion that fail- 
ure to protest in these cases is an 
abandonment of the principle for 
which the United States went to war 
In 1812. If the failure to protest 
were true, which it is not, the prin- 
ciple involved is entirely different 
from the one appealed to against un- 
justifiable impressment of Americans 
in the British Navy in time of peace. 

(4) Submission without protest 
to British violations of the rules re- 
garding absolute and conditional 
contraband as laid down in The 
Hague conventions, the declaration 
of London, and international law. 

There is no Hague convention 
which deals with absolute or condi- 
tional contraband, and, as the decla- 
ration of London is not in force, the 
rules of international law only ap- 
ply. As to the articles to be re- 
garded as contraband, there is no 
general agreement between nations. 
It is the practice for a country, either 
in time of peace or after the out- 
break of war, to declare the articles 
which it will consider as absolute or 
conditional contraband. It is true 
that a neutral Government is seri- 
ously affected by this declaration as 
the rights of its subjects or citizens 
may be impaired. But the rights 
and interests of belligerents and neu- 
trals are opposed in respect to con- 
traband articles and trade and there 
is no tribunal to which questions of 
difference may be readily submitted. 

The record of the United States in 
the past is not free from criticism. 
When neutral this Government has 



stood for a restricted list of absolute 
and conditional contraband. As a 
belligerent, we have contended for a 
liberal list, according to our concep- 
tion of the necessities of the case. 

The United States has made earn- 
est representations to Great Britain 
in regard to the seizure and deten- 
tion by the British authorities of all 
American ships or cargoes bona fide 
destined to neutral ports, on the 
ground that such seizures and de- 
tentions were contrary to the exist- 
ing rules of international law. It 
will be recalled, however, that Amer- 
ican courts have established various 
rules bearing on these matters. The 
rule of "continuous voyage" has 
been not only asserted by American 
tribunals but extended by them. 
They have exercised the right to de- 
termine from the circumstances 
whether the ostensible was the real 
destination. They have held that 
the shipment of articles of contra- 
band to a neutral port "to order" 
from which, as a matter of fact, car- 
goes had been trans-shipped to the 
enemy, is corroborative evidence that 
the cargo is really destined to the 
enemy instead of to the neutral port 
of delivery. It is thus seen that 
some of the doctrines which appear 
to bear harshly upon neutrals at the 
present time are analogous to or out- 
growths from policies adopted by the 
United States when it was a bellig- 
erent. The Government therefore 
can not consistently protest against 
the application of rules which it has 
followed in the past, unless they have 
not been practiced as heretofore. 

(5) Acquiescence without protest 
to the inclusion of copper and other 
articles in the British lists of abso- 
lute contraband. 

The United States has now under 
consideration the question of the 
right of a belligerent to include "cop- 
per unwrought" in its list of absolute 
contraband instead of in its list of 
conditional contraband. As the 
Government of the United States has 
in the past placed "all articles from 
which ammunition is manufactured" 
in its contraband list, and has de- 
clared copper to be among such ma- 
terials, it necessarily finds some em- 
barrassment in dealing with the sub- 
ject. 

Moreover, there is no instance of 
the United States acquiescing in 
Great Britain's seizure of copper 
shipments. In every case, in which 
it has been done, vigorous repre- 
sentations have been made to the 
British Government, and the repre- 
sentatives of the United States have 
pressed for the release of the ship- 
ments. 

(6) Submission without protest 
to interference with American trade 
to neutral countries in conditional 
and absolute contraband. 

The fact that the commerce of the 
United States is interrupted by Great 
Britain is consequent upon the supe- 
riority of her navy on the high seas. 
History shows that whenever a coun- 
try has possessed that superiority 
our trade has been interrupted and 
that few articles essential to the 
prosecution of the war have been al- 
lowed to reach its enemy from this 
country. The department's recent 



note to the British Government, 
which has been made public, in re- 
gard to detentions and seizures of 
American vessels and cargoes, is a 
complete answer to this complaint. 

Certain other complaints appear 
aimed at the loss of profit in trade, 
which must include at least in part 
trade in contraband with Germany; 
while other complaints demand the 
prohibition of trade in contraband, 
which appear to refer to trade with 
the allies. 

(7) Submission without protest 
to interruption of trade in condi- 
tional contraband consigned to pri- 
vate persons in Germany and Aus- 
tria, thereby supporting the policy of 
Great Britain to cut off all supplies 
from Germany and Austria. 

As no American vessel so far aa 
known has attempted to carry con- 
ditional contraband to Germany or 
Austria-Hungary, no ground of com- 
plaint has arisen out of the seizure 
or condemnation by Great Britain of 
an American vessel with a belliger- 
ent destination. Until a case arises 
and the Government has taken ac- 
tion upon it, criticism is premature 
and unwarranted. The United States 
in its note of December 28 to the 
British Government strongly con- 
tended for the principle of freedom 
of trade in articles of conditional 
contraband not destined to the bel- 
ligerent's forces. 

(8) Submission to British inter- 
ference with trade in petroleum, rub- 
ber, leather, wool, etc. 

Petrol and other petroleum prod- 
ucts have been proclaimed by Great 
Britain as contraband of war. In 
view of the absolute necessity of 
such products to the use of subma- 
rines, aeroplanes, and motors, the 
United States Government has not 
yet reached the conclusion that they 
are improperly included in a list of 
contraband. Military operations to- 
day are largely a question of motive 
power through mechanical devices. 
It is therefore difiBcult to argue suc- 
cessfully against the inclusion of pe- 
troleum among the articles of con- 
traband. As to the detention of car- 
goes of petroleum going to neutral 
countries, this Government has, thus 
far successfully, obtained the release 
in every case of detention or seizure 
which has been brought to its atten- 
tion. 

Great Britain and France have 
placed rubber on the absolute con- 
traband list and leather on the con- 
ditional contraband list. Rubber is 
extensively used in the manufacture 
and operation of motors and, like 
petrol, is regarded by some authori- 
ties as essential to motive power to- 
day. Leather is even more widely 
used in cavalry and infantry equip- 
ment. It is understood that both 
rubber and leather, together with 
wool, have been embargoed by most 
of the belligerent countries. It will 
be recalled that the United States 
has in the past exercised the right of 
embargo upon exports of any com- 
modity which might aid the enemy's 
cause. 

(9) The United States has not 
interfered with the sale to Great 
Britain and her allies of arms, am- 



THE OFFICIAL NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



223 



munition, horses, uniforms, and other 
munitions of war, although such 
sales prolong the conflict. 

There is no power in the Execu- 
tive to prevent the sale of ammuni- 
tion to the belligerents. 

The duty of a neutral to restrict 
trade in munitions of war has never 
been imposed by international law 
or by municipal statute. It has 
never been the policy of this Gov- 
ernment to prevent the shipment of 
arms or ammunition into belligerent 
territory, except in the case of neigh- 
boring American Republics, and then 
only when civil strife prevailed. 
Even to this extent the belligerents 
in the present conflict, when they 
are neutrals, have never, so far as 
the records disclose, limited the sale 
of munitions of war. It is only nec- 
essary to point to the enormous 
quantities of arms and ammunition 
furnished by manufacturers in Ger- 
many to the belligerents in the 
Russo-Japanese war and in the re- 
cent Balkan wars to establish the 
general recognition of the propriety 
of the trade by a neutral nation. 

It may be added that on the 15th 
of December last the German ambas- 
sador, by direction of his Govern- 
ment, presented a copy of a memo- 
randum of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment which, among other things, 
set forth the attitude of that Gov- 
ernment toward traffic in contraband 
of war by citizens of neutral coun- 
tries. The Imperial Government 
stated that "under the general prin- 
ciples of international law, no ex- 
ception can be taken to neutral 
States letting war material go to 
Germany's enemies from or through 
neutral territory," and that the ad- 
versaries of Germany in the present 
war are, in the opinion of the Im- 
perial Government, ■ authorized to 
"draw on the United States contra- 
band of war and especially arms 
worth billions of marks." These 
principles, as the ambassador stated, 
have been accepted by the United 
States Government in the statement 
issued by the Department of State 
on October 15 last, entitled "Neu- 
trality and trade in contraband." 
Acting in conformity with the prop- 
ositions there set forth, the United 
States has itself taken no part in 
contraband traffic, and has, so far 
as possible, lent its influence toward 
equal treatment for all belligerents 
in the matter of purchasing arms 
and ammunition of private persons 
in the United States. 

(10) The United States has not 
suppressed the sale of dumdum bul- 
lets to Great Britain. 

On December 5 last the German 
ambassador addressed a note to the 
department, stating that the British 
Government had ordered from the 
Winchester Repeating Arms Co. 20,- 
000 "riot guns," model 1897, and 
50,000,000 "buckshot cartridges" 
for use in such guns. The depart- 
ment replied that it saw a published 
statement of the Winchester Co., the 
correctness of which the company 
has confirmed to the department by 
telegraph. In this statement the 
company categorically denies that it 
has received an order for such guns 
and cartridges from or made any 



sales of such material to the British 
Government, or to any other Govern- 
ment engaged in the present war. 
The ambassador further called at- 
tention to "information, the accuracy 
of which is not to be doubted," that 
8,000,000 cartridges fitted with 
"mushroom bullets" had been deliv- 
ered since October of this year by 
the Union Metallic Cartridge Co. for 
the armament of the English army. 
In reply the department referred to 
the letter of December 10, 1914, of 
the Remington Arms-Union Metallic 
Cartridge Co., of New York, to the 
ambassador, called forth by certain 
newspaper reports of statements al- 
leged to have been made by the am- 
bassador in regard to the sales by 
that company of soft-nosed bullets. 

From this letter, a copy of which 
was sent to the department by the 
company, it appears that instead of 
8,000,000 cartridges having been 
sold, only a little over 117,000 were 
manufactured and 109,000 were sold. 
The letter further asserts that these 
cartridges were made to supply a 
demand for a better sporting car- 
tridge with a soft-nosed bullet than 
had been manufactured theretofore, 
and that such cartridges can not be 
used in the military rifles of any 
foreign powers. The company adds 
that its statements can be substan- 
tiated and that it is ready to give 
the ambassador any evidence that he 
may require on these points. The 
department further stated that it was 
also in receipt from the company of 
a complete detailed list of the per- 
sons to whom these cartridges were 
sold, and that from this list it ap- 
peared that the cartridges were sold 
to firms in lots of 20 to 2,000 and 
one lot each of 3,000, 4,000, and 
5,000. Of these only 960 cartridges 
went to British North America and 
100 to British East Africa. 

The department added that, if the 
ambassador could furnish evidence 
that this or any other company is 
manufacturing and selling for the 
use of the contending armies in 
Europe cartridges whose use would 
contravene The Hague conventions, 
the department would be glad to be 
furnished with this evidence, and 
that the President would, in case 
any American company is shown to 
be engaged in this traffic, use his 
influence to prevent so far as pos- 
sible sales of such ammunition to 
the powers engaged in the European 
war, without regard to whether it 
is the duty of this Government, upon 
legal or conventional grounds, to 
take such action. 

The substance of both the ambas- 
sador's note and the department's 
reply have appeared in the press. 

The department has received no 
other complaints of alleged sales of 
dumdum bullets by American citi- 
zens to belligerent Governments. 

(11) British warships are per- 
mitted to lie off American ports and 
intercept neutral vessels. 

The complaint is unjustified from 
the fact that representations were 
made to the British Government that 
the presence of war vessels in the vi- 
cinity of New York harbor was of- 
fensive to this Government and a 
similar complaint was made to the 



Japanese Government as to one of 
its cruisers in the vicinity of the port 
of Honolulu. In both cases the war- 
ships were withdrawn. 

It will be recalled that in 1863 
the department took the position that 
captures made by its vessels after 
hovering about neutral ports would 
not be regarded as valid. In the 
Franco-Prussian war President Grant 
issued a proclamation warning bel- 
ligerent warships against hovering in 
the vicinity of American ports for 
purposes of observation or hostile 
acts. The same policy has been 
maintained in the present war, and 
in all of the recent proclamations of 
neutrality the President states that 
such practice by belligerent war- 
ships is "unfriendly and offensive." 

(12) Great Britain and her allies 
are allowed without protest to dis- 
regard American citizenship papers 
and passports. 

American citizenship papers have 
been disregarded in a comparatively 
few instances by Great Britain, but 
the same is true of all the belliger- 
ents. Bearers of American pass- 
ports have been arrested in all the 
countries at war. In every case of 
apparent illegal arrest the United 
States Government has entered vig- 
orous protests with request for re- 
lease. The department does not 
know of any cases, except one or two 
which are still under investigation, 
in which naturalized Germans have 
not been released upon representa- 
tions by this Government. There 
have, however, come to the depart- 
ment's notice authentic cases in 
which American passports have been 
fraudulently obtained and used by 
certain German subjects. 

The Department of Justice has re- 
cently apprehended at least four per- 
sons of German nationality who, it 
is alleged, obtained American pass- 
ports under pretense of being Amer- 
ican citizens and for the purpose of 
returning to Germany without mo- 
lestation by her enemies during the 
voyage. There are indications that 
a systematic plan had been devised 
to obtain American passports through 
fraud for the purpose of securing 
safe passage for German officers and 
reservists desiring to return to Ger- 
many. Such fraudulent use of pass- 
ports by Germans themselves can 
have no other effect than to cast sus- 
picion upon American passports in 
general. New regulations, however, 
requiring among other things the at- 
taching of a photograph of the bearer 
to his passport, under the seal of the 
Department of State, and the vigi- 
lance of the Department of Justice, 
will doubtless prevent any further 
misuse of American passports. 

(13) Change of policy in regard 
to loans to belligerents. 

War loans in this country were 
disapproved because inconsistent 
with the spirit of neutrality. There 
is a clearly defined difference be- 
tween a war loan and the purchase 
of arms and ammunition. The pol- 
icy of disapproving of war loans af- 
fects all governments alike, so that 
the disapproval is not an unneutral 
act. The case is entirely different 
in the matter of arms and ammuni- 
tion, because prohibition of export 



224 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



not only miglit not, but, in this case, 
would not, operate equally upon tlie 
nations at war. Then, too, the rea- 
son given for the disapproval of war 
loans is supported by other consid- 
erations which are absent in the case 
presented by the sale of arms and 
ammunition. The taking of money 
out of the United States during such 
a war as this might seriously embar- 
rass the Government in case it needed 
to borrow money and it might also 
seriously impair this Nation's ability 
to assist the neutral nations which, 
though not participants in the war, 
are compelled to bear a heavy bur- 
den on account of the war, and, 
again, a war loan, if offered for pop- 
ular subscription in the United 
States, would be taken up chiefly by 
those who are in sympathy with the 
belligerent seeking the loan. The 
result would be that great numbers 
of the American people might be- 
come more earnest partisans, having 
material interest in the success of 
the belligerent, whose bonds they 
hold. These purchases would not be 
confined to a few, but would spread 
generally throughout the country, so 
that the people would be divided 
into groups of partisans, which would 
result in intense bitterness and 
might cause an undesirable, if not 
a serious, situation. On the other 
hand, contracts for and sales of con- 
traband are mere matters of trade. 
The manufacturer, unless peculiarly 
sentimental, would sell to one bellig- 
erent as readily as he would to an- 
other. No general spirit of partisan- 
ship is aroused — no sympathies ex- 
cited. The whole transaction is 
merely a matter of business. 

This Government has not been 
advised that any general loans have 
been made by foreign governments 
in this country since the President 
expressed his wish that loans of this 
character should not be made. 

(14) Submission to arrest of 
native-born Americans on neutral 
vessels and in British ports and their 
imprisonment. 

The general charge as to the ar- 
rest of American-born citizens on 
board neutral vessels and in British 
ports, the ignoring of their passports, 
and their confinement in jails, re- 
quires evidence to support it. That 
there have been cases of injustice 
of this sort is unquestionably true, 
but Americans in Germany have suf- 
fered in this way as Americans have 
in Great Britain. This Government 
has considered that the majority of 
these cases resulted from overzeal- 
ousness on the part of subordinate 
officials in both countries. Every 
case which has been brought to the 
attention of the Department of State 
has been promptly investigated and, 
if the facts warranted, a demand 
for release has been made. 

(15) Indifference to confinement 
of noncombatants in detention camps 
in England and France. 

As to the detention of noncom- 
batants confined in concentration 
camps, all the belligerents, with per- 
haps the exception of Servia and 
Russia, have made similar complaints 
and those for whom this Government 
is acting have asked investigations, 
which representatives of this Govern- 



ment have made impartially. Their 
reports have shown that the treat- 
ment of prisoners is generally as 
good as possible under the conditions 
in all countries, and that there is 
no more reason to say that they are 
mistreated in one country than in 
another country or that this Govern- 
ment has manifested an indifference 
in the matter. As this department's 
efforts at investigations seemed to 
develop bitterness between the coun- 
tries, the department on November 
20 sent a circular instruction to its 
representatives not to undertake fur- 
ther investigation of concentration 
camps. 

But at the special request of the 
German Government that Mr. Jack- 
son, former American minister at 
Bucharest, now attached to the 
American embassy at Berlin, make 
an investigation of the prison camps 
in England, in addition to the investi- 
gations already made, the depart- 
ment has consented to dispatch Mr. 
Jackson on this special mission. 

(16) Failure to prevent trans- 
shipment of British troops and war 
material across the territory of the 
United States. 

The department has had no spe- 
cific case of the passage of convoys of 
troops across American territory 
brought to its notice. There have 
been rumors to this effect, but no 
actual facts have been presented. 
The trans-shipment of reservists of 
all belligerents who have requested 
the privilege has been permitted on 
condition that they travel as indi- 
viduals and not as organized, uni- 
formed, or armed bodies. The Ger- 
man Embassy has advised the de- 
partment that it would not be likely 
to avail itself of the privilege, but 
Germany's ally, Austria - Hungary, 
did so. 

Only one case raising the question 
of the transit of war material owned 
by a belligerent across United States 
territory has come to the depart- 
ment's notice. This was a request 
on the part of the Canadian Govern' 
ment for permission to ship equip- 
ment across Alaska to the sea. The 
request was refused. 

(17) Treatment and final in- 
ternment of German steamship 
"Geier" and the collier "Locksun" at 
Honolulu. 

The "Geier" entered Honolulu on 
October 15 in an unseaworthy con- 
dition. The commanding officer re- 
ported the necessity of extensive re- 
pairs which would require an in- 
definite period for completion. The 
vessel was allowed the generous pe- 
riod of three weeks to November 7 
to make repairs and leave the port, 
or, failing to do so, to be interned. 
A longer period would have been 
contrary to international practice, 
which does not permit a vessel to 
remain for a long time in a neutral 
port for the purpose of repairing a 
generally run-down condition due to 
long sea service. Soon after the 
German cruiser arrived at Honolulu 
a Japanese cruiser appeared off the 
port and the commander of the 
"Geier" chose to intern the vessel 
rather than to depart from the har- 
bor. 



Shortly after the "Geier" entered 
the port of Honolulu the steamer 
"Locksun" arrived. It was found 
that this vessel had delivered coal 
to the "Geier" en route and had ac- 
companied her toward Hawaii. As 
she had thus constituted herself a 
tender or collier to the "Geier" she 
was accorded the same treatment 
and interned on November 7. 

(18) Unfairness to Germany in 
rules relative to coaling of warships 
in Panama Canal Zone. 

By proclamation of November 13, 
1914, certain special restrictions 
were placed on the coaling of war- 
ships or their tenders or colliers in 
the Canal Zone. These regulations 
were framed through the collabora- 
tion of the State, Navy, and War De- 
partments and without the slightest 
reference to favoritism to the bellig- 
erents. Before these regulations 
were proclaimed, war vessels could 
procure coal of the Panama Railway 
in the zone ports, but no belligerent 
vessels are known to have done so. 
Under the proclamation fuel may be 
taken on by belligerent warships 
only with the consent of the canal 
authorities and in such amounts as 
will enable them to reach the near- 
est accessible neutral port; and the 
amount so taken on shall be deducted 
from the amount procurable in 
United States ports within three 
months thereafter. Now, it is charged 
the United States has shown partial- 
ity because Great Britain and not 
Germany happens to have colonies 
in the near vicinity where British 
ships may coal, while Germany has 
no such coaling facilities. Thus, it 
is intimated the United States should 
balance the inequalities of geograph- 
ical position by refusing to allow any 
warships of belligerents to coaJ in the 
canal until the war is over. As no 
German warship has sought to ob- 
tain coal in th^ Canal Zone the 
charge of discrimination rests upon 
a possibility which during several 
months of warfare has failed to ma- 
terialize. 

(19) Failure to protest against 
the modifications of the Declaration 
of London by the British Govern- 
ment. 

The German Foreign Ofiice pre- 
sented to the diplomats in Berlin a 
memorandum dated October 10, call- 
ing attention to violations of and 
changes in the Declaration of Lon- 
don by the British Government and 
inquiring as to the attitude of the 
United States toward such action on 
the part of the allies. The substance 
of the memorandum was forthwith 
telegraphed to the department on 
October 22 and was replied to shortly 
thereafter to the effect that the 
United States had withdrawn its sug- 
gestion, made early in the war, that 
for the sake of uniformity the Decla- 
ration of London should be adopted 
as a temporary code of naval war- 
fare during the present war, owing 
to the unwillingness of the bellig- 
erents to accept the declaration with- 
out changes and modifications, and 
that henceforth the United States 
would insist that the rights of the 
United States and its citizens in the 
war should be governed by -the ex- 
isting rules of international law. 



THE OFFICIAL NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



225 



As this Government is not now in- 
terested in the adoption of the Decla- 
ration of London by the belligerents, 
the modifications by the belligerents 
in that code of naval warfare are of 
no concern to it except as they ad- 
versely affect the rights of the United 
States and those of its citizens as 
defined by international law. In so 
far as those rights have been in- 
fringed the department has made 
every effort to obtain redress for the 
losses sustained. 

(20) General unfriendly attitude 
of Government toward Germany and 
Austria. 

If any American citizens, parti- 
sans of Germany and Austria-Hun- 
gary, feel that this administration is 
acting in a way injurious to the 
cause of those countries, this feeling 
results from the fact that on the high 
seas the German and Austro-Hunga- 
rian naval power is thus far inferior 
to the British. It is the business of 
a belligerent operating on the high 
seas, not the duty of a neutral, to 
prevent contraband from reaching 
an enemy. Those in this country 
who sympathize with Germany and 
Austria-Hungary appear to assume 
that some obligation rests upon this 
Government in the performance of 
its neutral duty to prevent all trade 
in contraband, and thus to equalize 
the difference due to the relative na- 
val strength of the belligerents. No 
such obligation exists; it would be an 
unneutral act, an act of partiality 
on the part of this Government to 
adopt such a policy if the Executive 
had the power to do so. If Germany 
and Austria-Hungary can not im- 
port contraband from this country It 
is not, because of that fact, the duty 
of the United States to close its mar- 
kets to the allies. ,The markets of 
this country are open upon equal 
terms to all the world, to every na- 
tion, belligerent or neutral. 

The foregoing categorical replies 
to specific complaints is sufficient an- 
swer to the charge of unfriendliness 
to Germany and Austria-Hungary. 

I am, my dear Senator, 

Very sincerely, yours, 

W. J. BRYAN. 

Hon. William J. Stone, 

Chairman Committee on Foreign 
Relations, 

United States Senate, 
Washington, D. C." 



place our confidence in the continued 
efforts of our German countrymen and 
of the Irish in America, to whom the 
proper recognition has not been ac- 
corded, at least not in proportion to 
their numbers and worth. — "Hambur- 
ger Fremdenblatt," Hamburg, Germany. 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE 

AMERICAN EXPORTATION 

OF WEAPONS. 

The American Department of State 
announces that the government, for ob- 
'' vious reasons, does not approve of the 
movement against exportation of weap- 
ons. It is therefore probable that 
should the bill be passed by the House, 
it will probably be vetoed by President 
Wilson. America seems for the pres- 
ent to retain her former standpoint, 
and the efforts of the German Amer- 
icans in union with the Irish, seem 
to have been of no avail. It may be 
expected, however, that the protest of 
the German government against the 
breach of actual neutrality by the ex- 
portation of weapons from America to 
England and France, will find effectual 
support from another source. We 



OPFICIAI; TEXT OF GERMAN 
REPLY TO IT. S. 

Berlin, May 28, 1915. — The un- 
dersigned has the honor to make the 
following reply to the note of his 
excellency Mr. James W. Gerard, am- 
bassador of the United States of 
America, dated the 15th inst., on the 
subject of the impairment of many 
American interests by the German 
submarine war: 

The Imperial Government has sub- 
jected the statements of the Govern- 
ment of the United States to a care- 
ful examination and has the lively 
wish on its part also to contribute 
in a convincing and friendly manner 
to clear up any misunderstandings 
which may have entered into the re- 
lations of the two governments 
through the events mentioned by the 
American government. 

Not to Attack Neutral Ships. 

With regard, first, to the cases of 
the American steamers Cii-shing- and 
Gulflifflit, the embassy has already 
been informed that it is far from the 
German Government to have any in- 
tention of ordering attacks by sub- 
marines or flyers on neutral vessels 
in the zone which have not been 
guilty of any hostile act; on the con- 
trary, the most explicit instructions 
have been repeatedly given the Ger- 
man armed forces to avoid attack- 
ing such vessels. If neutral vessels 
have come to grief through the Ger- 
man submarine war during the past 
few months, by mistake, it is a ques- 
tion of isolated and exceptional cases 
which are traceable to the misuse of 
flags by the British Government in 
connection with carelessness or sus- 
picious actions on the part of (the?) 
captains of the vessels. 

Has Expressed Its Regret. 

In all cases where a neutral ves- 
sel through no fault of its own has 
come to grief through the German 
submarine or flyers, according to the 
facts as ascertained by the German 
Government, this government has ex- 
pressed its regret at the unfortunate 
occurrence and promised indemniflca- 
tion where the facts justified it. The 
German Government will treat the 
cases of the American steamers Gusfi- 
ing and Gulflight according to the 
same principles; an investigation of 
these cases is in progress; its result 
will be communicated to the embassy 
shortly; the investigation might, if 
thought desirable, be supplemented 
by an international commission of 
inquiry pursuant to Title 3 of The 
Hague convention of Oct. 18, 1907, 
for the pacific settlement of interna- 
tional disputes. 

Explanation as to Falaba. 

In the case of the sinking of the 
English steamer Falaba, the com- 
mander of the German submarine 
had the intention of allowing pas- 
sengers and crew ample opportunity 
to save themselves. It was not un- 



til the captain disregarded the order 
to lay to and took to flight, sending 
up rocket signals for help, that the 
German commander ordered the 
crew and passengers by signals and 
megaphone to leave the ship within 
ten minutes; as a matter of fact he 
allowed them twenty-three minutes 
and did not fire the torpedo until 
suspicious steamers were hurrying to 
the aid of the Falaha, 

With regard to the loss of life 
when the British passenger steamer 
Lusitania was sunk, the German Gov- 
ernment has already expressed its 
deep regret to the neutral govern- 
ments concerned that nationals of 
those countries lost their lives on 
that occsaion. The Imperial Govern- 
ment must state for the rest the im- 
pression that certain important facts 
most directly connected with the 
sinking of the Lusitania may have 
escaped the attention of the Govern- 
ment of the United States. It there- 
fore considers it necessary in the in- 
terests of the clear and full under- 
standing aimed at by either govern- 
ment primarily to convince itself that 
the reports of the facts which are 
before the two governments are com- 
plete and in agreement. 

Lusitania Called a Cruiser. 

The Government of the United 
States proceeds on the assumption 
that the Lusitania is to be considered 
as an ordinary unarmed merchant 
vessel. The Imperial Government 
begs in this connection to point out 
that the Lusitania was one of the 
largest and fastest English commerce 
steamers constructed with govern- 
ment funds as auxiliary cruisers and 
is expressly included in the navy list 
published by British admiralty. 

It is, moreover, known to the Im- 
perial Government from reliable in- 
formation furnished by its officials 
and neutral passengers that for some 
time practically all the more valu- 
able merchant vessels have been pro- 
vided with guns, ammunition and 
other weapons and re-enforced with 
a crew specially practiced in manning 
guns. According to reports at hand 
here, the Lusitania, when she left 
New York, undoubtedly had guns on 
board which were mounted under 
decks and masked. 
Rewards for Ramming Submarines. 

The Imperial Government further- 
more has the honor to direct the par- 
ticular attention of the American 
Government to the fact that the Brit- 
ish admiralty by a secret instruction 
of February of this year advised the 
British merchant marine not only to 
seek protection behind neutral flags 
and markings but even when so dis- 
guised to attack German submar- 
ines by ramming them. High re- 
wards have been offered by the Brit- 
ish Government as a special incentive 
f(y the destruction of the submarines 
by merchant vessels and such re- 
wards have already been paid out. 

In view of these facts, which are 
satisfactorily known to it, the Im- 
perial Government is unable to con- 
sider English merchant vessels any 
longer as "undefended territory" in 
the zone of maritime war designated 
by the admiralty staff of the Imperial 
German navy; the German command- 
ers are consequently no longer in a 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



position to observe the rules of cap- 
ture otherwise usual and with which 
they invariably complied before this. 

Says Troops Were Carried. 

Lastly, the Imperial Government 
must specially point out that on her 
last trip the Lusitania, as on earlier 
occasions, had Canadian troops and 
munitions on board, including no less 
than 5,400 cases of ammunition des- 
tined for the destruction of brave 
German soldiers who are fulfilling 
with self-sacrifice and devotion their 
duty in the service of the Fatherland. 
The German Government believes 
that it acts in just self-defense when 
It seeks to protect the lives of its 
soldiers by destroying ammunition 
destined for the enemy with the 
means of war at its command. 

The English steamship company 
must have been aware of the dangers 
to which passengers on board the 
Lusitania were exposed under the cir- 
cumstances. In taking them on 
board in spite of this the company 
quite deliberately tried to use the 
lives of American citizens as protec- 
tion for the ammunition carried and 
violated the clear provisions of Amer- 
ican laws, which expressly prohibit 
and provide punishment for the car- 
rying of passengers on ships which 
have explosives on board. The com- 
pany thereby wantonly caused the 
death of so many passengers. 
Blame IJaid on Ammuuition. 

According to the express report 
of the submarine commander con- 
cerned, which is further confirmed 
by all other reports, there can be no 
doubt that the rapid sinking of the 
Lusitania was due primarily to the 
explosion of the cargo of ammunition 
caused by the torpedo. Otherwise, 
in all human probability, the passen- 
gers of the Lusitania would have 
been saved. 

The Imperial Government holds the 
facts recited above to be of suffi- 
cient importance to recommend them 
to a careful examination by the 
American Government. 

Reserves Final Statement. 

The Imperial Government begs to 
reserve a final statement of its posi- 
tion with regard to the demands 
made in connection with the sinking 
of the Lusitania until a reply is re- 
ceived from the American Govern- 
ment and believes that it should re- 
call here that it took note with sat- 
isfaction of the proposals of good 
offices submitted by the American 
Government in Berlin and London, 
with a view to paving the way for 
a modus Vivendi for the conduct of 
maritime war between Germany and 
Great Britain. The Imperial Gov- 
ernment furnished at that time am- 
ple evidence of its good will by its 
willingness to consider these pro- 
posals. The realization of these pro- 
posals failed, as is known, on account 
of their rejection by the Government 
of Great Britain. 

The undersigned requests his ex- 
cellency, the ambassador, to bring 
the above to the knowledge of the 
American Government and avail him- 
self of the opportunity to renew, etc. 
VON JAGOW, 
Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
(The Daily News, Chicago.) 



FULL TEXT OP PRESIDENT WIL- 
SON'S ANSWER TO 
GERMANY. 



Following is the full text of the 
"second note" of the United States 
to Germany, drawn by President Wil- 
son and signed by Robert Lansing, 
Acting Secretary of State: 

The Secretary of State ad interim 
to the American Ambassador to Ber- 
lin. 

Department of State, Washington, 
D. C, June 9, 1915. — American Am- 
bassador, Berlin: 

You are instructed to deliver text- 
ually the following note to the Min- 
ister of Foreign Affairs: 

In compliance with your excel- 
lency's request I did not fail to 
transmit to my government imme- 
diately upon their receipt your note 
of May 28, in reply to my note of 
May 15, and your supplementary 
note of June 1, setting forth the con- 
clusions so far as reached by the Im- 
perial German Government concern- 
ing the attacks on the American 
steamers Gushing and Gulflight. I 
am now instructed by my govern- 
ment to communicate the following 
in reply: 

The Government of the United 
States notes with gratification the 
full- recognition by the Imperial 
German Government, in discussing 
the cases of the dishing and the 
Gulflight, of the principle of the free- 
dom of all parts of the open sea to 
neutral ships and the frank willing- 
ness of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment to acknowledge and meet 
its liability where the fact of attack 
upon neutral ships "which have not 
been guilty of any hostile act" by 
German aircraft or vessels of war 
is satisfactorily established; and the 
Government of the United States will, 
in due course, lay before the Imperial 
German Government, as it requests, 
full information concerning the at- 
tack on the steamer Cushing. 

Attempt to Escape No Excuse. 

With regard to the sinking of the 
steamer Falaba, by which an Ameri- 
can citizen lost his life, the Govern- 
ment of the United States is sur- 
prised to find the Imperial German 
Government contending that an ef- 
fort on the part of a merchantman 
to escape cature and secure assis- 
tance alters the obligation of the 
officer seeking to make the capture 
in respect of the safety of the lives 
of those on board the merchantman, 
although the vessel has ceased its 
attempt to escape when torpedoed. 

These are not new circumstances. 
They have been in the minds of 
statesmen and of international jur- 
ists throughout the development of 
naval warfare, and the Government 
of the United States does not under- 
stand that they have ever been held 
to alter the principles of humanity 
upon which it has insisted. Nothing 
but actual forcible resistance or con- 
tinued efforts to escape by flight 
when ordered to stop for the purpose 
of visit on the part of the merchant- 
man has ever been held to forfeit 
the lives of passengers or crew. The 
Government of the United States, 
however, does not understand that 
the Imperial German Government is 



seeking in this case to relieve itself 
of liability, but only Intends to set 
forth the circumstances which led 
the commander of the submarine to 
allow himself to be hurried into the 
course which he took. 

Refers to Guns on Ship. 

Your excellency's note, in discus- 
sing the loss of American lives re- 
sulting from the sinking of the steam- 
ship Lusitania, adverts at some length 
to certain information which the Im- 
perial German Government has re- 
ceived with regard to the character 
and outfit of that vessel, and your 
excellency expresses the fear that this 
information may not have been 
brought to the attention of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States. 

It is stated in the note that the 
Lusitania was undoubtedly equipped 
with masked guns, supplied with 
trained gunners and special ammuni- 
tion, transporting troops from Can- 
ada, carryng a cargo not permitted 
under the laws of the United States 
to a vessel also carrying passengers, 
and serving, in virtual effect, as an 
auxiliary to the naval forces of Great 
Britain. 

Fortunately, these are matters con- 
cerning which the Government of 
the United States is in a position 
to give the Imperial German Govern- 
ment official information. 

Germany Was AUsinformed. 

Of the facts alleged in your excel- 
lency's note, if true, the Government 
of the United States would have been 
bound to take official cognizance in 
performing its recognized duty as a 
neutral power and in enforcing its 
national laws. It was its duty to see 
to it that the Lusitania was not 
armed for offensive action, that it 
was not serving as a transport, that 
it did not carry a cargo prohibited 
by the statutes of the United States 
and that, if in fact it was a naval 
vessel of Great Britain, it should not 
receive clearance as a merchantman; 
and it performed that duty and en- 
forced its statutes with scrupulous 
vigilance through its regularly con- 
stituted officials. 

It is able, therefore, to assure the 
Imperial German Government that it 
has been misinformed. 

Ready to Receive Evidence. 

If the Imperial German Govern- 
ment should deem itself to be in pos- 
session of convincing evidence that 
the officials of the Government of the 
United States did not perform these 
duties with thoroughness the Govern- 
ment of the United States sincerely 
hopes that it will submit that evi- 
dence for consideration. 

Whatever may be the contentions 
of the Imperial German Government 
regarding the carriage of contraband 
of war on board the Lusitania or re- 
garding the explosion of that mate- 
rial by the torpedo, it need only be 
said that in the view of this govern- 
ment these contentions are irrelevant 
to the question of the legality of the 
methods used by the German naval 
authorities in sinking the vessel. 

Principle of Humanity First. 

But the sinking of passenger ships 
involves principles of humanity which 



THE OFFICIAL NEUTRALITY OF THE UNITED STATES 



throw into the background any spec- 
ial circumstances of detail that may 
be thought to affect the cases, prin- 
ciples which lift it, as the Imperial 
German Government will no doubt 
be quick to recognize and acknowl- 
edge, out of the class of ordinary sub- 
jects of diplomatic discussion or of 
international controversy. 

Whatever be the other facts re- 
garding the Lusitania, the principal 
fact is that a great steamer, primar- 
ily and chiefly a conveyance for pas- 
sengers and carrying more than a 
thousand souls who had no part or 
lot in the conduct of the war, was tor- 
pedoed and sunk without so much as 
a challenge or a warning, and that 
men, women and children were sent 
to their death in circumstances un- 
paralleled in modern warfare. 

Plain Words as to Tragedy. 

The fact that more than 100 
American citizens were among those 
who perished made it the duty of the 
government of the United States to 
speak of these things, and once more, 
with solemn emphasis, to call the at- 
tention of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment to the grave responsibility 
which the Government of the United 
States conceives that it has incurred 
in this tragic occurrence, and to the 
indisputable principle upon which the 
responsibility rests. 

The Government of the United 
States is contending for something 
much greater than mere rights of 
property or privileges of commerce. 
It is contending for nothing less high 
and sacred than the rights of human- 
ity, which every government honors 
itself in respecting and which no gov- 
ernment is justified in resigning on 
behalf of those under its care and 
authority. 

No Excuse for tfie Submarine. 

Only actual resistance to capture 
or refusal to stop when ordered to 
do so for the purpose of visit could 
have afforded the commander of the 
submarine any justification for so 
much as putting the lives of those 
on board the ship in jeopardy. 

This principle the Government of 
the United States understands the ex^ 
plicit instructions issued on Aug. 3, 
1914, by the Imperial German Admir- 
alty to its commanders at sea to 
have recognized and embodied, as do 
the naval codes of all other nations, 
and upon it every traveler and sea- 
man had a right to depend. It is 
upon this principle of humanity as 
well as upon the law founded upon 
this principle that the United States 
must stand. 

Willing to Be Mediator. 

The Government of the United 
States is happy to observe that your 
excellency's note closes with the inti- 
mation that the Imperial German 
government is willing, now as be- 
fore, to accept the good offices of the 
United States in an attempt to come 
to an understanding with the Gov- 
ernment of Great Britain by which 
the character and conditions of the 
war upon the sea may be changed. 
The Government of the United States 
would consider it a privilege thus to 
serve its friends and the world. It 
stands ready at any time to convey 



to either government any intimation 
or suggestion the other may be will- 
ing to have it convey, and cordially 
invites the Imperial German Govern- 
ment to make use of its services in 
this way at its convenience. The 
whole world is concerned in anything 
that may bring about even a partial 
accommodation of interests or in any 
way mitigate the terrors of the pres- 
ent distressing conflict. 

Expects Justice to Be Done. 

In the meantime, whatever ar- 
rangement may happily be made be- 
tween the parties to the war, and 
whatever may in the opinion of the 
Imperial German Government have 
been the provocation or the circum- 
stantial justification for the past 
acts of its commanders at sea, the 
Government of the United States con- 
fidently looks to see the justice and 
many vindicated in all cases where 
Americans have been wronged or 
their rights as neutrals invaded. 

The Government of the United 
States, therefore, very earnestly and 
very solemnly renews the represen- 
tations of its note transmitted to the 
Imperial German Government on the 
15th of May and relies in these rep- 
resentations upon the principles of 
humanity, the universally recognized 
understandings of international law 
and the ancient friendship of the 
German nation. 

Insists on Rights of Neutrals. 

The Government of the United 
States cannot admit that the proc- 
lamation of a war zone from which 
neutral ships have been warned to 
keep away may be made to operate 
as in any degree an abbreviation of 
the rights either of American ship- 
masters or of American citizens 
bound on lawful errands as passen- 
gers on merchant ships of belliger- 
ent nationality. It does not under- 
stand the Imperial German Govern- 
ment to question those rights. It 
understands it, also, to accept as es- 
tablished beyond question the prin- 
ciple that the lives of noncombat- 
ants cannot lawfu41y or rightfully be 
put in jeopardy by the capture or 
destruction of an unresisting mer- 
chantman, and to recognize the ob- 
ligation to take sufficient precaution 
to ascertain whether a suspected 
merchantman is in fact of belligerent 
nationality or is in fact carrying con- 
traband of war under a neutral flag. 

The Government of the United 
States, therefore, deems it reason- 
able to expect that the Imperial Ger- 
man Government will adopt the 
measures necessary to put these 
principles into practice in respect of 
the safeguarding of American lives 
and American ships, and asks for 
assurance that this will be done. 
ROBERT LANSING, 
Secretary of State ad Interim. 

(The Daily News, Chicago.) 



have been handed over in London 
during the week. 

In Congress the urgent consider- 
ation of a proposed resolution has 
been introduced, according to which 
the President shall be authorized to 
stop all trade with any nation inter- 
fering with American shipping in 
any way contrary to international 
law. A Swedish paper reminds us 
of Sweden's economic losses on ac- 
count of England's tyranny at sea, 
saying, "It cannot be denied that this 
proposal is really radical and that, 
if it is carried through, it will be- 
an effective measure against Eng- 
land. The idea of boycotting Eng- 
land's trade, unless she stops caus- 
ing so much trouble to lawful neutral 
trade, does not exist on the American 
side of the Atlantic alone." 

The paper goes on to relate that 
a Stockholm merchant proposes that 
an arrangement should be made be- 
tween merchants and ship owners to 
cease exporting to England, until she 
sees flt to alter her commercial pol- 
icy. "This," says the paper, "is the 
only effective means." — Hamburger 
Premdenblatt. 



UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND. 

New York papers report a firmer 
stand on the part of the United States 
in her arrangements with England. 
The new American note with precise 
minimum requirements is said to 



IS NEUTRALITY CUB DUTY"? 

The people of the United States 
can hardly remain neutral in view of 
the events taking place in Europe. 
The majority of the population of 
this country are kin to or descend- 
ants of the people now engaged in 
this bloody strife. 

It would mean a muzzling and sup- 
pression of all noble and sympathetic 
sentiments should the suggestion of 
President Wilson be followed, that 
all parties directly affected, should 
accept the news from the seat of war 
calmly. It is impossible to pen up 
the joys or griefs and show indiffer- 
ence when the heart is in a state of 
revolt. 

The Germans of Chicago despite 
their love for the Fatherland have 
made possible what seemed an im- 
possibility. They have abandoned 
that gathering to take place at River- 
view Park — planned with a view to 
aiding their wounded and destitute 
brethren — as such a demonstration 
might be misconstrued. If this could 
be considered excessive precaution, it 
is, however, a gratifying evidence of 
the loyalty of Germans to the coun- 
try of their choice, a showing that 
should especially be appreciated by 
Americans, who do not of necessity 
need show feeling for any side, and 
for this reason the loyal Germans can 
all the more demand that strict neu- 
trality be adhered to as was re- 
quested by the President. It is only 
reasonable to expect, that a good ex- 
ample be set and the wise exhorta- 
tions of the President be taken to 
heart. It is very deplorable and re- 
volting when just such men allow 
their entire personality to be con- 
trolled by their hatred. 

The divine, Charles H. Parkhurst, 
who as a minister should be preach- 
ing peace and as an American en- 
deavor to transform the expressions 
of the head of the great American 
family into deeds, this divine, 
Charles H. Parkhurst, prominent as 
a citizen and minister in the great 



228 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



metropolis of New York, published 
an article in one of the local papers, 
that was not written with pen and 
ink but with the knout of a drunken 
Cossack. This strange minister of 
the gospel said among other things: 
"If a mad dog is found chasing 
about it is shot at once, not as a mat- 
ter of vengeance but to protect the 
public. Well then, has peaceful and 
beautiful Europe ever been endan- 
gered by a more hydrophobic crea- 
ture than Kaiser William? The 
police do not stop to negotiate or 
compromise with the dog, but con- 
sider only their duty to humanity and 
dispatch it as a public menace, 
treat it as Germany treated Poland 
at the time of the partition of that 
country and as it attempted to treat 



France in 1870 by levying an enor- 
mous war indemnity and crippling 
her military strength so that Ger- 
many no longer need fear an attack 
by France." 

"Now the same medicine," Mr. 
Parkhurst continues, "that Germany 
administered to Poland and France 
should be given her. It might not 
be necessary to strangle Germany 
but her claws should be trimmed, 
her teeth broken, and enough of her 
fortresses razed to make her harm- 
less, burdened with such a heavy 
war tax that she would stop at noth- 
ing short of absolute poverty. This 
policy should not be pursued with a 
spirit of revenge, but for the sake of 
safety, welfare and comfort in gen- 
eral. Less than this would necessi- 



tate a probable repetition of the 
tragedy now being enacted." 

We take no pleasure in going any 
further into the details of this fire- 
brand article of the New York min- 
ister, as the German language does 
not contain words enough to make a 
befitting reply possible. 

Just one question: Should the 
naturalized German, Austrian, Hun- 
garian, English, Belgian be blamed 
for manifestations of sympathy for 
their respective mother-countries, when 
this American, Rev. Charles H. 
Parkhurst, who is bound to Europe 
by no fond ties, considered himself 
justified in speaking in such terms? 

Is this the neutrality in word and 
deed which America promised to ob- 
serve? 



Neutrality of the United States of a Semi-Popular and 
Semi-Official Nature 



UNITED STATES AND THE WAR. 

The war in Europe was of Europe's 
making. The United States was not 
approached before the declaration of 
hostilities on the question of its atti- 
tude in the circumstances. In one way, 
therefore, the confiict is none of our 
business. If its effects could have been 
confined to Europe solely it would in 
no sense have been any business of 
ours. But they could not be, or, rather, 
have not been, and as a consequence 
we are brought to a situation vis-a-vis 
the belligerent powers which demands 
that we no longer delay a definite 
statement of our position on certain 
points of policy. It is not necessary to 
go into those eternal details which 
serve only to confuse and to confound. 
The facts are that our Atlantic coast 
has been subjected to a blockade by 
British cruisers Inconsistent alike with 
our rightful interests as a neutral 
trading nation and with our claims 
to the privileges of an independent 
Power, and that our ships have been 
seized and carried into foreign ports, 
our right to peaceful trade disputed, 
our mails interfered with, and our 
citizens detained, in violation of the 
written laws of war and the unwritten 
principles which underlie the comity of 
nations. 

The action of Great Britain in these 
matters is historically not without 
precedent. We suffered from the same 
treatment between 1783 and 1S14, but 
were of the opinion that the claim of 
England to the rights of search and 
impressment was definitely settled by 
the War of 1812. Apparently we were 
wrong. The same claim to absolute 
and unquestionable dominion over the 
waters of the South were asserted by 
England during the War of the States. 
And again we thought that in the 
Geneva Award we had secured some 
controversion of England's pretensions. 
But today our eyes are once more 
opened to the fact that we have not 
advanced one step in over a century 
in the flght for the freedom of the 
seas. We are still face to face with 
the cry and claim that "Britannia 
rules the Waves" and that whatever 



transpires thereon is solely a matter 
for the adjudication of British courts. 

The United States fought for years 
for the rights of private property at 
sea. She fought the battle of not only 
her own people but of the peoples of 
the world. And England alone op- 
posed her. And why? Solely because 
as the dominant naval power of the 
world it was to her interest to do so. 
Willing enough to write into interna- 
tional law all the possible ameliorat- 
ing conditions under which land war 
was to be waged, England has stood 
out consistently for ISth Century prin- 
ciples in the conduct of belligerents 
on the seas. She has reserved to her- 
self, in other words, every "right" 
which could be availed of to maintain 
her unquestioned command . of the 
water-ways of international trade. 
From the Declaration of Paris to the 
Declaration of London the policy which 
she has stood for has uncovered her 
hand. 

The time has come to call a halt. 
We have come so far under the charm 
of England's campaign for our "moral 
support" that perhaps it is difficult to 
see things clearly as they are. A blind 
man could discern, however, between 
England's desires and her deserts. 
There is no reason why we should allot 
our friendship where we receive no 
return in kind. We are asked to sup- 
port England in her present distress of 
war and terror, morally, and recently 
we have been called upon for support 
of a more material character; but 
what have we had from her? Injury 
and insult and nothing else! 

I know that there is a certain ele- 
ment in Boston and in Washington, 
bottle-fed and nipple-nursed by Eng- 
land, that would like to see the Stars 
and Stripes hauled down and the 
Union Jack floating once more from 
Hudson Bay to Houston, Texas, but 
does that element represent the Amer- 
ican people as a whole? We have had 
Americans in the past who realized 
that we are no longer a colonial ap- 
panage of Europe. Have we not one 
today? We have had statesmen who 
lived and died and fought as Amer- 
icans, supported by a firm faith In our 



independent sovereignty, and the fact 
that we were big enough and strong 
enough to assert our right to a first 
place in the family of nations. Have 
we not one now? We have told the 
powers of Europe on more occasions 
than one that we should regard as an 
unfriendly act precisely what England 
has done and is continuing to do off 
our coast in the present war. Why do 
we submit to It today? 

The answer is at hand. We have 
passed from the school of Clay and 
Webster, Seward, Pish, Blaine and 
Olney, to a school of psychologists, 
who see in every protest against our 
re-union with the apron strings of 
England nothing but "mental exer- 
cise." We are represented no longer 
by men, but by invertebrates. We 
have no longer as our spokesmen 
oflScials who speak, "American," but 
only such as speak "English." The 
one redeeming excuse of our present 
administration, as developed by the 
present Situation, is that knowing noth- 
ing of the mints of the case and ut- 
terly incapable of sane expression on 
the subject, it has done nothing. Why, 
however, was the one man in all Amer- 
ica who could have handled the situa- 
tion, John Bassett Moore, driven from 
the Service? 

I am not interested in the fact that 
it is England that is attempting to 
destroy our trade and our prestige be- 
fore the world. I should speak just 
as plainly if it were Germany or Aus- 
tria, Japan, China or Chile. The 
point to be made is that no nation on 
God's earth has a right to interfere 
with American trade as it is being in- 
tiei'fered with ; and that no administra- 
tion in Washington, whether Whig or 
Tory. Republican, Democrat of Pro- 
gressive, has a right to surrender our 
dignity to any such nation. 

We are face to face today with 
facts, not theories. We are face to 
face with conditions which spell for us 
In the future only defeat in the fight 
for a further share in the world's 
trade. We are face to face with a 
problem that demands that we either 
assert our rights, or withdraw our 
claim to be more than a colony of the 



NEUTRALITY. OF A SEMI-OFFICIAL NATURE 



229 



British crown. The question is : Shall 
we assert those rights, not insultingly, 
but clearly and in no unmeaning peri- 
phrasis, or shall we admit the claim of 
other powers to dictate to us on what 
conditions we shall continue to exist 
and to have intercourse with the peo- 
ple of the world? A century ago the 
answer would have been clear; a half 
century ago, 'a decade ago, it would 
have been so. But today we seem to 
wallow in the sloth of a psycho-paci- 
ficism which is incapable of either 
right thinking or manly protest. 

It is time that the American people 
registered their interpretation of the 
Presidency — that they asserted the 
duty of its incumbent to be the fuUfil- 
ment of the national desire and not 
the proclamation of personal theories, 
however gilded their frames, that are 
Inconsistent therewith. We want only 
the rights of a neutral nation at peace 
with all the world, and these are be- 
ing denied to us. It is a telling dis- 
grace that our representatives have not 
the courage to maintain the dignity of 
their country. 



AMERICAN NEUTRALITY. 

We translate the following edito- 
rial from the New York "Staats- 
Zeitung" of September 16 as a sig- 
nificant utterance expressive of a 
strong feeling among millions of 
American citizens. — Editor. 

We have it from the lips of proud 
Americans, from the columns of their 
press from Park Row to Times 
Square, that "Britannia Still Rules 
the Waves." And now more than 
ever since the capture of helpless 
German merchant ships In great 
number. We hear no word of pro- 
test from the lips of these England- 
serving Americans against the domi- 
nating attitude of this same Eng- 
land toward America in dictating — 
yes, dictating — in what manner it 
shall deal with the belligerents, as 
though we were still a British Crown 
colony. 

Not a single protest has been made 
against England's ukase, supported 
by her European allies, that in fu- 
ture the passports of American citi- 
zens of German birth will not be re- 
spected. American nativists them- 
selves have never dared to divide 
American citizens into two classes. 
In silence the obedient servant in 
America submits to this Insult of his 
master, England. 

We have endured a great deal 
within the past few weeks and have 
charged much to the account of a ter- 
rible world war, much that other- 
wise would have caused the blush of 
shame to rise to the cheeks of a 
loyal American. But this last is the 
straw that breaks the camel's back. 
We have stood by In silence when 
England dictated to the free and in- 
dependent United States how and 
with whom they might communicate 
by wireless. Without a whimper the 
United States submitted (and Con- 
gress made no sign of protest) when 
England said: "You shall not pur- 
chase German ships with your own 
money, shall not admit them to reg- 
istry under the American flag, shall 
not relieve your own absolute need 
for raw material, not contraband, ob- 



tainable only in Germany." Britan- 
nia, your master, says no! 

We remained silent when England 
rifled American mail on the "Pots- 
dam"; we have silently endured see- 
ing our trade with Germany and 
Austria reduced from millions to 
zero. And on top of all this the in- 
hibition against American passports 
in the hands of American citizens, 
on the ground that they were not 
born in England or Russia — the 
Russia which today is persona grata 
in those editorial rooms under the 
influence of England, the same Rus- 
sia with whom we abrogated our 
treaties for doing what she has again 
done under England's dictation. 

At that time a wild wave of in- 
dignation swayed the hearts of all 
the Hearsts and the Sulzers. Today 
we hear not a word of protest. 

What is the administration In 
Washington going to do about it? 
What of Congress? What of the 
men who made such tremendous pro- 
tests then? What of the members 
who otherwise call themselves (3or- 
man-Americans ? 

Do you intend to submit to being 
ruled by Britannia? 



H. G. WEIiL'S APPEAL TO THE 
PEOPLE OF THE UNITED 

STATES. 



Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 
Otto Stein. 

In his appeal to the U. S., printed 
in the "Tribune" of August 21st, H. 
G. Wells, the English writer, says: 
"At the end we do most firmly believe 
there will be established a new Eu- 
rope, a Europe ridded of rankling 
oppressions, with a free Poland, a 
free Finland, a free Germany, and 
the Balkan question settled, the 
little nations safe and with peace se- 
cure." 

It is touching to see England sac- 
rifice thousands or hundred thou- 
sands of lives to "help poor oppressed 
nations" to freedom. No selfish mo- 
tive ever actuates England. She com- 
bines with Cossacks, Turcos and 
Japanese to free the oppressed na- 
tions of Europe just as she combined 
with the Indians to give the U. S. 
their liberty. When she has freed 
Poland, Finland, Germany, no doubt 
she will free India, Egypt, The Trans- 
vaal Free State and give Gibraltar 
back to Spain. She did not enter 
into the war in order to destroy 
Germany's commercial competition. 
Nothing is further from her thoughts. 
To protect Belgium's neutrality she 
took to arms and to protect China's 
neutrality, she doubtless, will fight 
Japan. Now she appeals to the U. S. 
"not to play the part of a merely 
numerous little people, cute at trad- 
ing." She wants us to look on, not 
to take advantage of the opportunity 
now offered us to establish our own 
merchant marine, she does not want 
us to supply foodstuffs to the German 
people — let them starve. 

In the same issue in which the 
splendid appeal appears we find the 
following notice: 

The movement to capture Ger- 
many's trade has been taken up with 



splendid vigor and the government 
is giving fully its official support. 
The board of trade, which is a gov- 
ernment department, is doing every- 
thing possible, while the colonial of- 
fice is gathering information from 
the dominions anent the character of 
previous German imports. The 
chamber of commerce is arranging 
meetings between manufacturers and 
former importers of German goods. 

It is beyond my understanding how 
the American people, and particularly 
the American newspapers, can sym- 
pathize with England and the present 
war. Since the War of Independence 
there has been no occasion on which 
England did not try her level best to 
injure our country, and even in the 
Mexican trouble it was admitted that 
England, through Sir Lionel Carden, 
tried very hard to involve us in war. 
Now she led Japan to take steps 
which, if they will not cause us to 
go to war, will give us serious trou- 
ble, and whatever she does, she does 
to help the poor oppressed. If it 
helps her at the same time to pocket 
diamond mines, canals built by 
others, whole countries, she accepts 
them only in trust for humanity. It 
is an old saying that no hypocrite is 
as dangerous as one who is able to 
deceive himself, and of all the sick- 
ening spectacles the history of the 
world has shown the most disgusting 
is that of "Perfidious Albion" posing 
as the champion of liberty and right. 
The British middle class, therefore, 
is full of an angry, vague disposition 
to thwart that expansion which 
Gerjnans regard very reasonably as 
their natural destiny; there are all 
the possibilties of a huge conflict 
in that disposition, and it is perhaps 
well to remember how insular — or 
at least how European — the essen- 
tials of this quarrel are. We have 
lost our tempers, but Canada has not. 
There is nothing in Germany to make 
Canada envious and ashamed of 
wasted years, etc., etc." 

There spoke the true Mr. Wells, 
the able critic and man of a world 
outlook. Not the one sided English- 
man who recommends a new map 
of Europe on ethnological lines for 
the Slav, the Italian, the Teuton, the 
Frenchman, and the Magyar, but not 
for the Celt. Let every little tribe 
govern itself excepting only the Irish 
and the Boers; for them English 
righteousness is better than self- 
government. — Mrs. Herman Lan- 
dau er, 5326 East End Avenue. 



In view of a rediculous Paris story 
as to the speedy flight of Prince Eitel 
Friedrich at the approach of some 
British troops, which story was prob- 
ably cabled with gusto to London, 
It may be of interest to state that 
whereas none of the near relatives 
of the royal houses of England and 
Russia, much less their sons, are at 
the front, Emperor William has all 
of his male offspring at the firing 
line. Proof of this is furnished by 
the wounding of Princes Eitel Fried- 
rich and Joachim. Crown Prince 
Franz of Bavaria, too, has been 
wounded in the knee. The Hohen- 
zollerns have certainly never been 
afraid of the smell of powder. — The 
Hornet. 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 




ITN(K)LN 

iiuit<'-\ ot till. Chicago \bendpo'.t ) 



NEUTRALITY OF A SEMI-OFFICIAL NATURE 



231 



Remember the Words of George Washington. 

The Father of Our Country. 

"The duty and interest of the United States require that they should, with sincerity and 
good faith, adopt and pursue a conduct FRIENDLY AND IMPARTIAL, toward the belligerent 
powers. ' ' 

"Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony, religion 
and mortality enjoin this conduct, and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?" 

"The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the 
obligations which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, 
to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity toward other nations." 

"Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its 
virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human na- 
ture. ' ' 

"In the execution of such a plan nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate 
antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachment for others should be excluded, 
and that in place of them JUST AND AMICABLE FEELINGS TOWARD ALL should be culti- 
vated. The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is 
in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is suf- 
ficient to lead it astray from its duty or its interest." 

"It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is 
apt doubly to injure the nation making the concession, by unnecessarily parting with what ought 
to have been retained and by exciting jealousy, illwill and a disposition to retaliate in the parties 
from whom equal privileges are withheld; and it gives to ambitious, corrupt or deluded citizens 
(who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray the interest of their country 
without odium, sometimes even with popularity, gilding with the appearance of a virtuous sense 
of obligation a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the 
base or foolish compliance of ambition, corruption or infatuation." 

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and mortality 
are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should 
labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these finest props of the duties of men 
and citizens." — The Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 



WASHINGTON CABINET NOTES. 



From "The Fatherland," New York, 
October 14, 1914. 

About the activities of the daugh- 
ter of Secretary of State Bryan and 
her husband, an English army of- 
ficer, dispatches informs us: 

London, Sept. 29. — Mrs. Ruth 
Bryan Owen, daughter of Secretary 
of State Bryan, whose husband Is an 
officer in the British army and will 
soon leave for the front, is busily 
engaged in relief work. 

The Hon. Josephus Daniels, Sec- 
retary of the Navy, asserts in his 
paper, the "Raleigh News and Ob- 
server," that the "New York Herald" 
Is by far the best medium for war 
news. It may be recalled that the 
James Gordon Bennett papers, the 
"Herald" and "Telegram," an- 
nounced sometime ago that they 
would not print the German news 
sent by wireless via Sayville. The 
"New York German Herold" re- 
marks: 

"Mr. Josephus Daniels, the Secre- 
tary of the Navy, evidently prefers 
his news treated from the French 
standpoint. For the rest we might 
remark, if all the members of Mr. 
Wilson's cabinet are of Mr. Daniels' 
opinion, certain unneutral doings are 
easily explained." 



"DAKE TO DO YOUR DUTY." 

"Let us have faith that right 
makes might, and in that faith let 
us to the end dare to do our duty as 
we understand it." — Abraham Lin- 
coln. 



HAS AMERICA BEEN NEUTRAL? 

The press has printed the thought- 
ful "Proclamation of Neutrality" by 
President Wilson; but how many 
newspapers have followed it? On 
the contrary. Neutrality has been 
trampled upon by them. They have 
made a farce of it and did it in 
a most stupid manner. They have 
distorted the European crisis beyond 
recognition. Nor can it be gainsaid 
that the good name of Germany has 
been severely slandered. Their 
thoughtlessness is beyond the power 
of words. This country has nothing 
but admiration, good wishes and 
friendship for Germany. An "un- 
thinking press" should not be al- 
lowed to create animosity between 
friendly nations. No American can 
forget the beautiful words of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, "with malice toward 
none, with charity for all." Nor 
should we forget the remarkable 
-words of Jackson, when he said, 
"Friendships with all nations, but 
entangling alliances with none." 

However, history moves quickly 
and Fate still faster. Who can tell 
that the day may not come when the 
United States \vill welcome Germany 
as a friend! And a warm friend she 
would be. Her word is good. 

Finally, the most violent pro-British 
element of the American Press has suc- 
ceeded iu bringing upon its head, to a 
very large extent, the loss of American 
life of the Lusitania and elsewhere. In 
future, for Heaven's sake, "let us think 
of America" first ! — Editor. 



GREAT BRITAIN REPRIMANDS 
PRESIDENT WILSON. 



Editorial from "The Fatherland," 
New York, September 30, 1914. 

Sir Lionel Garden, formerly Great 
Britain's representative in Mexico, 
now on his way to his new post in 
Brazil, severely repriitiands President 
Wilson for his order withdrawing our 
troops from Vera Cruz. The British 
diplomat does not hesitate to char- 
acterize President Wilson's action as 
"a shame." The interview is printed 
in the New York "Sun" and is 
vouched for by one of that newspa- 
per's ablest reporters and two of his 
colleagues. The subsequent per- 
functory denial by Sir Lionel isn't 
taken seriously by any one acquaint- 
ed with the editorial integrity of the 
New York "Sun," and this minister's 
past record for impertinence toward 
the President of the United States. 

English warships have seized and 
destroyed the mail of American citi- 
zens addressed to Germany without 
regard to neutrality, in flagrant vio- 
lation of the conventions of inter- 
national law. This act of piracy is 
almost a casus belli. 

Evidently British statesmen look 
upon the United States as a province 
of the British Empire. Else they 
would not dare to strain to the 
breaking point the neutrality pro- 
claimed by President Wilson. But 
they are making their reckoning 
without their host. Possibly their in- 
formation on American sentiment is 
derived from such publications as 
Collier's Weekly and the New York 



232 



THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR 



Times. They forget that they will 
have to take into account the Ameri- 
can people. They may have suo^ 
ceeded in wresting the Panama Canal 
from us by legal trickery, but they 
will find us ready to defend the 
rights of our citizens today as In 
1812. Already public opinion in this 
country is veering around. We be- 
gin to see the ally of Japan, our 
arch enemy, in her true light. We 
know that Great Britain is equally 
desirous of thwarting our plans for 
an efficient merchant marine as she is 
determined to destroy the commerce 
of Germany. Great Britain may have 
the right to destroy German com- 
merce because she is at war with the 
German Empire. But her iron fist 
is raised, though gloved with the silk 
of hypocrisy, to nip in the bud, even 
in times of peace, our plan of acquir- 
ing by purchase a fleet of American 
bottoms. 

Who doubts that Great Britain if 
she succeeds in annihilating German 
commerce, will next turn her atten- 
tion to the United States? 



A WORD TO AMERICA. 



By a Prominent Austro-Hungarian 
Statesman. 

There has always existed in Austria- 
Hungary a feeling of sympathy for 
America, and we have believed that it 
was not altogether unreciprocated. 
We knew very well that we were not 
so much in the thoughts of the people 
over there as they were in ours. Many 
Americans have very indistinct ideas, 
if any, about Austria-Hungary, and 
when they have chanced to visit us 
we did not know which side ought to 
be the more ashamed, we, that those 
abroad had heard so little concerning 
us, or our visitors, because they pos- 
sessed so little knowledge of European 
geography, history and politics. 

But if Americans, with the exception 
of those living here, know us but 
slightly, it is likewise true that their 
acquaintance with Germany is limited. 
The articles which the ex-president of 
Harvard University, Chas. W. Eliot, 
wrote shortly after the outbreak of 
the war, in the attempt to interpret 
the public opinion of America, were 
remarkable indications of how exclu- 
sively the views of German life and ac- 
tivity held there are drawn from Eng- 
lish sources. The Germany which he 
condemns, and to a very slight de- 
gree praises, is as different from the 
real one as a caricature is from a pho- 
tograph. Germany, according to Dr. 
Eliot, is striving for a world-wide em- 
pire, is an incorporation of militarism 
and concludes secret treaties without 
the knowledge of its people. It does 
not seem to him worthy of mention 
that England has appropriated a large 
part of America, half Africa, all India 
and all Australia. That Russia and 
France spend much more money on 
their armies than Germany; that Eng- 
land has laid down the fundamental 
principle: its navy must be as strong 
as that of any other two countries 
combined; that Sir Edward Grey made 
secret agreements with Prance, Bel- 
gium and Russia, which he denied be- 
fore Parliament — these are facts of 
which the learned doctor has either 



never heard or has forgotten. In his 
view the German Empire holds Schles- 
wig-Holstein, nine-tenths of whose 
population are Germans, in its power, 
against the will of the latter, and is 
altogether a detestable conqueror and 
oppressor, in distinction to England, 
France and Russia, whom he appar- 
ently considers received their great 
possessions as a gift. The good doctor 
has also not the slightest thought of 
the well-known love of peace of our 
Emperor nor does he appear aware of 
the unremitting efforts of the German 
Kaiser to preserve the peace. In short, 
Dr. Eliot discloses an ignorance con- 
cerning us and Germany that in refer- 
ence to America would be surprising 
in one of the pupils of our secondary 
schools. 

It would have been useless to at- 
tempt to make known to Americans, fed 
with English representations, that the 
Russian government had prepared the 
war a long time in advance, and that 
the English ministers had some time 
back laid the wire, so that it only 
needed the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikola- 
iewich to press the button for the ex- 
plosion to follow. 

Americans who know Europe and 
have a sense for European ideas like 
the philosopher Fullerton, have at- 
tempted to bring home, in some degree 
to their countrymen the truth in these 
matters, and what they have not suc- 
ceeded in doing, it will not be possible 
for an Austrian, in the short space of 
a newspaper article, to accomplisli. 
Let then an Englishman be quoted. 

In the year 1909, there appeared in 
the English monthly, "The United 
Service Institution," a prize article 
written hy a British naval officer, in 
which the following sentences occur: 
"We (Great Britain) do not. go to 
war on sentimental grounds. I douht 
if we have ever done that. War is the 
outcome of cominercial disputes; its 
aim is to force upon our adversaries 
f)j/ means of the sword, those condi- 
tions ichich we consider necessary for 
creating for ourselves commercial ad- 
vantages. We make use of all think- 
ahle pretexts and inducements as the 
reasons for war, 'but trade is the one 
that is at the 'bottom, of them all.* 
Whether we give out that a defensive 
purpose, the gaining of a strategical 
position, the 'breach of treaties and 
what not else has been the occasion, 
all of these rest ultimately on trade, 
the simple and sufficient reason for 
which is, that trade is for us a vital 
necessity." 

That is frankly said. And now 
comes the hypocrisy : An English 
manufacturer sent to Austrian, and 
probably to German public men also, 
on the outbreak of the war, his busi- 
ness announcement, to which he ap- 
pend,ed some political reflections regret- 
ting that in Germany the teachers and 
clergy had not impressed it upon the 
people ; in business competition, foreign 
countries must also be allowed to live. 
How does such Pecksniffian morality 
please Americans? 

The Russian foreign minister, Sas- 
sonoff, who a few days ago in the 
Duma did his turn as a political 
thimble-rigger with much success, has 
called upon most of the countries 



which are not yet at war with us, to 
fall upon us, and secure for themselves 
a part of the booty, a portion of our 
territory or something from our com- 
merce and industry. He proclaimed 
in diplomatic circumlocutions that 
Russia must possess Constantinople 
and the Dardanelles ; and the prime 
minister and several enthusiastic rep- 
resentatives expressed loud and openly 
their assent. In consequence of this, 
England will, if victorious, occupy 
Palestine and a part of Arabia ; Japan 
has already begun to take China in 
guardianship. The world is to be di- 
vided up anew, and the Americans re- 
gard this as something very fine, if 
they can only join in the general chase 
to run Germany down. 

The removal of German competition 
from the markets of the world can, 
however, be the end in view of only 
that small number of Americans who 
do not take into consideration that 
England and Japan would possess the 
place which Germany occupied. The 
great majority of them can hardly 
mean this. They join in the uproar 
against Germany simply because this 
note has been struck, and take sides 
against that country without much 
concern, because New York, following 
London and Paris, has made it the 
fashion. 

If England would starve us out, the 
Americans would find it an excellent 
procedure, because we do not deserve 
anything better, and if Germany takes 
precautions to prevent this, why it is a 
new piece of wickedness on her part, 
against which the sharpest protests 
must be made. Lord Rosebery said 
in a speech : the German-American 
wishes to direct America as the little 
Hindoo does the elephant on which 
he sits. The German-American desires 
only that America be impartial, while 
the English leader wants to direct the 
elephant on the wrong road, that it 
may help England tread down the 
enemy whom she cannot herself man- 
age, and in so doing make possibly 
a dangerous false step. — From the 
"Continental Times," Berlin. 



A REPLY TO MR. WELLS. 



From "The Chicago Tribune," 
August 29, 1912. 

St. Paul, Minn., Aug. 30. — [Editor' 
of The Tribune.] — I have read the 
article by Mr. H. G. Wells with 
mingled feelings of amusement and 
contempt. Such insolent articles on 
the part of contemporary English 
writers have been a strong contrib- 
utory cause of the present war; they 
have bred in Germany a national dis- 
trust of England. According to Mr. 
Wells, the conditio sine qua nan of 
world peace is the destruction of 
Germany, Germany reduced to the 
status of Spain, without commerce, 
without navy, without ambition. 
Surely, a difficult proposition for 98,- 
000,000 Germans to believe. 

Let us look at the motive for Eng- 
land's position. Germany's combined 
export and import trade has in- 
creased from 1880, when it was $1,- 
429,025,000, to $4,019,072,250 in 
1910. In 1900 the Hamburg-Ameri- 
can line had twenty-six steamers, in 
1914, 170. The increase in tonnage 



NEUTRALITY OF A SEMI-OFFICIAL NATURE 



233 



of the North German Lloyd was 
slightly less. In 1900 the tonnage of 
warships was 152,000; in 1914 it 
was 1,105,000. Germany's commerce 
grew, to some extent, at the expense 
of England's. Where once the latter 
traded unmolested she now faces 
keen competition backed by scientific 
training, and she is steadily losing 
ground throughout the world. 

Be frank about it Mr. Wells, and 
do not babble in ambiguous terms; 
you have set out, in time approved, 
true English fashion, to crush a 
dangerous rival, with the help of 
France, Russia, Belgium and Japan, 
for the sake of trade and nothing 
else. 

Mr. Wells would have us believe 
that all the evil in this world is cen- 
tered in Berlin, and all the virtues in 
Downing street, the same Downing 



street that crushed the brave Boers 
for the possession of the Kimberley 
mines, and compelled China, at th» 
point of the bayonet to foster the 
opium habit among her people for the 
sake of dividends payable at London. 
I shudder at the thought of an Eng- 
lish ruled world; there would be 
much hymn singing and much selling 
of goods in between. He condemns 
Kruppism, but has nothing to say 
about Armstrongism. 

Let us look at these German sav- 
ages at closer range; there are 15,- 
000,000 of them in our midst en- 
gaged in all sorts of occupations. 
What is their cultural mission in our 
body politic? They have brought 
with them their traditions from the 
fatherland; law-abiding, a high 
standard of education, love for home 
life, thrift, and frugality. They are 



the kind that have developed our 
marvelous west; they have fought 
and shed their blood in the civil war 
for a united America, while English 
men of war stood off the coast giving 
succor to the South; they have given 
us educators, statesmen, bankers, 
and merchant princes. Of late they 
do not come to our shores any longer; 
instead of it we are getting the bed- 
fellows of the English — the Russian, 
the Servian, the Croatian and Ar- 
menian, and the Japanese. 

Let us preserve our spirit of fair- 
ness in this severe trial of the Teu- 
tonic race and not be hoodwinked by 
high sounding, hypocritical phrases 
by paid word mongers as to why 
England stirred up the present trou- 
ble. 

JOHANN FRICKMANN, 

Civis Americanus. 



ON THE FENCE 

Nations With Verv Vital Interests 



IN REFERENCE TO THE GERMAN-AUSTRIANTTALIAN ALLIANCE 

Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy 

In Regard to the British-French-Russian AUiance 

Japan, Portugal, Roumania, Greece 



Italy and the War— An Ally, Neutral, Belligerent 



LET AMERICA BE NEUTRAL. 



Editorial from "The Irish World," 
New York, September 12, 1914. 

The course for the United States to 
adopt during the present upheaval in 
Europe is clear. It should be one of 
the strictest neutrality. Our first 
duty is to our own country. Loyalty 
to it imperatively demands that we 
adhere strictly to the sage advice of 
"Washington In regard to foreign en- 
tanglements. There is an element in 
the United States that would have us 
disregard the policy outlined by him. 
Andrew Carnegie and those co-oper- 
ating with him, would be pleased if 
we arrayed ourselves on England's 
side in the international war that is 
now devastating Europe. That part 
of the American press that is under 
their Influence has taken sides openly 
with England and is now engaged in 
disseminating the most shameless 
lies about the countries with which 
she is at war. 

It is not difficult to divine the mo- 
tives that have prompted our pro- 
British organs to pursue this course. 
They aim at creating a body of pub- 
lic opinion, which, they hope, even- 
tually will be strong enough to drag 
the country into the European war in 
the interest of England. One of them, 
the New York "Times," last Tuesday 
placed before its readers an article 
headed "War on Germany," which 
had been cabled to it from London by 
Professor W. G. Hale of the Chicago 
University. The Professor, by the 
way, is one of Carnegie's peace advo- 
cates. His idea of promoting the 
cause of peace is for the United States 
to make an immediate declaration of 
war against Germany. "The United 
States," he says, "should immediately 
declare war on Germany as the viola- 
tor of the Hague agreements." 

No time is to be lost. We are to 
adopt the English view of the charges 
against Germany and hasten to take 
our stand by the side of "the Mother 
Country." Here is the manner in 



which this peace advocate of the Car- 
negie brand rebukes us for hesitating 
about plunging America into the hor- 
rors of war: "We should take our 
part in the great struggle instead of 
smugly sitting by while the world's 
work is done by other nations. Even 
Germany would then know that her 
plot against humanity had been both 
judged and doomed." 

The pro-British organ which pub- 
lishes this stuff has a leading editor- 
ial in the same issue entitled "Our 
Answer to Germany," in which it 
states that England, France and Rus- 
sia have taken up arms in defense of 
"political ideals," as against designs 
which "we hold in abhorrence." Then 
assuming, with the customary mod- 
esty of an Anglomaniac organ, to 
speak for the American people it 
says: "This is the answer we make to 
Germany. It expresses the beliefs 
and the feelings of the whole Ameri- 
can people, save only some of those 
whose judgment is subject to the 
natural influence of ties of kindred." 
In the quotations we have placed 
before our readers we have evidence 
of the desire of the pro-British ele- 
ment to involve this country in the 
terrible international tragedy that is 
unfolding itself at this moment. 
America should hold herself aloof 
from it. Those who directly or in- 
directly favor her participation in it 
should be regarded as traitors to the 
land that has the first claim on their 
allegiance. 



THE HOLY WAR 



We are reprinting two articles by 
"The Tribune's" war correspondents, 
Mr. Bennett and Mr. Patterson, which 
should convince even the most skep- 
tical and prejudiced that there is ab- 
solutely no base or foundation for the 
terrible accusations which have been 
made against the German army. Con- 
sult the index for "German Atrocities 
Fiction So Far As Tribune Men in 
Belgium Can Find," and "Bennett 
Gives New Light on German Spirit." 
— ^The Publisher of "War Echoes." 



Herman Ridder. 

Under the heading "The Holy 
War" the New York Times indulges 
in an editorial comedy which at- 
tempts to reconcile the attitude of 
the Times in its firm opposition to 
Russia over a period of many years 
with its present Russian partisan- 
ship. The Times maintains that the 
best solution of the present position 
is to crush Germany and Austria, 
thereby forcing an alliance after the 
war between Russia, Germany and 
Austria! ! ! ! What rot! Finally 
the Times combines the Romanoff, 
the Hapsburg and the Hohenzollern 
dynasties and throws them all over- 
board together. Does the Times want 
to still further restrict the territory 
in Europe open to a number of our 
alien citizens? I have seen in the 
course of my journalistic experiences 
many newspaper changes of front, 
but I have never expected to live to 
see the day when the Times under 
its present management would be a 
supporter of Russia. 



<■* * * The world is fighting Ger- 
many. Civilized Europe is calling 
on uncivilized Africa and Asia to 
wipe out the Teutonic empires. 
Strangely enough, a part of public 
opinion in America, stimulated by a 
powerful press, apparently favors 
the Allies. Sometimes, in the se- 
clusion of my study, I ponder on this 
question: Am I less American be- 
cause my sympathies are roused 
when the odds are six to two? 
Am I the less American because 
I am thrilled when a young, vigor- 
ous empire defies the world to crush 
her? Why is it that I find some- 
thing heroic and stirring where 
others remain cold and unsympa- 
thetic? Wherein lies the difference 
in their point of view and mine? Is 
there no compromise ground upon 
which we can meet in thorough ac- 
cord and harmony?" — Herman Rid- 
der, in the "New Yorker Staats- 
Zeitung." 



ITALY AND THE WAR— ON THE FENCE 



235 



THE WITHDRAWAL OF ITALY 

PROM THE "TRIPLE" 

ALLIANCE. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 
New York. 

Herman Ridder. 

The withdrawal of Italy from the 
Triple Alliance at a time when its of- 
fensive and defensive provisions 
called upon her to go to the assistance 
of Germany and Austria has been va- 
riously interpreted and justified in 
this country and abroad. A great 
deal of ingenious casuistry has been 
displayed in the discussion of the pros 
and cons of Italy's position. It has 
no doubt served its purpose of fur- 
ther befuddling the brains of those 
whose minds were already made up 
that Italy should have waged com- 
mon war with her allies or, on the 
contrary, that she was morally justi- 
fied in seizing upon technicalities to 
free herself from the conditions of 
an alliance which had outlived its 
natural life. The wish has been 
father to the thought in both camps. 
Italy was perfectly justified in the 
attitude which she assumed, but 
her justification is not to be found in 
the alleged alteration of the condi- 
tions under which the Triple Alliance 
was formed nor in the loopholes 
which the Roman lawyers claim to 
have discovered in the documents by 
which it was created and renewed. 

The conditions under which the 
Triple Alliance came into being have 
been set forth at length so often dur- 
ing the last three decades and a half, 
and more especially during the last 
two months that they can scarcely 
fail to have become known to most 
interested readers. When the Holy 
Roman Empire, which had given Eu- 
rope the nearest approach to unity 
the continent had previously or has 
since experienced, came to an end, its 
component parts, for the moment left 
in utter chaos, began, by the laws of 
race attraction and adhesion, to unite 
along other lines. Out of this proc- 
ess of crystalization, among other po- 
litical developments, came German 
Unification and Italian Unification. 
The laws which governed both 
movements and the conditions under 
which they operated were largely 
the same. The king of Prus- 
sia and Victor Emmanuel of 
Italy were actuated by the same mo- 
tives, aimed at the same ideals and 
lived to congratulate each other on 
the realization of their dreams. But 
even before German Unity had be- 
come a fait accompli a bond of friend- 
ship between Italy and Prussia had 
been woven. 

The struggle for unity in Italy was 
carried on not simply against inter- 
nal opposition but also against the 
French, ardent in their support of the 
Papal States. It was further delayed 
and, but for Prussia, would have 
been prevented by Austria. A real- 
ization of this hopeless isolation from 
her immediate neighbors led Italy to 
propose an offensive and defensive 
alliance with Prussia. The treaty 
was signed on April 8, 18 66. Shortly 
after war broke out between Prussia 
and Austria, and the recession of Ve- 
nitla was the price offered by Austria 
to Italy for her withdrawal from the 



alliance with the enemy. Italy refused. 
She was everywhere beaten in the 
war, but Prussia carried the day for 
herself and her ally and the province 
of Venice was returned to Italy. The 
Italian states, no less than the States 
of Northern Germany, emerged from 
the war of 1866 one step further to- 
ward the goal of Unity. It remained, 
however, for another Prussian war to 
consumate the ideals of both. 

After the battle of Mentana, in 
which Garibaldi's levies were cut to 
pieces by the French, Victor Emman- 
uel had written to Napoleon III: 
"The late events have suffocated 
every remembrance of gratitude in 
the heart of Italy. It is no longer in 
the power of the Government to 
maintain the alliance with France. 
The chassepot gun at Mentana has 
given it a fatal blow." The attitude 
of France remained unaltered, how- 
ever; and it was not until the neces- 
sity arose of opposing the advance of 
the victorious legions of Prussia with 
every available soldier of France, that 
the French garrisons in Italy were 
called in. As the last French sol- 
dier filed out of Rome in 1870, Victor 
Emmanuel entered, and Italian Unity 
was achieved. 

The Franco-Prussian War left Ger- 
many and Italy unified. The crop had 
been sown, but the harvest was yet 
to be reaped. Both countries were 
weary of war and longed for endur- 
ing peace, for only by peace could 
each develop intellectually, industri- 
ally and commercially as it aimed to 
do. With France disgruntled and 
Russia ever hungry and ever faith- 
less, there was but one sure way of 
securing peace to Europe. It was 
Bismarck who forged the Triple Al- 
liance, but he was supported no less 
enthusiastically in Rome than in Ber- 
lin. The Alliance was popular with 
all parties in Italy and remained so 
until the outbreak of the present war, 
with the possible exception of the 
irreconcilable Irredentists. It pre- 
served the peace of Europe for over 
thirty years and under its influence 
Germany and Italy advanced from 
negligible group names to positions of 
first rank among the nations of the 
world. 

The strength of the Triple Alliance 
lay in the fact that it was an offen- 
sive and defensive undertaking on the 
part of the three great states of Cen- 
tral Europe to hold the peace of the 
Continent against two nearly equally 
powerful nations lying on their 
flanks. It held France and Russia in 
check no less by the fact that it sepa- 
rated them than by the potential 
strength of the combined forces of the 
allies. It preserved the peace of Eu- 
rope by offering war whenever any 
other power or combination of powers 
should choose to declare it. To say 
that it contemplated peace, without 
the possibility of having to flght for 
it, is absurd. The defensive alliance 
has yet to be written which does not 
regard preparation for the one as the 
surest means of maintaining the 
other. There is no discussion in the 
treaty of 1882 of those Utopian the- 
ories which had the run of a decade 
or so and came to a lamentable end 
when the Czar of Russia sent his fa- 
mous wire to Belgrade on July 24th. 
The terms of the treaty were plain 



enough. They required that Italy join 
forces with Germany and Austria in 
the present war, just as during the 
whole life of the document they had 
required such service in the case of 
any European coalition against one 
or more of the allies. By every sane 
interpretation of the treaty Italy was 
called upon to throw her lot with 
those who for over thirty years had 
stood ready to do the same for her. 
And yet I say Italy was perfectly jus- 
tified in declining to do so. 

It is fatuous to contend that trea- 
ties are written for all time; that 
"there shall be perpetual peace and 
friendship" between or among the 
signatories is a fiction of speech. They 
are entered into by nations for pres- 
ent comfort, and, sometimes, for pos- 
sible future gain. Italy wanted the 
potential fruits of the Triple Alli- 
ance as much as did Austria or Ger- 
many. She reaped her share of 
them. The time arrived, however, 
when Austria and Germany were 
lured into war by a powerful combin- 
ation, the outcome of which was high- 
ly problematical. Italy had only an 
"entangling alliance" to draw her 
into it. She did the wise thing, and 
kept out. In doing so she consulted 
not her promises as they stood in 
black and white over the signatures 
of her plenipotentiaries, but her own 
present interests. These lay with 
peace rather than with war. The 
right of choice was given her by every 
rule of international conduct, histori- 
cal and present, and she exercised it 
for the good of Italy. It is no longer 
possible to question profitably if the 
Russian bluff could not have been 
successfully called if Italy had taken 
a firm stand with her allies. She 
probably knew as well as they the 
extent to which Russian preparations 
had been carried and that the Bear 
of the North had at last made up his 
mind to strike. 

The policy which Italy has pursued 
in standing aloof from her allies must 
be her answer to the alluring prov- 
inces dangled temptingly before her 
eyes by Russia and England. If it 
was war for Italy at all, it was war 
with and not against Austria and 
Germany. She tore up a treaty to 
save thousands of her sons and per- 
haps billions of her wealth, and even 
England, whose press is doing its 
best to tie another ally to England's 
stirrup leathers, should be able to see 
that these cannot now be bartered for 
a few square rods of territory. The 
hunger for land has not eaten so 
deep into the vitals of Italy as it has 
into those of the Briton. 

I could conceive of no thinking man 
blaming Italy for the stand which she 
has taken were it not for the furor 
raised by self-righteous England and 
her sycophants in America over Ger- 
many's action in regard to Belgium. 
The two countries were brought face 
to face with treaties which it was not 
to their advantage to observe. In 
the case of Italy, observance of her 
treaty obligations meant the loss of 
men and dollars — enough, it is true, 
to warrant her in abrogating the ob- 
ligation. In the case of Germany, 
it was a question of respecting an 
obsolete undertaking, the validity 
of which England herself had 
questioned and which she knew 



236 



ITALY— ALLY, NEUTRAL, BELLIGERENT 



Francli was prepared to violate, or 
of taking the steps necessary to the 
preservation of her national exist- 
ence. Of the two countries, Ger- 
many was the least culpable. And 
yet Sir Edward Grey forced a reluc- 
tant nation into an unpopular war 
over this "scrap of paper"! England 
created Belgium to protect the Brit- 
ish coast and trained Belgium to eat 
out of her hand. She cares no more 
for Belgian neutrality, or Belgian lib- 
erty as such, than she did for that of 
the South African Republic. She 
cares for "the smaller countries" 
only so long as she can control them 
and make them do her bidding. 
When they do this she likes them. 
She has often striven even to add to 
their number. During the War of 
the States no power in Europe was 
so solicitous for a small South and a 
small North as England. But when 
a friendly state, which has done Eng- 
land no more harm than to crave a 
place on the globe, finds that her 
existence depends upon advancing an 
army through Belgium, England rises 
in her wrath and waves a motheaten 
treaty in her face. And when this 
does not avail, declares against her 
a war of bayonets and Billingsgate. 
Writes Guglielmo Ferrero: 
"Belgium was the pretext for the 
war rather than the reason — the 
magnificent pretext offered by Ger- 
many to the party in England that 
had long been wanting war.* * * 
"It is to be believed that even if 
Germany had not imprudently fur- 
nished England with that splendid 
pretext, England would have sought 
and found another." 



FOIiLY OF ENGIjAND'S NEUTBAIj- 
ITY STAND. 



Professing to Be the Friend of the 

Smaller Nations, the British 

Empire Disregards Many 

Treaty Obligations. 



Reprinted from the "News of the 

War in Europe," supplied by 

"The Fatherland," New York. 

Perfected criminology, criminal 
records of the police departments, 
an improved Bertillon system and 
the "morgue" of the large daily 
papers are a great handicap for the 
habitual criminals on their way to 
oblivion and fresh exploits. What 
these "aide-memoires" represent to 
the individual sinner the annals of 
history do represent to countries 
and governments. England's decla- 
ration of war on Germany came like 
a thunderbolt from a clear sky. 
What had happened? What have 
the Germans done to challenge the 
wrath of their British cousins? Why 
should England go to war against 
Germany? These questions were not 
asked by Germany alone, but by 
good, faithful British men, leading 
in public life, such as Lord Morley, 
Burns, the two retired members of 
the British Cabinet; Under Secretary 
of Education Trevelyan, also retired; 
Ramsay MacDonald, Stewart Houston 
Chamberlain, and others. 

Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey, 
however, gave out that England's 
virtuous soul was indigant over Ger- 



many's breach of neutrality in Bel- 
gium. "England must constitute 
herself the natural protector of weak 
countries and people, as she had 
always been in the past," so they said. 
When this was said the world's 
clockwork stood still for a moment, 
silence reigned and everybody gasped 
for breath. But Satan smiled his 
smile for which he is so famous. 

Let us turn on history's search- 
light! It must undoubtedly show 
how England has protected the weak 
countries and how she has herself 
respected neutrality in the past. 

On the 18th of August, 1759, 
Admiral de la Clue, the chief of the 
French squadron, and his Toulon 
fleet of seven vessels, on the way to 
Havre, were attacked by the British 
Admiral Boscawen and eighteen men- 
of-war in the neutral waters of Port- 
ugal. In spite of Portugal's efforts 
to protect her neutrality with the 
guns of her fortress at Lagos, in 
Algarve, the British paid no atten- 
tion to her warnings, set the French 
fleet on flre and captured it — in the 
neutral territorial waters of Port- 
ugal, near Cape St. Vincent. Great 
Britain did not indemnify little Port- 
ugal, nor did she give back the cap- 
tured vessels to France — she merely 
apologized, and that half-heartedly. 

In 1793 two British men-of-war 
captured the French frigate "Mo- 
deste" in the neutral port of Genoa. 
This was a flagrant breach of neu- 
trality, but England never restored 
her illegal prize, nor did she even 
apologize for the violation of Gen- 
oese territory. 

In March, 1801, the British fri- 
gate "Squirrel" captured neutral 
Swedish ships in neutral Danish 
waters. At about the same time the 
British man-of-war "Achilles" cap- 
tured French ships, also in the neu- 
tral waters of Denmark. No apol- 
ogies were offered, no restitution 
made. 

On the 2d of ApriL 1801, while 
every body was at peace, a strong 
British fleet division passed the 
Sound and entered the neutral port 
of Copenhagen, bombarding the city 
and destroying little Denmark's 
whole fleet. 

In 1805 British men-of-war cap- 
tured the boat "Anne" in the terri- 
torial waters of the United States. 

In March, 1814, the British men- 
of-war "Phoebe" and "Cherub" at- 
tacked and destroyed the United 
States frigate "Essex," just outside 
the limits of the port of Valparaiso, 
in the neutral territorial waters of 
Chile. 

In 1814 the American vessel 
"General Armstrong" was attacked 
and destroyed by British cruisers in 
the harbor of Fayal, in neutral Port- 
uguese waters. 

The case of the "Alabama," in 
1862, which operated so successfully 
against the commercial navy of the 
Northern States, is too well known 
and requires no amplification beyond 
the fact that the Aribitration Court 
in Geneva, September 14, 1872, sen- 
tenced Great Britain for her breach 
of neutrality to a payment of $15,- 
000,000 to be paid to the United 
States. 



The same is true with reference 
to the "Florida" and "Shenandoah." 
These steamers chose for their field 
of action the stretch of sea between 
the Bahama archipelago and Ber- 
muda and Melbourne and Hobson's 
Bay, respectively, for the purpose, 
which was immediately carried out, 
of going to the Arctic seas to attack 
American whaling vessels. The 
granting of coal supplies by Great 
Britain in quantities sufficient for 
such purposes constituted a flagrant 
breach of neutrality on the part of 
England. 



MOBS IN ITALIAN CITIES CRY 
FOR WAR ON AUSTRIA. 



War Minister, Friend of Triple Alli- 
ance, Said to Have Prepared 
Resignation. 



From the "Chicago Examiner," Sep- 
tember 17, 1914. 

Rome, Sept. 16. — Mobs filled the 
streets today of the leading Italian 
cities crying "Down with Austria" 
and "War with the Kaiser." Troops 
were called out in many parts of the 
kingdom to repress the demonstra- 
tors, the police in most cases being 
found insuflicient. 

Despite the government's position 
of neutrality, the masses continue to 
cry for war with Austria, and the re- 
covery of the Italian provinces, Tyrol 
and Istria, from the Austrian Empire. 

It is again reported that the Mar- 
quis di San Guiliano, Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, is about to resign on 
account of ill health. The foreign 
office denies the report, but it is 
learned on good authority that the 
resignation actually has been ten- 
dered. The Marquis has been regard- 
ed by popular opinion as favorable to 
the Triple Alliance, and during the 
popular demonstrations of the last 
few days there has been evidence of 
popular feeling against him. Should 
the Marquis resign, Premier Salandro 
will take over the foreign office for 
the time being. 

The fear is openly expressed in 
semi-official circles that unless the 
government accedes to the popular 
demand revolution will follow. It 
Is maintained also that should Aus- 
tria and Germany prove victorious in 
the war against the Triple Entente, 
without the assistance of Italy, the 
latter would be punished after the 
close of hostilities for her desertion 
of the Triple Alliance. For this rea- 
son the belief is growing that the 
safest thing for Italy to do is to aid 
France, Great Britain and Russia to 
make the strength of the Teutonic 
Empire's opponents greater. 



We have heard it so often that we f 
have come to believe it true, that the ^ 
people in a country never want war; 
they are dragged into it by their 
rulers. And so we assume that the 
mobs in Italian cities who are clam- 
oring for war with Austria are com- 
posed of kings and princes, dukes 
and counts, cabinet ministers, and 
other high officials. — Prom "The 
Chicago Tribune," September 17, 
1914. 



THE HORIZON DARKENS 

The Critical Hour 



HOSTILE ACTS BEFORE A DECLARATION OF WAR 

The Crisis is at Hand 



The European Situation Has Come to Crisis 
The Emperor's Speeches 



WHO BEGAN THE WAR, AND 

WHY? THE CASE FOB 

GERMANY. 



Speeches by Kaiser Wilhelm. II. 

From the Balcony of the Palace, 

Berlin, July 31, 1914. 

A fateful hour has fallen for Ger- 
many. 

Envious peoples everywhere are com- 
pelling us to our just defense. 

The sword is being forced into our 
hand. I hope that if my efforts at 
the last hour do not succeed in bring- 
ing our opponents to see eye to eye 
with us and in maintaining peace, we 
shall with God's help so wield the 
sword that we shall restore it to its 
sheath again with honor. 

War would demand enormous sacri- 
fices of blood and property from the 
German people, but we should show 
our enemies what it means to pro- 
voke Germany. 

And now I commend you to God. Go 
to church. Kneel down before God and 
pray for His help for our gallant Army. 



ON VICTORY NEAR METZ. 



Prom Cabinet Order of Wilhelm II., 
Published in Berlin, Aug. 23. 

The mobilization and concentration 
of the army is now complete, the Ger- 
man railways having carried out the 
enormous transport movements with 
unparalleled certainty and punctuality. 
With a heart filled with gratitude my 
first thoughts turn to those who since 
1870-71 have worked quietly upon the 
development of an organization which 
has emerged from its first serious test 
with such glorious success. To all who 
have co-operated with them I wish to 
express my imperial thanks for their 
loyal devotion to duty in making pos- 
sible in obedience to my call the trans- 
portation of armed masses of German 
troops against my enemies. The pres- 
ent achievement [near Metz] convinces 
me that the railways of the country 
will be equal to the heaviest demands 
that might be made upon them during 
the course of the gigantic struggle in 
which we are engaged for the future of 
the German Nation. 




THE GERMAN EMPEROR 

"I know no more parties, I know only 
Germany !" 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MEN. 



Kaiser's Telegram from Dresden to 
the King of Saxony, Oct. 2. 

I am very glad to be able to send 
you the best reports of the Nineteenth 
Army Corps and the Twelfth Reserve 
Corps. I visited yesterday the Third 
Army and greeted especially the brave 
181st Regiment, to which I expressed 
my recognition. I found your third 
son and your brother Max as well as 
LafEert and Kirchbach in the best of 
health. The spirit among the men is 
splendid. With such an army we shall 
be able to complete victoriously the 
rest of our difficult task. To this end 
may the Almighty stand by us. 

WILHELM. 



TO THE GERMAN ARMY 

AND NAVY. 



Proclamation by Kaiser Wilhelm II. 

After three and forty years of peace, 
I call the men of Germany to arms. 

It has become necessary to protect 
our most sacred ijossessions, the Fa- 
therland, our very hearths against 
ruthless destruction. 

Enemies on every hand! That is the 
situation. A mighty struggle, a great 
sacrifice confronts us. 

I trust that the old spirit of battle 
still lives on in the German people, that 
powerful spirit of battle which grapples 
with the foe wherever it meets it, be 
the cost what it may,, which has ever 
been the terror and fear of our enemies. 

Soldiers of Germany, in you I place 
my trust ! In each one of you lives the 
liassionate will to conquer, which 
nothing can subdue. Each one of you 
knows, if need be, how to die a hero's 
death. 

Remember our great and glorious 
past ! 

Remember that you are Germans ! 

God help us! 

, WILHELM. 

Berlin, Schloss, Aug. 6, 1914. 



'UP AND AT THE FOBS." 



Kaiser's Farewell Speech to First 

Regiment of Foot Guards at 

Potsdam. 

I draw the sword that with God's 
help I have kept all these years in the 
scabbard. I have drawn the sword, 
which without victory and without 
honor I cannot sheath again. All of 
you will see to it that only in honor is 
it returned to the scabbard. You are 
my guarantee that I can dictate peace 
to my enemies. Up and at the foes, 
and down with the enemies of Bran- 
denburg ! 



Read "The Withdrawal of Italy 
from the Triple Alliance," printed 
on another page. — The Publisher of 
"War Echoes." 



238 



GERMANY IN THE CRISIS 




SPEECH PROM THE THRONE. 



TO THE FRONT 

Note the congenial and yet dignified aspect of the group ; they feel the Spirit 

of Patriotism to a high degree, but the thought that many may never return 

must also be there! 



'TO THE LAST BREATH OF 
MAN AND HORSE." 



Proclamation by Kaiser Wilhelm II. 



The New York Times. 

Since the foundation of the empire it 
has been for forty-three years the object 
of the efforts of myself and my an- 
cestors to preserve the peace of the 
world and to advance by peaceful means 
our vigorous development. But our 
adversaries were jealons of the suc- 
cesses of our work. There has been 
latent hostility on the east and on the 
west and beyond the sea. It was borne 
by us till now. as we were aware of 
our responsibility and power. Now, 
however, these adversaries wish to 
humiliate us, asking that we should 
look on with crossed arms and watch 
our enemies preparing themselves for 
a coming attack. They will not suffer 
that we maintain resolute fidelity to 
our ally who is fighting for its position 
as a great power and with whose 
humiliation our power and honor would 
equally be lost. So the sword must 
decide. 

In the midst of perfect peace the 
enemy surprises us. Therefore to arms ! 
Any dallying, any temporizing would 
be trifling with the empire which our 
fathers founded; to be or not to be, 
is the question for the empire which 
our fathers founded. To be or not 
to be is the question for German 
power and German existence. We 
shall resist to the last breath of 
man and horse, and shall fight out 
the struggle even against a world 
of enemies. Never has Germany 
He was with our ancestors!* 

Berlin, Aug. 6. WILHELM. 



*A tew changes have been made in this 
speech to imprnvo the translation. — The 
Editor of War Echoes. 



Speech of Kaiser at a Parade During 
Swift German Advance Toward Paris. 

Comrades : I have gathered you 
around me here in order to take joy 
with you in the glorioTis victory which 
our comrades have in several days of 
hot battle won with their swords. 
Troops out of every nook and cranny 
of the empire helped one another in 
invincible bravery and unshakable loy- 
alty to win great results. There stood 
together under the leadership of the 
son of the Bavarian King and fought, 
with equal blades, troops of all ages, 
active, reservists, and landtoehr. 

For our victory we are thankful, in 
the first place, to our eternal God (unse- 
rem alien Gott). He will not desert us, 
since we stand for a holy cause. Many 
of our comrades have already fallen in 
battle. They died as heroes for the 
Fatherland. We will think of them 
with honor here, and shout to the 
honor of those still in the field. Hur- 
rah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

We still have many a bloody battle 
before us. Let us hope for further suc- 
cesses like this. We shall not relent, 
and we shall get to the enemy's hide. 
We shall not lose our faith and trust in 
our constant, eternal God above (unse- 
rem guten alten Gott dort olien,). We 
are determined to win and we must 
win. 



FORGIVES ENEMIES. 



Wilhelm's Speech from the Balcony 
of the Palace, Berlin, Aug. 2. 

I thank you for the love and loyalty 
shown me. When I enter upon a fight 
let all party strife cease. We are Ger- 
man brothers and nothing else. All 
parties have attacked me in times of 
peace. I forgive them with all my heart. 
I hope and wish that ttie good German 
sword will emerge victorious in -the 
right. 



Kaiser Wilhelm 11., Opening Special 

Session of the Reichstag in White 

Room of the Royal Palace, 

Berlin, Aug. 4. 

Honored Sirs: It is in an hour 
fraught with fate that I have assembled 
about me all the representatives of the 
German people. For almost half a cen- 
tury we have been able to keep to the 
path of peace. The attempts to attrib- 
ute a warlike temperament to Germany 
and to circumscribe its position in the 
world have often put to severe tests the 
patience of our people. With unswerv- 
ing honesty, my Government, even in 
provoking circumstances, has pursued as 
its highest aim the development of all 
moral, spiritual, and economic powers. 
The world has been witness how tire- 
lessly we strove in the first rank dur- 
ing the pressure and confusion of the 
last few years to spare the nations of 
Europe a war between the great powers. 

The very grave dangers which had 
arisen owing to the events in the Bal- 
kans appeared to have been overcome, 
but then the murder of my friend, the 
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, opened 
up a great abyss. My high ally, the 
Emperor and King Francis Joseph, was 
compelled to take up arms to defend 
the security of his empire against 
dangerous intrigues from a neighbor- 
ing State. In. the pursuit of her proper 
interests the Dual Monarchy has found 
her path obstructed by the Russian Em- 
pire. Not only our duty as an ally 
calls us to the side of Austria-Hungary, 
but on us falls also the mighty task of 
defending the ancient community of cul- 
ture of the two kingdoms and our own 
position in the world against the attack 
of hostile powers. With a heavy heart 
I have been compelled to mobilize my 
army against a neighbor with whom it 
has fought side by side on so many 
fields of battle. With sincere sorrow I 
saw a friendship broken of which Ger- 
many had given faitliful proofs. The 
Imperial Russian Government, yielding 
to the pressure of an insatiable na- 
tionalism, has taken sides with a State 
which by encouraging criminal attacks 
has brought on the evil of this war. 
That France, also, placed herself on 
the side of our enemies could not sur- 
prise us. Too often have our efforts 
to arrive at friendlier relations with 
the French Republic come in collision 
with old hopes and ancient malice. 

Honored Sirs : What human insight 
and power could do to arm a people 
against the last extremities has been 
done with your patriotic help. The hos- 
tility which has been smouldering for a 
long time in the East and in the West 
has now burst into bright flames. The 
present situation did not proceed from 
transient conflicts of interest or diplo- 
matic entanglements, it is the result of 
an ill will which has for many years 
been active against the strength and 
the prosperity of the German Empire. 
We are not incited by lust for conquest, 
we are inspired by the unyielding deter- 
miuation to keep for ourselves and all 
future generations the place which God 
has given us. 

From the proofs which have been 
given you, you will see how my Govern- 
ment, and especially my Chancellor, 



THE KAISER'S SPEECHES IN THE CRISIS 



strove up to the last moment to avert 
the worst. We grasp the sword in com- 
pulsory self-defense, -with clean hands 
and a clean conscience. 

To the peoples and races of the Ger- 
man Empire my call goes forth to de- 
fend with all their strength and in 
brotherly co-operation with our ally 
that which we have created by peaceful 
labor. After the example of our fathers, 
firmly and faithfully, sincerely and 
with chivalry, humbly before God and 
battling joyfully before the enemy, let 
us place our trust in the eternal omni- 
potence, and may He strengthen our 
defense and bring it to a good end ! 

To you, honored sirs, the whole Ger- 
man people, assembled about its Princes 
and its leaders, look this day. Make 
your decision unanimously and quickly. 
That Is my heartfelt wish. 

Gentlemen (addressing the Deputies 
directly) : You have read what I said to 
my people the other day from the bal- 
cony of my castle. I repeat now that I 
no longer know any parties. I know 
that you are firmly resolved without 
only Germans. And in order to testify 
distinction of party to stand by my side 
through danger and death, I call upon 
the leaders of the different parties in 
this House to come forward and lay 
their hands in mine as a pledge. 



"THE WORLD" (NEW YORK) 
FOR THE CZAR 



FIRST SUOCESSFUIj BATTLE. 



Telegram from Kaiser Wllhelm II. to 

Chief of Troops in Upper 

Alsace, Aug. 15. 

Grateful to God, Who was with us. I 
thank you and your troops for the first 
victory. Please convey to all the troops 
which took part in the fight my im- 
perial thanks in the' name of the 
Fatherland. 

TOUR CHIEF WAR CAPTAIN. 



The "New York Herald's" London 
Correspondent Declares the Kaiser 
Exhausted All Means of Peace. 

"England has tried consistently to 
secure peace," declared Sir Edward 
Grey. 

"Every Anglo-Saxon heart through- 
out the world rejoices that it is so 
and that the blame for the most 
colossal crime ever committed against 
civilization will rest for all time 
where it belongs." — New York 
World. 

We can feel — ^yes, we can hear — 
the gallant Anglo-Saxon heart of the 
Pulitzer Estate throbbing with patri- 
otic ardor. 

The New York Herald possibly is 
equally patriotic in the cause of the 
Anglo-Saxon, but if so it is not get- 
ting the right news from London. 
The World is answered in a remark- 
able statement by a London corres- 
pondent which appeared on the first 
page of the Herald August 4, and 
extract the following passages: 

"But it is not the war on Servia 
that is bringing about this catastro- 
phe incalculable. It was merely the 
war on Servia that supplied the 
spark which set in motion those ir- 
resistable forces which are dragging 
five of the greatest nations in the 
world into a war of annihilation * 

H< H« * 

"The Kaiser up to the very last 
moment almost went down on his 
knees to Russia to induce her to de- 
sist from her mobilization. The 
dramatic story of the final interview 
between the German Ambassador 
and the Russian Minister of foreign 



affairs shows that again and again 
the request was made, and it was 
made at the very time that King 
George was urging the same thing. 
Thus two royal cousins up to the 
fifty-ninth minute of the twelfth hour 
used every influence at their com- 
mand to put out the fire, but it had 
gone too far. 

"Nothing then remained for the 
Emperor but to do literally the best 
he could. Since then the Imperial 
William, true to the traditions of his 
race, proceeded on the principle that 
the race is to the swift and the bat- 
tle to the strong. The remarkable 
alacrity with which the German 
army has been mobilized, so that 
perhaps by this time one million and 
a half men are in the field, is one of 
the marvels of military operations." 

We think this answers the great 
Anglo-Saxon World better than any 
thing directly from the editorial pen 
of this journal. — Prom "The Father- 
land," New York, August 10, 1914. 



A PRAYER FOR VICTORY. 



By the Kaiser's Order to Supreme 

Council of the Evangelical Church 

— To Be Included in the Li<> 

urgy Throughout the War. 

Almighty and merciful God! God of 
the armies ! We beseech Thee in hu- 
mility for Thy almighty aid for our 
German Fatherland. Bless the entire 
German war force, lead us to victory, 
and give us grace that we may show 
ourselves to be Christians toward our 
enemies as well. Let us soon arrive 
at the peace which will everlastingly 
safeguard our free and independent 
Germany ! 



FOURTH CHAPTER 

EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 

IDEALS, PROGRESS, AND THE FIRST LAW OF NATURE 
LIFE— AN ETERNAL COMPETITION 



THE WESTERN CAMPAIGN 
BELGIUM AND FRANCE THE BATTLEGROUND 

Germany's Geographic Position among her Neighbors 
Consequent Strategic Movements of Vast Importance of the German Armies 



THE EASTERN CAMPAIGN— RUSSIA 

The Second Colossal Military Move — According to the German Strategic Plans 

The Seriously Threatening Enemy in the East — Galicia and East Prussia 

The "Bear" Must Save Us! 



ITALY IN THE GREAT WAR 

THE STREET PULLS ITALY OFF THE FENCE 

Italy's Harvests from her Sowing as an Ally, a Neutral, a Belligerent 

* Italy Behold the Text; As ye sow, so shall ye also reap! 

The Bone of Contention — Adriatic Provinces 



MODERN NAVAL WARFARE 

BATTLE SHIPS, CRUISERS, SUBMARINES 

Cutting the German Cable and Capturing the Enemy's Merchant Marine 
"The German Submarine will Win the War" 



AERIAL WARFARE 

ZEPPELINS, AEROPLANES, HYDRO-AEROPLANES 

The Use and Effectiveness of Air-craft in the War 
International Law on the Use of Aerial Weapons and Present Necessities 



PRESS ROOM CAMPAIGNS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

WITH MAGNIFICENT FIRST LINE FORCES AND PLENTY OF DUM-DUMS! 

The Pen is now indeed Mightier than the Sword — especially in England and France 

How Strange! 



THE WESTERN CAMPAIGN 

BELGIUM AND NORTHERN FRANCE THE BATTLEGROUND 

The German Position among her Neighbors 
Consequent Strategic Movements of the German Armies 
Especially during the First Month of the War 



GERMANY IN THE GREAT WAR 

What it means to wage War on so large a scale against so many Enemies 

Some Categorical Questions answered by the Imperial German Ambassador to the United States 

Concerning the Use of Weapons in Modern Warfare 

Especially the Submarine and Airship 

INTRODUCTION 

COUNT VON BERNSTORFF 
Imperial German Ambassador to the United States 



GERMANY AND THE GREAT 
WAR. 



The Independent, New York. The 
Imperial German Ambassador. 

In order that the. American peo- 
ple may have an opportunity of hear- 
ing the German side of the case from 
an oflBcial source, "The Independent" 
has asked Count J. H. von Bernstorff 
to reply to certain questions which 
have been much discussed in the 
press, and he has kindly consented to 
do so. The public will appreciate the 
frankness and definiteness with which 
he answers our queries. — The Editor. 

Did Germany approve in advance 
the Austrian ultimatum to Servia? 

Yes. Germany's reasons for doing 
so are the following: For six years 
Servia has been the outpost of Pan- 
Slavism against Austria. The prin- 
ciple of Pan-Slavism is the assump? 
tion that Russia is the protector of 
the Slav nations. This makes it clear 
to everybody who looks into the ques- 
tion that Pan-Slavism means the de- 
struction of Austria, which is half 
Slav. Austria bore patiently for 
years the undermining campaign of 
the Pan-Slavic party, which was car- 
ried on in Austria. But the assas- 
sination of the Crown Prince brougTit 
her patience to a sudden end. It is 
believed by many people in the 
United States that Servia accepted 
all, or nearly all, of Austria's de- 
mands. In reality she did not accept 
the most important one, namely, that 
of issuing to the officers of the Serv- 
ian army an official condemnation of 
Pan-Slavic propaganda and of the as- 



sassination of the Crown Prince. Now 
it has been proved that the assas- 
sination of the Crown Prince was pre- 
pared and arranged by Servian of- 
ficers. He was shot with a Servian 
army revolver. 

Could not Germany after the Aus- 
trian ultimatum was delivered have 
prevented Austria from precipitating 
the war? 

If the Servian war is meant, the 
answer is that Austria could not pos- 
sibly be kept back from going to war 
with Servia after her patience had 
been so overtaxed. I ask any Ameri- 
can whether he thinks the Americail 
people would not have started war 
with Mexico immediately if during 
the Mexican troubles Huerta had 
hired assassins to kill the Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States? How 
would the reader answer this ques- 
tion? All European governments, 
with the exception of Russia, tried to 
localize the war between Servia and 
Austria. But then Russia, on Pan- 
Slavic principles, said she had to de- 
fend Servia. Germany did its utmost 
to prevent a universal war. When 
asked by Russia to induce Au_stria to 
make concessions, she prest Austria 
as far as she possibly could within 
the bounds of her friendship and alli- 
ance. Thereupon Austria made the 
greatest possible concessions, and 
promised absolutely to regard and 
uphold the integrity of the Servian 
kingdom. This concession was 
transmitted by the German Govern- 
ment to the Russian Government. No 
other answer was sent except the mo- 
bilization of the whole Russian army 

243 



against Germany and Austria. There- 
upon the German Government asked 
the Russian Government why they 
were mobilizing their whole arnfy 
against Germany and Austria. Ger- 
many has not received the answer to 
this question to this day. Instead of 
an answer Russian troops crost the 
German frontier. The first Russian 
prisoners of war were taken before 
any declaration of war was made. 
After this act the German Govern- 
ment informed the Russian Govern- 
ment that they considered themselves 
in a state of war with Russia, and the 
rest followed as a consequence of the 
existing alliances in Europe. 

What is the justification for the 
violation of the Belgian neutrality to 
which Germany was a party?' 

The violation of Belgian neutrality 
is an action which is universally re- 
gretted in Germany. But it was con- 
sidered an absolute military strategi- 
cal necessity. If Germany had en- 
tered France by the routes of Metz 
and Strassbourg, the French army 
would have entered Belgian and fal- 
len on our right flank. We had ab- 
solutely reliable information that 
this intention existed in the French 
army. We were absolutely sure that 
Belgium would not be able to defend 
her neutrality against France, and 
would probably not even be willing to 
do so, as her fortresses had all been 
built against Germany and not 
against France. Furthermore, on the 
first day of the war, French motor 



'Read here: "What Belgian Neu- 
trality Really Means," reprinted on 
another page. — Editor. 



244 



GERMANY IN THE WORLD WAR 




LEADERS OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE 



cars with French officers past through 
Belgian to reconnoiter in Germany 
without being stopped by Belgian au- 
thorities. Equally French aeroplanes 
flew over Belgium without being 
stopt and bombarded German 
cities. Our information about the 
French army was furthermore cor- 
roborated by the fact that English 
generals visited Brussels in the 
spring at the time when the coalition 
was preparing for war against us. 
The governments of the coalition can- 
not suppose that we do not know that 
during the visit of King George to 
Paris, the military negotiations were 
going on between England, France 
and Russia for the purpose of a joint 
attack against Germany.2 

Is not the dropping of shells with- 
out warning from an airship upon 
cities like Antwerp and Paris a viola- 
tion of civilized warfare? 

I am rather surprised at the words 
"without warning" in this question, 
because I do not see how a fortress, 
which is prepared for an attack in a 
country which is at war, should be 
without warning if it were attacked 
at any minute. The warning for 
every fortress in the country is the 
beginning of the war. I can only 
say that in our fortresses on the 
frontier, women and children were 
sent away on the very first oubreak 
of the war. As long as there has 
been war in the world, fortresses 
have always been bombarded. 
Whether they are bombarded from 
the air or from cannon on land iS 
simply a technical detail.a 

Is not the destruction of the his- 
toric edifices and library at liouvaiu 
an act of vandalism? 

To begin with I doubt whether the 
historic edifices and library at Lou- 
vain have been destroyed. But if 
they should have been, the respcfh- 
sibility rests solely with the popula- 
tion of Louvain, and the act of van- 
dalism, if there has been one, has 
been perpetrated also solely by that 
population. The facts of the case 
are the following: One battalion of 
German troops was left in charge of 



the city, and of the communications 
of the army. They were not in line, 
but dispersed in the city. The priests 
of the city, thinking that the German 
army had retired, distributed arms 
among the civilian population and 
our soldiers were shot unawares. The 
principle of civilized warfare is based 
on the assumption that only the sol- 
diers of a country shall fight against 
the soldiers of the other country, but 
that civilians, women and children 
shall never join in the combat.* To 
maintain these principles severe pun- 
ishment has always been inflicted 
upon any population that joins in the 
fight, and I do not refrain for one 
moment from saying that they de- 
serve it. In this special case, how- 
ever, the German soldiers who were 
attacked by the people of Louvain 
were mutilated, and treated with acts 
of beastial cruelty. If the returning 
troops with these facts before their 
eyes burnt down many houses of the 
city, I do not see how they can be 
blamed. 

What is the Slavic peril? And why 
should Germany fear it more than 
England or France? 

Germany does not fear the Slavic 
peril at all. However the existence 
of Austria as a great power has al- 
ways been considered of vital Interest 
to Germany because it keeps our 
flank covered. Furthermore it must 
not be forgotten that the alliance be- 
tween Germany and Austria Is quite a 
different kind of alliance than any of 
those among the powers who have 
formed a coalition against us. Aus- 
tria and Germany have belonged to- 
gether for a thousand years, and 
every fight between them has been 
regarded by both nations as a civil 
war. Historic developments since 
1866 have changed the aspect of Aus- 
tria and have formed a dual mon- 
archy between Austria and Hungary. 
Austria Is now half a Slav state and 
as such cannot permit the preten- 
sions of Russia to be the protector of 
the Slavs. England and France are 
now fighting for Russia's purposes. 
Why they do so they will have to 
answer for themselves. 



Would the purchase by the United 
States of the German merchant ships 
of New York harbor be a violation of 
neutrality? 

According to my opinion. No. Be- 
cause our shipping companies are ab- 
solutely private business undertak- 
ings without any interference of the 
Government. If, furthermore, these 
companies are, as the American Gov- 
ernment has stated, not to receive 
payment until after the war, I can- 
not see how the purchase of these 
ships can in any way help Germany. 
The opposition to these plans seems 
to me to come simply from the wish 
to prevent the United States from 
having a mercantile marine. Eng- 
land has joined our enemies for the 
chief purpose of getting our trade. 
It would naturally gain nothing even 
if England did win the war If their 
trade were taken by the United 
States. 

What do you think of the employ- 
ment of African and Asiatic troops in 
an European war? 

I condemn it unconditionally.^ 
In conclusion I may say that it is 
one of the fundamental errors of 
American newspapers that this is a 
war of kings. Most emphatically is it 
a war of the German people. Do not 
be deceived about it. Every man 
who doubts this is fundamentally at 
error. I read all sorts of things 
about "the kings' war," but God 
knows it is the people's war. The ab- 
solute feeling of the German people 
was that the Emperor waited as long 
as possible, if anything that he 
waited at least two days too long. If 
any proof is needed for this state- 
ment look at the attitude of the lead- 
ers of the German Social Democrats, 
who are loyally supporting the Em- 
peror. See how different it is in 
Russia where the Poles are in revolu- 
tion ; in England where the leader of 
the Labor group said that it was not 
a people's war and the government 
had not done enough to prevent it. 
The leader of the Social Democrats in 
Germany said: "We hate war, but 
since the German nation has been at- 
tacked we will stand up like one man 
against the autocrat who attacked 
us." 



^On another page read: "Belgium 
Neutrality a Myth, Says Embassy." — 
Editor. 

3If interested, read: "A Strange 
Set of Saints" in War Echoes.— Edi- 
tor. 

*As the question' involved the kill- 
ing from ambuscade of German bar- 
barians, the strong pro-British "Chi- 
cago Herald" eulogizes the Belgian 
civilians in an editorial entitled "The 
Right to Defend Your Home," which 
we are reprinting in full on another 
page. — Editor. 

5ln order to appreciate how cir- 
cumstances alter cases, you should 
read "But This Was To Be a White 
Man's War" reprinted on another 
page. — Consult the index. — Editor. 



If no news is good news the Eu- 
ropean press censors are certainly 
apostles of optimism. — From the 
"New York American." 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 

With the German Army and the German People 
In France and Belgium 



TRIBUNE GIVES NEW LIGHT ON 
GERMAN SPIRIT. 



Finds People Confident and Learns 

English are Being "Jollied" and 

Deceived — ^Personal Letter. 



The Chicago Tribune. 

The following personal letter fiom 
Mr. Bennett to the editor of The Trib- 
une is so rema/rhable that it is pre- 
sented in full. 

Before there was mention of war Mr. 
Bennett %oas sent to London to 6e The 
Tribune's correspondent in England. At 
the outbreak of war he, the only Tkib 
UNE man near the seat of action, ■mos 
cabled to proceed to the firing hue. 
Since the German occupation of Bius 
sels he has been entirely in German su)- 



The Tkibune does not support or de- 
cry his vieios. They are startling and 
the American people are entitled to read 
them. 

By James O'Donnell Bennett. 

(War Correspondent of The Tribune.) 

AIX-LA-CHAPELLB, Germany, Sept. ' 
12. — Undoubtedly you have pictures of 
all the notables in this set (portraits of 
German military leaders printed on this 
page) but the portraits seemed to me so 
well executed that they might make a 
welcome change from the routine of 
photographs. 

Tomorrow John MeCutcheon and I 
shall have been in Aix just two weeks. 
In that time we have sent off many 
thousands of words to The Tribune — 
John about 20,000 ; I about 14,000. My 
first letter was 6,000 on our inability 
to verify stories of German atrocities : 
my second over 6,O0O on the state of 
feeling, illustrated by numerous inci- 
dents, in North Germany. John said 
my letter on non-atrocities probably 
would create a sensation in America. 
Matter Ready for Boat. 

I have a big batch of descriptive mat- 
ter under way for nest Saturday's boat 
from Rotterdam to America. 

In addition to the two long articles 
which I mailed I have also sent a 1,000 
word cable by post to the Commercial 
cable oflBce in London to be put on the 
wire there to you. 

Whether the English censor will let 
it pass I much doubt, because, judging 
by the London papers we have seen and 
by the extracts which I enclose from a 
letter from Mrs. Bennett, England is 
wild with apprehension and stuffed 
with lies. 

Germans Feel Confident. 

The best of writers could hardly con- 
vey to you the sense of order, confi- 
dence and satisfaction existing in Ger- 
many. And, in view of what we have 
seen and heard in Germany, it would 
be difficult to exaggerate the madness of 
English newspapers in their policy of 
trying to jolly the English public into 
a belief that the Germans are being 
thrown back. 

In the face of these "German re- 
verses," Germany is constantly sending 
more men (thousands upon thousands 
of them) by train through Aix to the 
front. 




FIRST AID 

German Red Cross Surgeons giving "First Aid" to a wounded Comrade, just 

found by the Canine Heroes of the war. The Dog again proves himself Man's 

Friend in the service of the Red Cross 



Aix is absolutely serene. Manufac- 
turers are even about to launch new 
building operations in this vicinity the 
day after tomorrow. 

Not Allowed to Follow. 

Meanwhile we are not allowed to go 
into France in the wake of German 
columns, because, say the military au- 
thorities, vast plans are making which 
must in no way be imperiled by the 
presence of outsiders. 

Those plans may culminate at the 
end of next week, and then, according 
to assurances we have received, we may 
be allowed to go forward. 

This chance seems to us worth wait- 
ing for. If it does not materialize at 
the end of the week there is nothing for 
us to do but return to England. 
Extracts from Letters. 

As to the kind of reception that may 
await me in England, you may judge 
from these extracts from Mrs. Bennett's 
letter received by me today from Lon- 
don. It is dated Monday, Sept. 7, and 
has been a week, lacking two days, in 
reaching me: 

"My greatest anxiety lately has been 
that you would write something pro- 
German. That, as I understand the sit- 
uation here, would get you into trouble 
with the English authorities upon your 
return. They simply will not have it, 
no matter how true it may be. 

"I wrote you a long letter last week 
telling you of Mr. Heitkamp's arrest 
(Mr. Heitkamp is manager of the Cur- 
tis Brown bureau, which serves The 
Tribune from London) at the instiga- 
tion of the war office. He was arrested 
on Thursday night and not released un- 
til Saturday afternoon. 

"He was handled very roughly and 
allowed to communicii.te with no one — 



not even his wife. He just escaped 
penal servitude for life, and he still 
does not know what they so much ob- 
jected to in what he had written. 

Detectives Search Mail. 

"When I went down for your mail at 
the Curtis Brown offices I found the 
room which you and Mr. Heitkamp oc- 
cupy full of Scotland Yard men. 

"They were going through Mr. Heit- 
kamp's. papers and they went through 
all his papers and letters at his home. 
And this happened to an American 
whose people have lived in America 
since the seventeenth century and whose 
daily work connects him with the 
American press. 

"So you see, my dear, how useless it 
is to try to say anything for the Ger- 
mans. The English simply won't allow 
it to be used, and one takes the risk of 
penal servitude. 

"All this has terrified me for you. 
You have absolutely no chance. X felt 
so sorry for Mrs. Heitkamp. She was 
not allowed to see her husband. 

"As I said, I wrote you all about this, 
but could not get the letter through, and 
have been nearly frantic over the possi- 
bility of their arresting you when you 
return to an English port if you have 
sent pro-German copy to The Tribune 
while you were in Germany. 
Fear for Safety. 

"My never knowing for so many days 
where you were and what had happened 
to you made it worse. 

"Please realize how serious this is 
and be very careful as to what you 
write. It would gain you nothing if you 
tried to be fair, and the penalty Is too 
great. You will be careful? 

"This fear has been with me con- 
stantly since Mr. Heitkamp's arrest. Of 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



course, I think his foreign name and his 
Italian wife may have made a differ- 

"The Scotland yard men asked me all 
about you and put it all down ; so you 
are on the records. It was unfortunate 
I went for the mail that morning. I 
can't tell you how this terrifies me. . . 
"Mr. Brown, by the way, was so 
frightened over Mr. Heitkamp's arrest 
and the possibility of his being in- 
volved himself that he stayed away 
from the office (he was down m Corn- 
wall) and quite repudiated Mr. H. It 
was really very serious, evidently, and 
as I say, Mr. H. cannot see what he 
said to bring it on himself. • • • 

"Do listen to what I say about writ- 
ing anything pro-German. It will only 
react on you and do no good." 
BeUeve What They Wish. 
Mrs. Bennett's little sidelight on the 
state of feeling in London will interest 
vou. It follows : , ^ T 

■ "I don't read the papers much, for I 
find them too disturbing, but I hear a 
good deal. The people believe what 
they want to believe, though I think 
that down in their hearts they know 
they are not getting the real state of 
affairs. ^^ , . j „i. 

"Just the same, the other kind of 
thing buoys them up, and that is why it 
is done. . , (.»,„ 

"You, I suppose, are seeing only the 
other side, aren't you? So be careful 
and unbiased. Loving England and the 
English as you do, it must be painful 
for you to have to think of its future 
as you do think. I hope you are wrong, 
and I know you must hope so, too. 
Not Excitable Woman. 
Thus I have given you the essentials 
of the young lady's letter. Of course, 
she may have gained an overwrought 
impression of the state of affairs, but 
she is not an ill-poised or excitable 
woman — quite the contrary. 

In any case, even if I were so dis- 
loyal to the truth as to wish to act on 
her warning, that warning comes too 
late. By this time, in a 6,000 word ar- 
ticle headed "The Solemn Truth,"* 
which should reach you in Chicago to- 
morrow (Sunday) night, and in a 7,000 
word article headed "The System at 
Work," which went by the boat from 
Rotterdam this morning— in both those 
articles I have committed myself up to 
the neck. 

May Be Deported. 
If reports on those articles are sent 
back to the English authorities after the 
articles appear in The Tribune I may be 
ditched in England. They may deport 
me if I try to land there. 

But a man who failed to write what 
I have seen and heard in Germany 
would be a dog. 

I came to Germany anti-German. So 
did John. But London lies and German 



*Thls article was published by "The Chi- 
cago Tribune" in its issue of September 17 
headed: "German Atrocities Fiction, So 
Par As Tribune Men in Belgium Can 
Find " "War Echoes" would be sadly in- 
complete without Mr. Bennett's 6,000-word 
article. We have therefore reprinted it 
in full on another page, and express the 
hope that if a copy of "War Echoes" ever 
reaches Mr. Bennett, he may see herein a 
small expression of our deep appreciation 
of his moral courage for having dared to 
write the truth and thus "committed hirn- 
self up to the neck." We most sincerely 
hope that Mrs. Bennett's fears will not 
materialize. — Editor. 



dignity and solidity have about brought 
me over to the German side. 

If America thinks Germany is in the 
least frightened or if America thinks 
Germany has gone mad with blood-lust, 
then America has only surrendered to 
the most stupendous campaign of lies 
that has been launched from Europe 
since Napoleon made "false as a bulle- 
tin" a proverb. 

If what we have seen means anything, 
the world is going to wake up soon to 
find a gigantic new world power in the 
saddle. 

Troops Bound Southwest. 
In view of our chance — indefinite as 
it is — of being allowed to follow a Ger- 
man column at the end of the coming 
week, it seems to us folly to leave here. 
Evidently something tremendous is on, 
for vast bodies of troops have been 
pushed through Aix by trains bound 
southwest within the last four days. 

Just before that there had been a lull 
of several days — perhaps four— in the 
rush of trains. Then it was resumed 
with redoubled vigor. 

You will say that we should have 
cabled the news of this movement. 
Well, there is no cable, we are told, 
connecting Germany with the outside 
world. 

For a few days we could have cabled 
out of Holland, so far as governmental 
permission was concerned, but we could 
not have cabled "collect." 

To cable, every correspondent would 
have to have a trunkful of gold with 
him to pay tolls. That is impossible. 

Now we are forbidden to make the 
short trip into Holland, even to send 
personal cables. 

Those which we send the American 
consul is so kind as to take for us. He 
is Robert Thompson, who worked on 
the Times in World's fair days. He has 
done all he can for John and me. 
Meets Patterson in Aix. 
Last Sunday night I had the pleasure 
of seeing Joseph Medill Patterson in 
Aix. He came up from Berlin under 
military escort with five other American 
correspondents and was permitted to 
view the forts at LiSge. 

He was much discouraged about the 
war correspondents' game, and says the 
jig is up, and that no armies will longer 
tolerate them. 

He was so kind as to say, however, 
that if my anti-atrocities story, which 
should, as I said, reach you tomorrow 
evening, did get through to Chicago it 
would be worth the trip I had made 
from London. 

The government did not ask us to 
make this statement. We made it 
partly for its news value and partly 
from a sense of outraged decency. 

Certainly the Germans are getting a 
rotten deal from the rest of the world 
in the press reports of this war. I hope 
America will not be inflamed by those 
reports with the idea that it ought "in 
the name of humanity" to mix up in 
the trouble. 

Reshaping of Europe. 
All the men in the groups of Ameri- 
cans here have been convinced by a 
fortnight's observation with the troops 
on the countryside and with tSie citi- 
zens in this town that the situation in- 
volves nothing less than the reshaping 
of Europe by Teutonic hands. It is a 
new European empire swinging into be- 



ing, and if Europe doesn't like it Eu- 
rope will have to fight over the matter 
for the next five and twenty years. 

To us the German ascendancy seems 
as inevitiable as sunrise tomorrow. God 
save us, but the system and the power 
behind the system are just incredible, 
and the spirit of the people is overpow- 
ering. 

What Joe Patterson had seen had 
him talking last Sunday night in pre- 
cisely the same strain I am writing to- 
night — a strain that may seem to you 
hysterical, but that is in truth very, 
very grave. 

Would Be Held IJp. 

We are not sending any of our ar- 
ticles on the state of affairs in Germany 
by mail to the Commercial Cable in 
London, to be relayed to you by cable in 
London, because we think that, even 
if we stuck to the bare facts, the Eng- 
lish censor would not let them through. 

We can keep busy, and are keeping 
busy, writing our observations and 
sending them off by the weekly Rotter- 
dam mail. 

Willing to Face English. 

Does this seem to you advisable. This 
letter will reach you in two weeks. Sup- 
pose I stay here until it does reach you, 
and that upon arrival of the letter in 
Chicago you cable me [care of the con- 
sul] what you think as to my returning 
to London and facing a row with the 
English authorities? 

As to that prospect I am not fright- 
ened, but if I were jugged it might 
take a lot of fussing and cabling to get 
me out. That would waste both time 
and money. 

If I leave Aix before the expiration 
of two weeks I shall cable you my 
wherebouts, though if I am permitted 
to follow the army I may not be able 
to give a destination. 

In any event, I shall cable the fact of 
departure. 



A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 

(Reprinted from "The Father- 
land," New York, September 30, 
1914.) 

THE LEADER'S POSITION. 

Many stories of alleged atrocities 
committed by the Germans in the 
European war are being circulated in 
America. 

The "Leader" does not believe 
these stories to be true, and will not 
publish them. 

The manner of life of the many 
Germans in this community gives the 
lie to any charge that the German 
people are barbarous. America has 
no better citizens than those of Ger- 
man birth. 

No race of people surpasses the 
Germans in humanity, kindness of 
heart and consideration for those 
about them. It is impossible that 
the charges sent out against them 
could be true. 

The "Leader" believes that the al- 
legations of atrocities are baseless, 
and are issued merely to influence 
American opinion against the Ger- 
mans. 

Before the "Leader" prints any 
such stories they will have to be bet- 
ter authenticated than at present. 
"Pittsburg Leader." 

September 16, 1914. 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



247 




LUNCH TIME OF THE GEEMAN ARMY 

Note the uniformly orderly and serious, yet pleasant aspect of the men 

(Photograph by the International News Service) 



A WEEK WITH VON KLUCK; 



Or How They Brought the Good 
News from the Aisne to Hand. 



By Siegfried Jacobsohn in "The Fa- 
therland," New York, October 
28, 1914. 

Monday — from Paris. 

Von Kluck's army is annihilated!!! 

The victory cannot be overrated. 

It was a terrible, deadly strife; 

Not a single German ascaped with his 
life, 

In one word, as already stated. 

Von Kluck and his men are annihi- 
lated. 

Tuesday — from London. 
The victory we won was glorious! 
On the whole line we were victorious. 
The enemy's General Von Kluck 
Had to give in to British pluck! 
Therefore to us his sword he tendered 
And he and all his men surrendered. 

Wednesday — from Rome. 
The final decision of this campaign 
Was yesterday reached on the River 

Alsne; 
A movement on the British right 
Put the left wing of the foe to. flight. 



The Germans are beaten, pursued and 

hounded. 
Von Kluck's army is now surrounded. 

Thursday — from Copenhagen. 
The British Embassy indorses 
The following news: The Allied 

forces 
Have beaten the brutal invaders back, 
Pursuing the fleeing in their track. 
The beaten foe — Von Kluck in the 

lead — 
Are running away with the greatest 

speed. 

Friday — from Paris. 
We hold a fortified position. 
And now expect the final decision. 
Von Kluck's onslaughts on the Allies 
Have cost the Germans an awful 

price 
But our defence is still unshaken, 
Our fortified hills cannot be taken. 



LONDON LETTER. 



Saturday — from Berlin via Wireless 
to Sayville, L. I. 
The army of General Von Kluck 
won a decisive victory on the Aisne 
over the combined French and Eng- 
lish forces. About forty thousand 
prisoners and five hundred guns fell 
into our hands. The enemy is in full 
retreat and pursued by our cavalry. 
VON STEIN, 
General Quartermaster. 



By Shan F. Bullock in the Friday 
Literary Review of "The Chi- 
cago Evening Post," Oc- 
tober 9, 1914. 

London, Sept. 29. — Were I a phil- 
osopher — not of the Bergson type, 
but rather of the Anatole Prance sort 
— and had the necessary time and 
energy, I should write a book on the 
Humors of Rumor. Practically, we 
have been living — that is, so far as 
mental and moral sustenance are con- 
cerned — for weeks now on many in- 
ventions. From time to time, of 
course, we have had doled out to us 
the crumbs that fell from the press 
bureau table, and, to give our author- 
ities justice, they have never been 
slow to douche us with black, naked 
truth; but in the awful stress of 
events what we poor KTumans needed 
was food for our hungry imagina- 
tions. The old war correspondents 
used to supply that in liberal doses ; 
now they are gone with the fine old 
times when armies, instead of fight- 
ing in absurd 250-mile line forma- 
tions that retired this way for a hun- 
dred miles and then advanced the 
same way fifty miles; when instead 
of such athletic, exercises they met on 
a decent-sized field in solid bodies 



248 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



and gloriously liammered each other 
for as long as they had endurance. 
But our needs being still the same — 
nay, more, in those days of light and 
swiftness — we have had lately to 
keep ourselves alive by supplying our 
own inventions. 

How the Nation Spoofed Itself. 

Now that it is all over, some of our 
critics are talking about the great 
Russian movement by way of Arch- 
angel, Lelth, the English North Sea 
coast and Ostend, as the most stu- 
pendous newspaper spoof in journal- 
istic history. Nothing of the sort. It 
was a spoof invented by the nation 
itself, played off by the nation itself 
upon itself, and, official contradiction 
notwithstanding, still persisted in by 
great part of itself. Its origin is ob- 
vious. People saw the Germans ava- 
lanching down toward Paris, with 
those vital lines of communication 
through Liege and Namur continually 
lengthening, and they said, "My God, 
if only we could get at them thru 
Ostend in the rear with 200,000 
men!" Well, the men were not in 
England. But we wanted them. So 
by way of Archangel, some 2,000 
miles away, and connected with the 
interior of Russia, I believe by only 
a single line of railway, on timber 
ships, Atlantic liners, men of war, 
Russian cruisers, fishing boats, 
heaven knows what, we transported 
to eastern Scotland a Russian army 
complete in every detail of accoutre- 
ment and impedimenta; and we put 
it in trains and we conveyed it to 
Dover; and not a man, woman or 
child in England was there who did 
not know somebody who had seen 
those trains and the Russians with 
their beards and Astrakhan caps in- 
side them, or had not heard about the 
signal men, or had not given them 
apples and cigarettes and got from 
them "Thankski" in the Russian 
tongue; and at Dover we trans- 
shipped them into fleets of transports 
that took them to Ostend between 
two long lines of protecting war- 
ships; and then we rubbed our hands 
and said quietly, so that no German 
spy should hear, "Wait! Lift up your 
hearts! Oh, soon shall we hear the 
news." 

A Stupendous Hoax. 

But news didn't come, save by way 
of confirmation from Rome and Am- 
sterdam. And we grew restive. And 
those who knew definitely got weak- 
kneed. But still we believed, be- 
cause we had to believe, because what 
true to that which should have hap- 
pened . and then one morn- 
ing from the official press bureau 
came a laconic message telling us 
that not a single Russian had jour- 
neyed to Belgium via English soil. 
Not one. But everyone we knew had 
been told definitely by some one that 
250,000 Russians had gone. The 
correspondent of the "Daily News" 
had actually seen them in France . 
Enough, I doubt if ever before, 
even in the days of apparitions and 
portents, the English people have 
hoaxed themselves so stupendously. 



BETWEEN THE FIRING MNBS. 



Editorial from "The Chicago Trib- 
une," September 30, 1914. 

One of our readers addresses us as 
follows: 

"Now that The Tribune has got- 
ten its German number out of its 
system — vide this morning's issue — 
it is perhaps preparing for its White 
Man's number, and I send the in- 
closed as a contribution* to the same. 
God! You'd think that the German 
circulation of our Chicago newspa- 
pers was really important. I thought 
The Tribune was an independent 
newspaper." 

Another reader admonishes us as 
follows: 

"I am a free born American citi- 
zen, loyal to my country and loyal 
to right and fairness. In studying 
the war reports in your paper I am 
convinced that a preponderance of 
your articles are chosen or worded 
In such a way as to shape public 
opinion and prejudice against the 
Germans." 

We hear from many readers to the 
same effect, and the plea is usually 
for "fairness." Evidently we are 
held "unfair" when we print news 
or views favorable to the Germans 
and "unfair" when we print news 
or views favorable to the allies. Are 
we, in spite of our effort to be fair 
to both sides, unfair to both sides? 

After publishing column after 
column of matter which the parti- 
sans of the allies call "pro-German," 
we are bitterly accused of being anti- 
German. In spite of this accusa- 
tion, on the other hand, we are ac- 
cused of being pro-German. And all 
this In the name of "fairness!" 

Every newspaper which tries to be 
neutral is having the same rather 
amusing experience. They are be- 
ing abused by parties on all sides 
who, with a laughable unconscious- 
ness of their own bias, demand jus- 
tice when what they wish is par- 
tisanship. Readers who believe Ger- 
many is wrong were entirely satis- 
fied to have all the news come from 
London, Paris and Antwerp and all 
the British and French polemics pub- 
lished in full. Readers of contrary 
sympathy do not protest against any 
publication in favor of their own side. 

The Tribune has no bias, and real 
neutrals, we feel confident, do not 
see any. But partisans will continue 
to accuse us from their own view- 
points; which accusations, we must 
remind them, cancel each other and 
renew our confidence in the recti- 
tude of our own practice.* 

It seems that the contribution re- 
ceived from the rabid sympathizer of 
the "All-lies" and his admonition for 
a "White Man's number" made "The 
Tribune's" editor take notice. 

Result: The following two-inch 
headline on the first page across 
seven columns in the very same issue 



A day never passes that the Serv- 
ians do not annihilate another Aus- 
trian army! — Prom the "Public Led- 
ger," Philadelphia, August 9, 1914. 



•We have heard the "AU-Iles" repeat 
so frequently that the Germans are bar- 
barians that we presume it must be so. 
However, that they are not even WHITE 
barbarians, we did not suspect until we 
read the above. 



in which "Between the Firing Lines" 

appeared: 

"REPORT BIG GERMAN ROUT." 

Really thoughtful of "The Trib- 
une's" writer of headlines to try to 
please sympathizers of the "All-lies" 
for at least a fleeting moment. 

We say, for a fleeting moment, be- 
cause as soon as one had read the 
cablegram reporting this "Big Ger- 
man Rout," he immediately realized 
that it was another of the now fa- 
mous products emanating from the 
London-Paris Company, Unlimited. 
The bulletin in question said: 

"LONDON, Sept. 30, 1 a. m. — A 
Paris dispatch to the Exchange Tele- 
graph company says: 

'It is stated here that the German 
right has been entirely broken and is 
now being'pursued by the allies. 

'AH the automobiles in northern 
France have been requisitioned for 
the purpose of pursuit. Armored 
motor cars with mitrailleuses are 
also being used to pursue the re- 
treating enemy. 

'The official communication issued 
at 3 o'clock demonstrates unmistak- 
ably that the Germans have been 
surrounded in the Somme depart- 
ment, the French front extending 
further east. 

'It is officially stated that Peronne 
has been recaptured.' 

"This message has been referred 
to the British official press bureau, 
which, while not objecting to its 
publication, takes no responsibility 
for its correctness." 

So the hopes of the "White Man" 
were drowned when he read that the 
British official press bureau, while 
not objecting to the publication of 
this bulletin, took no responsibility 
for its correctness. 

Why should the BRITISH OFFI- 
CIAL PRESS BUREAU object? 

It is saved the trouble of having 
to manufacture lies itself when it re- 
ceives them ready made from its 
partner in Paris? 

Incidentally such dispatches lend 
inspiration to the hard pressed writ- 
ers of glaring head lines for the first 
pages of "War Extras." 

We had lived under the illusion 
that only yellow newspapers use 
head lines alluding to alleged hap- 
penings as poorly substantiated as 
in this instance, the "Big German 
Rout." However, we are never too 
old to learn. 

On October 23, when "The Trib- 
une" desired to published Mr. James 
O'Donnell Bennett's new dispatch 
wherein he states: "I am in a posi- 
tion to expose of few more of the 
lies which have given an unpre- 
cedented touch of horror to the hos- 
tilities now convulsing Europe," it 
did not want to offend the "White 
Man" again, and therefore printed 
Mr. Bennett's new disclosures with 
a small type head line on the third 
page, thus trying to appease the 
"White Man's" wrath if he ever read 
Mr. Bennett's dispatch at all. May 
be the "White Man" would not 
bother to read it after enjoying the 
two-inch head line across seven 
columns on the first page which said: 
"CLAIMS ALLIES TAKE 70,000 
GERMANS." 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



249 




A RATHER DANGEROUS LOOKOUT 

The Picture shows us one of the many Methods of Strategy employed by the 

most advanced Scouts 

(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 



The follQ-wing served "The Trib- 
une's" writer of head lines for in- 
spiration in this instance: 

Bulletin. 

(By Cable to The Chicago Tribune.) 

AMSTERDAM, Oct. 22. — The Am- 
sterdam Nieuws Van den Dag reports 
that the burgomaster of Wenduyne 
ias telegraphed the following: 

"The victory is to the allies. They 
have taken 70,000 prisoners between 
€halons and Longwy and have cap- 
tured 300 guns and thirty-one flags." 

Of course this was only a new prop 
to the failing courage of John Bull, 
and his sympathizers, including the 
fanatical "White Man." 

"The Tribune" might even follow 
"Willie Hearst's example, print two 
separate editions of its valued paper, 
one in English favoring the Allies 
and giving all rumors of pro-British 
victories, the other In German with a 
"Deutschland tiber Alles" sentiment. 
(See Herman Ridder's editorial, 
"The Courage of Their Convictions," 
which we reprint for our readers.) — 
Editor. 



GERMAN ATROCITIES ARE FIC. 
TION. 



Liege has been given the Cross of 
the Legion of Honor; the taxpayers 
of that city will have to carry that 
cross for a long time to come. — From 
"The Fatherland," New York. 



At Least as Far as Tribune Men in 
Belgium Can Find. 



The Chicago Tribune. 

Letters sent froin the western war 
none hy scholarly and honorable Amer- 
ican newspaper reporters, Mr. James 
O'Donnell Bennett and Mr. Herhert 
Corey, who together loith Mr. Thomp- 
son, the American Consul at Aachen, 
Germany, and Mr. Patterson, issued 
that remarkaMe "Round RoMn Report," 
which is included loith these letters. — • 
Editor, "War Echoes." 

The Tribune last evening received a 
six thousand word dispatch from its 
staff correspondent, James O'Donnell 
Bennett, who went from London into 
Belgium soon after the European war 
started. The dispatch is dated at Alx- 
la-Ghapelle, Germany, and, as Mr. 
Bennett explains, was sent by mail 
from there to the Western Union Tele- 
graph Company in New York, whence 
it was wired to "The Tribune" office. 

Mr. Bennett at the time of sending 
the dispatch (September 2) was with 
John T. McCutcheon, also of "The 
Tribune" staff, and Mr. Bennett 
makes it clear that its statements have 
Mr. McCutcheon's full approval. They 
had been together for days before the 



dispatch was sent, and presumably 
are still together. 

The dispatch deals with the charges 
of cruelties and atrocities lodged 
against the Germans in Belgium, and in 
speeiflc detail disputes and denies those 
charges. It is an elaboration of the 
•'round robin" signed on the same day 
by Mr. Bennett, Mr. McCutcheon, Irvin 
S. Cobb of the Saturday Evening Post, 
Harry Hansen of the Chicago Daily 
News, and Roger Lewis of the Asso- 
ciated Press. That "round robin" was 
sent from Ais-la-Chapelle to Berlin and 
forwarded by wireless to the Associated 
Press at New York on September 6. 

With Mr. Bennett's dispatch, pub- 
lished in full herewith, there came to 
the editor of "The Tribune" this note : 

"John McCutcheon and I regard the 
accompanying dispatch by me as highly 
important both as news and truth. We 
wish you would give it your best atten- 
tion. We would cable the substance of 
it extensively if we thought there were 
any hopes of its getting by the London 
censor. We do not think so, and there- 
fore we decide on the mails to New 
York and thence to you by wire." 

That Mr. Bennett's fears of British 
censorship were well founded is made 
clear by the fact that the copy of the 
"round robin" sent by Mr. McCutcheon 
and himself direct to "The Tribune" 
has never been received in this office. 
The copy "wirelessed" to the Associated 



250 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



Press from Berlin is tlie only one that 
got through. 

The question of the truth or falsity 
of Belgian and English charges that 
atrocities against women and children 
and other non-combatants have been 
committed by German troops has vi- 
tally and profoundly stirred the Ameri- 
can people, and "The Tribune" is glad 
to present the accompanying dispatch 
as throwing a flood of light on the 
matter. 

(To give the widest possible pub- 
licity= to this dispatch, The Tribime 
prints on page 5 a German transla- 
tion* of the major portion of it. The 
translation was done through the 
courtesy of the Illinois Staats-Zei- 
tung.) 

By James O'Donnell Bennett. 

(War Correspondent of The Tribune.) 

Hotel Kaiserhof, Aix-la-Chapelle, 
Germany, Sept. 2. — The solemn truth. 
I never sat down to write with 
greater conviction than I purpose 
writing now. I never sat down to 
write with a more sincere belief that 
I could say something that ought to 
be known. Today I had my share 
in the composition of a round robin 
on the so-called "German atrocities." 
That round robin has been, the 
signers of it hope, started on its way 
to you by Marconi wlresless via the 
African coast and so over the seas of 
the far east into America. There is 
no other way by which we can be 
sure our communication will reach 
you. 

"Fair Play" a Myth? 
Germany's direct cable communi- 
cation with the United States is cut. 
We also cabled our round robin to 
you out of Holland via London, but 
whether the English censors will let 
that communication pass we gravely 
doubt. 

If such a thing as the vaunted 
"English sense of fair play" still sur- 
vives in panic-stricken London the 
censor will allow our dispatch to go 
through.^ 

The Marconi via Africa Is like- 
wise uncertain, but for different rea- 
sons. In trusting ourselves to the 
Marconi we are contending with the 
bafiaing ebb and flow of mysterious 
currents in the ether; in trusting 
ourselves to the English military cen- 
sorship we are at the mercy of rad- 
ical hatreds that seem at times to 
mount to dementia. 



sin accordance with "The Tribune s 
policy of giving this article all possible 
publicity, we are only too glad to re- 
print it here, where it will reach addi- 
tional thousands. — The Publisher of 
"War Echoes." 

■■This kindness on the part of the 
seemingly impartial "Tribune" brought 
down upon its head the wrath of one of 
its readers, a fanatical sympathizer of 
the Allies. It elicited from "The Trib- 
une" the editorial, "Between the Firing 
Lines," on another page. — Editor. 

■'"Mr. Bennett evidently knows by 
this time that the "vaunted English 
sense of fair play" was a myth. The 
London censor did not allow a syllable 
of the report to get through wherein 
Mr. Bennett and his four companions 
stamped the "barbarities alleged to 
have been perpetrated by German 
troops on an inoffensive Belgian coun- 
tryside as shocking falsehoods." 



Can Trust the Mails . 

But the mails out of Holland to 
America we believe we can trust and 
we have some solemn truth to tell 
in detail now. 

The round robin was a bare state- 
ment in which we expressed our ear- 
nest belief — a belief based on days 
of personal observations In the thea- 
ter of war — that the reports of bar- 
barities alleged to have been perpe- 
trated by German troops on an In- 
offensive Belgian countryside are 
shocking falsehoods. 

We believe this as firmly as we be- 
lieve that we are now safe In the an- 
cient city of Aix-la-Chapelle after 
more than a week of wandering over 
that very countryside, sometimes in 
the rear of and sometimes alongside 
German columns. 

Right in Midst of War. 
We have traveled on foot, on bi- 
cycles, by horse and cart, and by train 
more than 100 miles. We have 
passed through twenty towns and vil- 
lages. We have moved from Brus- 
sels on the north to Beaumont on the 
south, and to Alx-la-Chapelle on the 
east. 

We have been within 100 feet of 
the Belgian-French border on the 
south and we have crossed the Bel- 
gian-German border on the east. We 
have shared the food and wine and 
the straw beds of German soldiery. 
We have sung songs with them in the 
posts of the rear guard at night, and 
we have talked with scores of Belgian 
peasant men and women across 
whose fields and through whose vil- 
lages the German host has passed. 
Of German soldiers we must have 
seen at least 500,000 with our own 
eyes. 

The reliability of the now famous 
London War Lies News Factory was 
further enhanced by the opening par- 
agraph of Mr. Joseph Medill Patter- 
son's letter sent from The Hague to 
"The Chicago Tribune," which ap- 
peared In the latter's issue of Sep- 
tember 2 6 and which reads as fol- 
lows: 

"I have just returned from Ger- 
many, and anything I may write can- 
not be In the least Influenced by the 
fear of the German censorship. The 
British censorship, however, is to be 
feared. All the American correspon- 
dents in Berlin report that not only 
have vital facts of their dispatches 
been cut out by British censors, but 
other wholly untrue dispatches have 
been added." 

Yes, "The truth must out," as 
the sanctimonious "London Times" 
naively remarked the other day. — 
Although quite contrary opinions 
are held by the "Chicago Herald's" 
editorial writer. Read "The Right to 
Defend Your Home," editorial re- 
printed on another page of this book. 

Saw No Atrocities. 

And amid all we have heard and 
all that we have seen in ten tumul- 
tuous, wearing days we have neither 
heard of a single "atrocity" that our 
investigations verified nor seen a sin- 
gle atrocity perpetrated. 

The rigors and the shocking waste 
of war we have seen. 



We have seen burning villages and 
women weeping over their desolated 
homes. 

We have seen miles of highway 
strewn with the caps, coats, bloody 
shoes, bloody bandages, smashed 
rifles, empty knapsacks, band instru- 
ments, fleld glasses, and wine bottles 
of the retreating French. 

We have seen new made English 
graves in the lonely fields over which 
the evening mist hung like a pale 
shroud. 

We have beheld the wreck and the 
grime and the squalor of war's pass- 
ing, but we have been spared the 
sight of outraged women and tor- 
tured children. 

Believe Germans Misjudged. 
Why is this? 

We firmly believe that it is be- 
cause no such atrocities have been 
committed by the German soldiery. 

And yet, safe in Aix-la-Chapelle, 
safe though still under the surveil- 
lance of German military authorities 
— who, like all Europe, are "spy 
mad" — safe and well and bathed and 
shaven at last, we open bundles of 
London newspapers in the quiet of- 
fices of the American consul, Thomp- 
son, and we read column after col- 
umn of the most harrowing and 
dreadful accounts of most infamous 
barbarities inflicted upon the Bel- 
gian peasantry by German troops. 

We are aghast as we read. We 
turn to the consul and say, "What 
does this mean? How is it that we 
have seen nothing of this?" 

He looks gravely back at us and 
says: 

"1 have been reading those things 
for days before you came." 

The American consul has lived 
seven years in Gerniany and he has 
carried on special studies concerning 
the volume, the nature, and the effect 
of German immigration into America 
from the beginnings of that immigra- 
tion in colonial times to the present 
day. 

The defining of the contributions 
of German blood and German culture 
to the life of the republic is a field 
of investigation in which he has made 
himself an authority. 

Germans to Be Trusted. 
Few Americans know the German 
people half so well as he does. 
He likes them and trusts them. 
His observation of the present war 
has not extended into the field, but 
he is no less baffled by the frantic 
reports from London than are we 
whose scouting has taken us to 
scenes of actual operations. 

He is, and from the nature of his 
position must be, officially noncom- 
mittal. To us he only nods his head 
and says, "I can't understand it." 

As for the Germans, both military 
and civilian, with whom we have 
talked in Alx-la-Chapelle, they are 
distressed and shamed by the reports 
that are pouring into America via 
London. 

So were the officers with whom we 
talked when we were following the 
columns. But they hid their dis- 
tress under sneers at once stoical and 
bitter. 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 




(From the National Geographic Magazine) 



THE WESTERN WAR ZONE 



252 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



One of them said: "We must bear 
It. In two months the world will 
know the truth. We can wait." 

Five Men Want Justice. 

It was in the name not alone of 
justice hut of common decency that 
the five of us signed that "round 
robin" this afternoon. 

We five are trained newspaper 
men, accustomed to observing, to de- 
ducting from our observations, and 
to putting our deductions Into rea- 
sonably lucid language. 

We are John T. McCutcheon and 
James O'Donnell Bennett of The Chi- 
cago Tribune, Irwin S. Cobb of the 
Saturday Evening Post, Roger Lewis 
of the Associated Press, and Harry 
Hansen of the Chicago Daily News. 

We have hardly been out of each 
other's sight for ten days, and not 
for a half a day have we been out of 
sight of German troops. 

Kiss, Slap, Then a Smile. 

The most terrific outrage any of us 
has seen was seen by Cobb. With 
his own appreciative eyes he saw a 
laughing German soldier who was 
crossing a street in Louvain lean for- 
ward and imprint a kiss on the cheek 
of a Belgian girl who was bantering 
him. 

The girl promptly slapped his face. 
The soldier laughed the louder. The 
girl began to laugh, too. The inci- 
dent was closed. 

Cobb said it was as quaint and 
merry a scene in homely life as ever 
he saw. That was week before last. 

Blajoies lionvain Citizens. 

A few days later Louvain lost its 
head. It went mad. Its civilians 
fired from ambuscade upon German 
soldiers. 

The deed was the supreme outrage 
against laws of civilized warfare. 

The punishment was terrible and 
it has put the fear of the Prussian 
god into every Belgian city and ham- 
let from Antwerp to Beaumont, from 
Ostend to L16ge. 

Today the ancient and renowned 
university city of northern Europe 
lies in ashes. 

The halls in which so many Amer- 
ican priests of the Roman church are 
proud to tell you they have studied 
are level with the ground. It was 
awful, but it was war. 

Unable to Verify Crimes. 

Always on our march the facts rel- 
ative to the German atrocities evaded 
us. Always it was in "the next vil- 
lage" that a woman had been out- 
raged, a child butchered, or an in- 
nocent old man tortured. Arriving 
at that "next village," we could get 
no confirmation from the Inhabitants. 

"No," they would say, "it did not 
happen here; but we heard that it 
was in the next village, messieurs." 

But the next village would de- 
velop naught authentically — only 
wild stories, rumors, hearsay. At 
Soire-sur-Sambre, all around which 
there had been fighting on Sunday 
and Monday, the 23d and the 24th 
of August, the burgomaster said to 
us in the late afternoon of Wednes- 
day, the 2 6th, "as reports come in 
from surrounding towns I am unable 



to verify these rumors of cruelties, 
perpetrated against unarmed civilians 
and I give no credence to them." 

Houses Fired by Shells. 

Let no man suppose, however, that 
there has not been bitter business. 
The burning cottages of the peasants 
prove that. 

But almost every time we asked 
the causes of that destruction we 
learned that the houses had been 
fired by the explosion of shells hurled 
into them by Germans to clear them 
of soldiers of the allies or by the 
allies to clear them of Germans. 

Less frequently — far less frequent- 
ly — the story was that from the win- 
dows of the attic in yonder unroofed 
and smoking ruin a party of brave 
but misguided civilians of the coun- 
tryside had fired upon the German 
advance guard. 

Reprisals were then instant and se- 
vere. We have been unable to learn, 
however, that in this meting out of 
punishment any woman or child was 
harmed. 

Schooled by Editorials. 

I think there is not a man in our 
party who did not come to the conti- 
nent from London in a pro-English 
state of mind, if not in an anti-Ger- 
man state of mind. 

For days before our departure we, 
too, had been fed on London news- 
papers. 

We had read the famous "mad 
dog" editorials day by day and the 
tales of atrocities alleged to have 
been committed around Li6ge. 

We believed that so far as Ger- 
many was concerned this was eni- 
phatically the Emperor's war and not 
the empire's war. 

An American magazine writer 
named Arno Dosch, who is of Ger- 
man extraction, also shared our 
views. 

Find Germans Human. 

Slowly, not impetuously nor senti- 
mentally, we found those views mod- 
erating. For four days we observed 
the temperance, good nature, tact, 
and strict discipline of the hundreds 
of thousands of German soldiers who 
were passing through Brussels. 

Many detachments of them were 
halted there for many hours. Hun- 
dreds of soldiers moved freely about 
the streets. 

In four days we did not hear a 
cross word exchanged between the in- 
habitants and soldiers nor did we see 
one boisterous or insulting act. 

The fact is that within four hours 
after the first detachment of German 
troops had come swinging down the 
steep Boulevard Du Jardin Botanique 
the Brussellians were not precisely 
fraternizing with the Germans but 
were quietly and comfortably chat- 
ting with them in the streets. 

Invaders Prove Quiet. 

That began about 7 o'clock on 
Wednesday evening, Aug. 19, and we 
who left Brussels the following Sun- 
day had for more than three days 
seen the spirit of quiet, unaffected, 
unforced good feeling steadily deep- 
ening. One does not imagine these 
things. 



The German soldier who was doz- 
ing with his detail of guards on the 
sidewalk In front of the Gard du 
Nord and who good naturedly drew 
in his long Saxon legs in order to let 
a Brussels pedestrian pass comfort- 
ably was no figment of imagination, 
nor was his wide, sleepy smile 
founded on anything but fact. 

The three young German officers 
who reined up in front of the Pal- 
ace hotel in the Place Rogier, who 
bowed suavely to the porter and 
who called out to him, "Will you 
permit us to quarter ourselves here 
for the night," were too substantial 
to be fairy figures. 

We saw scores upon scores of such 
incidents. 

Tolerated by Germans. 

Working slowly up to the German 
line of advance on Sunday, Monday, 
Tuesday, and Wednesday of last week 
we entered a different and more dra- 
matic field of observation. 

We were there by suffrance merely 
and we knew it. No German corre- 
spondents were with these German 
columns, and no correspondents of 
any nationality were wanted. 

But everywhere, though our pass- 
ports were closely scrutinized and we 
were sharply interrogated, we met 
with kindness and received assist- 
ance. 

I think the grim German officers 
felt that the five weary men — all ten- 
derfoots — who had marched twenty 
miles through a hostile countryside 
under a hot August sun were un- 
doubtedly crazy, but were a pretty 
good sporting proposition. 

Make It Hard for Scribes. 

Often and often we caught them 
grinning as they looked at our be- 
draggled, sweating ranks. 

Slowly they would unbend. We 
would be taken from one lieutenant 
to another for examination as to our 
status. 

In an hour we would find ourselves 
seated at tables in a Belgian inn par- 
lor with two or three young German 
officers as our hosts. Many of these 
were university men who spoke 
charming English. 

The beer and the good talk would 
go round for an hour, then we would 
separate, the officers leaping into 
their saddles and we resuming our 
weary but fascinating march. 

Greeted by Boy Officers, 

Two or three hours later we might 
meet one of those officers on his way 
back to the rear of the miles upon 
miles of wagon trains he was helping 
to guard. He would recognize us 
with the enigmatical grin that we had 
become accustomed to, though we 
could not always fathom it, and he 
would fiing us a cheery hail, asking us 
if there was anything he could do for 
us. 

Several officers said they wished 
they could permit us to ride in the 
army wagons, but that, he would add, 
was strictly "verboten." 

Indeed, everything that is the least 
casual, exceptional, or irregular 
seems to be strictly "verboten" when 
this superb machine, the German 
army, is operating in the field. 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 




NOTHING NEGLECTED 
A German Bicycle Scout, making an Entry in his Diary, showing some more of the systematic and thoroughgoing German. 
It is one of the characteristic Features of the German Soldier in the Field, that he generally keeps a Record of his 

Experiences 
(Photograph by the International News Service) 



Hemmed in German Crush. 

Things like this happened: 

After our first half day's march 
from Nivelle, whither we had come 
from Brussels by carriage, we reached 
the little town of Pait-les-Ceniffe. 

The village street was packed with 
army wagons. The whole train had 
been halted for food and rest. 

We were in the thick of a crush 
and clamor that still was not con- 
fusion, and we were very weary. 

After we had been passed from un- 
der lieutenants on up to the general, 
who passed favorably on our creden- 
tials, we met up with friendly offi- 
cers at the inn. 

We drank with them and they with 
us. With apologies to them for seem- 
ing uncouth — for they are very punc- 
tilious and ceremonious in details of 
conduct — we said we were very hun- 
gry and would eat the sandwiches we 
had brought in our packs. 

livmch with Officers. 

At this one of them said: "You 
will, perhaps, honor us by having 
luncheon with us. I am in charge of 
the officers' mess today, and we 
should like to have you try some of 



our famous German army soups that 
were put up in 1911 and that will 
keep sound and good until 1931, un- 
less they all are eaten in those twen- 
ty years." 

With a salute, he vanished, bid- 
ding us meet him at our pleasure in 
the house across the way, where 
luncheon would be served. 

That house was the principal one 
of the town, and in it German offi- 
cers were quartered. 

The parlor floor had been cleared 
and was strewn with mattresses. On 
one of them an officer lay asleep. 
When we were ushered into the room 
he opened his eyes, rose, and bowed, 
uttering some commonplace of greet- 
ing in German. 

Scribes Go to Sleep. 

That left five unoccupied mattress- 
es on the floor. I gazed longingly at 
one. The room was cool and dark. 

I could conceal my weariness no 
longer and asked an officer if I might 
lie down. "Certainly," he said, and 
offered to help me smooth out the 
bedding on the mattress nearest the 
folding doors of the room. I fell on 
what seemed to me the best bed I 
had ever occupied and in fifteen sec- 



onds was asleep. My companions fol- 
lowed suit. We were overtired and 
slept by fits and starts, with nervous 
jerks. 

In perhaps twenty minutes I op- 
ened my eyes, and what I saw in the 
dim light was a middle-aged German 
officer tiptoeing across the room to 
shut one of the folding doors that had 
swung half way open. 

The passageway or hall that ran 
through the house was paved with 
stone and constantly there was a clat- 
ter of the heavy boots of sergeants 
going to and fro. The noise pene- 
trated to the dark, cool parlor where 
the five American correspondents 
were dozing. 

Very softly the German officer shut 
the half opened flap of the folding 
door and then with equal solicitude 
turned its heavy handle so that we 
were quite shut away from the clat- 
ter in the paved hall. 

Then he tiptoed back to his chair 
and resumed his intent manipulation 
of some bit of accoutrement that hung 
at his side. My own mother could 
not have more gently or tenderly 
maneuvered the act of closing the 
door for the comfort of the sleep- 
ing men. 



254 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



Summoned to liuncheon. 

In a few minutes we were sum- 
moned to luncheon. The long table 
was crowded. The soup, which con- 
tained savory bits of sausage, gave 
off a delicious odor. 

Three hungry officers, who were 
eager to get to their horses and go to 
the van of the wagon trains, stood 
for twenty minutes in the dining 
room and hall while five American 
newspaper men, utterly unknown to 
them, ate and drank. 

When wine was served our glasses 
were filled first, our healths were 
drunk with courteous formality and 
wishes for our success ran around 
the table. 

Cigars Pay for Food. 

We could only repay our hosts with 
cigars we had brought from Brussels 
and these they were loth to take, 
saying that it was not fair to dip into 
our little store. McCutcheon had 
fairly to force them on the officers. 

I shall never forget either the food 
or the etiquette of the luncheon in 
Fait-les-Ceneppe. It was a lesson in 
general things. 

And these are the men we are 
asked to believe torture people of 
an inoffensive countryside. 

I could relate twenty such inci- 
dents out of our personal experi- 
ences during the days of our wan- 
derings, but details which would be 
largely repetition would grow tedi- 
ous. 

Acknowledge Hospitality. 

On many doorways as we passed 
along we saw chalked in German 
script the words "good people" or 
"very good people" — words written 
there by advance guards who had 
gone ahead of the main body to se- 
lect quarters for officers, men, and 
horses. 

The number of officers and men 
each house would hold and the num- 
ber of horses that could be stabled in 
each barn also was chalked on the 
doors of these Belgian farm houses, 
villas, and cottages. 

"Good people" meant that the ad- 
vance guard had been received with 
civility. "Very good people" meant 
that they had met with helpfulness in 
making their arrangements. 

On one house which stared blankly 
out on a village street from broken 
windows there was written in Ger- 
man script these words: 

"This house has been unjustly at- 
tacked; go easy now." 

Belgian Women Aid. 

In the region around Fait-les-Ce- 
neppe the invaders seemed to have 
been quietly received by the non- 
combatants, the inhabitants evidently 
understanding the status fixed for 
them by the laws of war. As a re- 
sult we did not see a broken window 
nor a smouldering roof for a distance 
of perhaps ten miles. 

As the afternoon wore on the Ger- 
man soldiers, parched with dust and 
heat were met at the country cross- 
ways and village street corners by 
Belgian women, who gave them cups 
of water from buckets that would 
be many times refilled before the 
column had passed. 



Sometimes I saw this merciful act 
accompanied by cheerful smiles from 
the women and grateful nods from 
the men, who would utter hoarse 
words of thanks. 

It is to be remembered that all 
this time we were drawing closer and 
closer to the French border and that 
naturally throughout this region the 
pro-French feeling of the Belgians 
would be more intense. 

Saw liittle Drunkenness. 

In Beaumont the vast cellars of 
that Prince de Caraman Chimay who 
married Clara Ward of Detroit were 
liberally but not indecently drawn 
upon by the Germans, but during the 
two long days we were prisoners 
there we saw only two German sol- 
diers whom you would describe as 
really under the influence of wine. 

Both were privates. One was bois- 
terous and friendly and a little wear- 
ing, as men in that state are apt to 
be. The other, who came into the 
inn room that served as our prison 
on the second night of our detention, 
was surly and suspicious and kept 
muttering that we were spies. He 
sobered with amazing rapidity when 
an officer entered the room, and his 
departure was as swift and quiet as it 
was comical. 

Writers Under Guard. 

As we lay down to sleep that night 
young Lieut. Eosenthal came in to 
give final instructions to our two 
guards. He directed o,ne of his men 
to take down a big cardboard placard 
which hung on the wall and so to 
place it against the oil lamp which 
stood on the inn bar that the glare 
from the lamp would be shut off from 
the corner of the room in which the 
five of us lay on mattresses. 

It was Rosenthal, too, who had or- 
dered his men to bring to the inn the 
mattresses on which we lay. The sol- 
diers helped us to adjust them in the 
most comfortable and convenient 
way. 

Gets More Comfort. 

The night before we had slept on 
a little straw in the cold schoolroom 
of a convent which had been turned 
into barracks. 

Rosenthal knew that and was 
sorry, hence the mattresses on the 
second night. He regretted he could 
not get us blankets. 

After the extemporized lamp shade 
had been adjusted Rosenthal sat at a 
table with the two sentries and spoke 
in a monotone to them. I lay on the 
pallet nearest them and could hear 
all that was said. 

Rosenthal is not 30, but hearing 
his talk you would have thought he 
was 8 0. Indeed, I think both the 
sentries to whom he spoke are older 
than he is. 

"Now, my children," he began, 
"you can have all you want to drink 
tonight, but God help the man who 
gets drunk. He will get seven years 
in prison and I shall have no hesita- 
tion in reporting him; do you under- 
stand that, children?" 

Guards Obey Lieutenant. 

The men said they did under- 
stand and that what the Herr lieu- 
tenant said was perfectly right. There 
was some more talk and with a final 



"Good night, my children," Rosen- 
thal disappeared and I fell off to 
sleep. 

In the early dawn I was awakened 
by somebody standing at my feet. It 
was Rosenthal, quietly arranging his 
mattress for an hour's repose. 

The greenish light of a rainy dawn 
stole in at the one window. The 
lamp was burning low. The two sen- 
tries were sitting at the table, their 
rifles across their knees. 

Rosenthal sighed and muttered to 
himself as he felt for his pillow, 
which was a bit of window curtain 
rolled up, and in ten seconds was 
snoring triumphantly. 

I lay thinking of Clara Ward of 
Detroit, who had been a princess 
here, and one of whose husband's 
empty wine bottles stood on the inn 
bar in the low companionship of 
gaudily labeled bottles of cheap 
French brandy. 

Since the divorce from Clara Ward 
the prince has taken a second prin- 
cess. Today he is burgomaster of 
Beaumont. 

Surly Soldier Again. 

In the afternoon the soldier, who 
was surly and suspicious, had shown 
me a huge commemorative medal, 
evidently of gold plate, which was 
engraved with the words: "In mem- 
ory of the happy entry into Beau- 
mont of the Princess De Caraman 
Chimay." I think the date was 1911, 
so, of course, the bauble- must have 
recorded the entry of the second 
princess. 

The soldier was solicitous to know 
whether I thought the medal was of 
solid gold. I said I thought not, and 
thereupon my place in his regard 
grew visibly less. 

Sword Edge Meant Silence. 

He did not tell me how he had 
come by the medal, but in departing 
he invited me to run my finger 
lightly along the edge of his sword 
that I might feel how sharp it was. 
I complied with alacrity, and ex- 
pressed admiration in sincere, though 
broken, German. He understood and 
appeared satisfied. 

The man was the only rude fel- 
low of the baser sort I have encoun- 
tered in the German host. 

To go back to Rosenthal, I should 
add that on our ride on one day and 
two long nights by train from Beau- 
mont to Aix-la-Chapelle he frequent- 
ly brought us loaves of black bread 
and shared his wine with us. Food 
was hard to get, but after he had ob- 
tained it for his wounded his next 
thought seemed to be for us. 

Treat Frenchmen Well. 

The treatment German officers ac- 
corded a French prisoner of rank 
who was brought from the common 
guard house at Beaumont to our 
more select quarters was exquisite in 
its punctiliousness. 

The Frenchman was a sad-eyed lit- 
tle man with a delicate face and a 
manner of soft, but not excessive, 
courtesy. He was very weary and 
very melancholy, grieving, the Ger- 
man officers said, for his sister's hus- 
band, who had fallen in battle the 
day before. 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



255 



We were forbidden to speak to 
him, formally giving, in truth, our 
word of honor that we would not 
do so. 

Lieut. Mittendorfer, an over lieu- 
tenant, and Rosenthal, the under 
lieutenant, seemed to he the officers 
responsible for the French prisoner. 

Salute Their Prisoner. 

When they entered the room they 
would come to attention with a click 
of the heels and salute him, begging 
him instantly to resume his chair 
when he rose to return their salutes. 
When they talked with him it was in 
tones fraught with consideration and 
reassurance. They spoke his lan- 
guage and the conversation, though 
subdued, was fluent. 

When evening drew on they came 
again to him and escorted him to 
dine at the officers' mess in the Hotel 
de Ville, a noble building packed 
with books, paintings, and trophies 
of the chase belonging to the present 
burgomaster, the Prince De Caraman 
Chimay. 

Nothing Against Foe. 

Regarding the attitude of certain 
German soldiers toward the people of 
the Belgian countryside I must quote 
the words of an officer whose card I 
have lost, hence I cannot give his 
name. 

His experience with the Belgian 
peasants had evidently been altogeth- 
er serene. 

These were his words to me: 

"They have been very, very kind. 
I may say nothing against them." 

In Belgian villages so remote and 
so small that possibly reports of high 
handed actions would never have 
reached the outer world I have time 
and again been in tiny provision 
shops, linen drapers' shops, apothe- 
cary shops, and sJ;ationers' shops 
when German soldiers were making 
their purchases. 

Pay lor What They Buy. 

They talked quietly with the shop 
people, handled the wares with con- 
sideration and invariably paid for all 
they took. 

As they left they would lift or 
touch their caps and bid the mer- 
chant and his wife behind the count- 
er good day. Payment was always 
scrupulously made. Generally the 
German mark was the coin. It was 
of course, instantly accepted. 

More often than not the purchas- 
ers were private soldiers. They mani- 
fested the dignity of bearing though 
not the grace of their officers. 

Play After Bayonet Charge. 

Here is a more essential example 
of the conduct of the Germans. On 
Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 26, we 
reached La Buissiere, where there 
had been a sharp engagement the 
Monday before between French in- 
fantry and artillery posted on a bluff 
seventy feet high and German in- 
fantry and artillery in the fields and 
town below. 

Five hundred Germans made a 
bayonet charge up the heights and 
cleared out the French. Houses, 
breweries, and shops in the little 
town suffered badly by shot and 
flame. 



The Germans made a successful 
occupation and within twenty-four 
hours after the last shot was fired 
many of the townspeople were back 
in their homes. Forty-eight hours 
after the last shot we saw Belgian 
children playing in the street. 

No Panic After Battle. 

A German soldier was teaching his 
good natured companion how to ride 
the bicycle. Once the pupil fell off; 
he laughed. The children laughed, 
too. The soldier looked around at 
them, waved his hand, and continued 
to laugh. 

At the upper end of the main street 
a group of Belgian women was wash- 
ing clothes; another group was knit- 
ting. Within twenty paces of them 
the courtyard of a livery stable was 
packed with French prisoners, guard- 
ed by German sentries. 

German officers and soldiers occu- 
pied houses along the main street. 
Devastation everywhere was appar- 
ent, but there was not a suggestion 
of fear or panic anywhere. 

Shows German Patience. 

Again — 

I had occasion to enter the hallway 
of a Belgian villa near the frontier to 
meet a German officer. 

The front door of the house admit- 
ted one to a wide hall at the oppo- 
site end of which was another door 
opening on the gardens of the villa. 
That back door was ajar. 

It was a breezy day, and when 
the front door was opened a strong 
draft was created through the hall. 

Two German soldiers were on their 
knees in the hall sorting big bundles 
of regimental mail which had just 
come in from Germany. 

Two children pushed open the 
front door and many of the batches 
of sorted letters were blown the 
length of the hall. The children 
passed along and the soldiers did 
not say a word, laboriously gathered 
up the scattered letters. 

Naughty "IJiebe Kinder." 

Pretty soon two more children 
coming in from the street opened the 
door and left it open as they paused 
to look at the soldiers. Again little 
piles of neatly sorted letters were 
scattered. 

Then one of the soldiers blew up. 
With a gesture of desperation he 
cried in German words which I trans- 
late thus: 

"Dear children (liebe kinder), 
for the love of heaven shut the door! 
Don't you see you are making the 
letters blow away? You are naughty 
children. Run away now like good 
children and don't bother us." 

Germans Make Friends. 

The little people hurriedly shut 
the door and scurried past the soldier 
who had spoken to them. As they 
did so he reached forward and gave 
one of them a jovial pat, laughing 
and uttering homely expletives in 
German as he did so. 

The child looked frightened at first 
and then began to giggle. By the 
time he reached the garden door he 
was bold and turned and waved his 
hands at the soldier. 



The soldier, still chuckling and do- 
ing a comic imitation of despair, 
waved back as he stooped to gather 
up the scattered letters again. 

The children vanished into the gar- 
den. 

Teuton AU Politeness. 

Four times I have seen German 
officers who had been billeted at the 
house of a Belgian citizen over night 
going after breakfast, caps in hand, 
to pay their respects to the mistress 
of the house, thanking her for the 
good offices of herself and her serv- 
ants, apologizing for the inconve- 
nience they had caused, and closing 
with wishes for another meeting "in 
happier times," a phrase with which 
everybody in northern Europe says 
goodby now. 

On all of these occasions the re- 
sponse of the involuntary hostess of 
these wartime guests was cordial. 

At Faits-les-Ceneffe three officers 
even paused an instant in the hall to 
thank and say good-by to the serv- 
ant who had waited on them at 
table. 

Kind to Their Horses. 

I have seen German drivers of 
wagon trains and German artillery- 
men, weary though they were, de- 
scending from their seats during a 
brief halt by the roadside to run into 
the fields to tear up handfuls of 
clover blossoms for their horses. If 
there was time they rushed back for 
a second handful. 

Such things I have seen for ten 
days. They seem to me, in view of 
the ghastly reports in the London 
papers and in view of one editorial in 
an important American paper we 
have read since arriving in Aix, to 
constitute important news. 

The reports of German atrocities 
against Belgian noncombatants seem 
to this group of American corre- 
spondents to have reached the pro- 
portions of a hideous scandal. 

Not Defending Germans. 

I am not defending the Germans. 
I owe them nothing except what any 
man owes another who treats him 
with decency. I expect nothing from 
the Germans. 

The truth is that all of us corre- 
spondents have a right to feel a little 
resentful toward the German authori- 
ties, both military and civil. 

They have balked our work at ev- 
ery turn. 

They have delayed and inconve- 
nienced us and they have had us un- 
der guard during three days and 
under surveillance during four days. 

Always they have been polite about 
it, but that has not mitigated the dis- 
tracting delays we have had to en- 
dure in forwarding our news to our 
papers. 

Truth Remains Truth. 

Truth, however, remains truth, 
and in the matter of these alleged 
atrocities we feel there has been 
shocking falsehood. 

I give my most solemn word as 
to the tmth of what I have written. 

We have seen no atrocities. 

We can get proof of none. 

We do know, on the contrary, that 
German officers have fraternized with 



256 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



English olHcers they have taken pris- 
oners and have parted with these 
words, "A dinner at the Carlton, old 
fellow, when we meet at London in 
happier times." 

Once more I say, there has been 
the inevitable and shocking waste 
and misei-y of war in this Belgian 
campaign, but to find the fiendish- 
ness of it, as that fiendishness is 
charged against the German troops, a 
man Avill have to travel farther and 
observe moi"e sharply than five intel- 
ligent, zealous American correspond- 
ents have traveled and observed.* 



*The last six paragraphs are, empha- 
sized in bold type by the Editor. 



MES, LIES, LIES. 



Editorial from "The Fatherland," 

New York, September 30, 

1914. 

If we are to believe the mendacity 
mills of St. Petersburg and London, 
the German army is bent on carry- 
ing out on a large scale the theory 
of a pessimist philosopher, Eduard 
von Hartmann, who advocates uni- 
versal suicide. First General Em- 
mich after "wasting" the lives of 
45,000 Germans before Li6ge, com- 
mitted "suicide." The fact that he 
conquered an almost impregnable 
fortress with small loss of life after 
a few days siege was never brought 
out in the dispatches of the Allies. 
Even to this day many American 
readers are under the impression that 
the gallant general is dead. This be- 
lief, needless to say, is not shared 
by the general. After that we were 
told that a troop of German soldiers 
shot at themselves in Louvain and 
that the city was destroyed to cover 
up this blunder. As a matter of fact 
the city did not meet its deserved 
fate, being only partially demolished, 
as a punishment for the "snipers" 
who cowardly attacked and mutilated 
German soldiers. We also heard that 
one hundred German Socialist leaders 
were shot by the Kaiser and that one 
hundred Polish leaders met a similar 
fate in Austria. We realize some, in- 
cluding the Socialist leader, Dr. 
Franke, were shot, but at the front, 
and by the enemy. The last piece of 
"news" made to order In St. Peters- 
burg informs us that one portion of 
the German navy attacked another 
portion in the Baltic, and that sev- 
eral ships were sunk in the ensu- 
ing engagement which lasted several 
hours. How long will American 
readers permit the newspapers to 
feed them such pap?' The capture 
of Maubeuge when reported by way 
of Sayville was denied' again and 
again in official reports from Paris 
and London. It was not until the 
19 th of September that the German 
dispatch was verified by London. The 
Sayville station is the only souroe 
of reliable Information. 



He'll Get His if He Can. 

When the victors sit around to divide 

up the map 
They had better keep all of their 

eyes on the Jap! 
— From the "Chicago Examiner," 
September 17, 1914. 



CHEATING THE WORLD IN COL- 
ORING NEWS OF THE WAR. 

Some time ago, in commenting 
upon the character of the censorship 
exercised over war news, the "Dis- 
patch" suggested that the activities 
of the censors would be limited to 
deleting all that might be objection- 
able or offensive from their point of 
view. Unfortunately it transpires 
that the British censors have gone 
further, much further. Not only 
have they deleted the news reports 
of information they deemed inimical 
to their cause, but they deliberately 
have added words and sentences cal- 
culated to mislead the world and to 
keep it in ignorance of what was 
transpiring in the war theater. 

The letter of Herbert Corey in to- 
day's "Dispatch" is a revelation. Mr. 
Corey has long been a member of the 
"Dispatch" staff of correspondents. 
His accuracy and ability have been 
proved to a demonstration long be- 
fore this war broke. What he says 
of the British system of misleading 
the British people and creating false 
world opinion may be accepted as 
true. 

When it is remembered that prac- 
tically all of the channels of Euro- 
pean news are controlled in England 
and that all information except the 
trifling amount that comes by wire- 
less is sifted through the British cen- 
sor sieve, the importance of the 
disclosures by Mr. Corey will be 
appreciated. All that we can receive 
of the news of the great war drama, 
except that which practically is 
smuggled through by mail or Indi- 
vidual carriage and is therefore be- 
lated beyond the value point, is what 
the British censors will permit, after 
they have eliminated what is detri- 
mental to their side and colored the 
residue to suit their views. 

This reveals a very lamentable 
state of affairs. The world is prac- 
tically helpless before such a situa- 
tion. It explains a condition of 
which the "Dispatch" frequently has 
complained and which it has been 
careful to impress upon its readers. 
Fortunately this tyrannical and over- 
reaching system operates only 
against immediate news. No censor- 
ship can long obscure facts. The 
truth cannot remain concealed. Re- 
bellion has arisen already in London, 
where the public sense of right re- 
fuses to submit to imposition, even 
under the guise of the public wel- 

American newspaper enterprise — 
and that enterprise deals with exact 
truth and accurate reports — is at war 
with any and every news suppression 
system and will win out. The world 
wants the facts, regardless of how 
they may strike. It demands to be 
informed accurately of the daily 
progress of the war, and it will be 
informed, despite the medieval and 
misguided efforts of the censor sys- 
tem. And this applies with equal 
force to news suppression and dis- 
coloration, no matter where the 
operation is performed. — From the 
"St. Paul Dispatch." 



BRITISH CENSORS FORGE 
DISPATCHES. 



Remarkable Statement by Mr. Corey. 
St. Paul Dispatch. 



One Extreme Case Shows Words and 
Sentences Were Added to "Copy" 
of Correspondent — Deliberate At- 
tempts Made to Delude People of 
the United States. 



Which side began it is not half so 
important as which side will end it. 
— From the "Public Ledger," Phila- 
delphia, August 9, 1914. 



Asserts Many London Messages Have 
Been Totally Suppressed. 

(Herbert Corey, who makes the 
charge that news dispatches of Amer- 
ican correspondents to newspapers 
In this country not only are cen- 
sored, but also have words and sen- 
tences added, is an American writer 
absolutely without bias toward any 
of the belligerents. He is the special 
representative of the "Dispatch" and 
"Pioneer Press" in London, and these 
papers put absolute reliance on his 
articles.') 

By Herbert Corey. 

London, Oct. 5. — Lord Kitchener 
and Hilaire Belloc came into collision 
the other day. Kitchener won. 

Kitchener is the military gentle- 
man who is running this empire, the 
peanut stand on the corner, and that 
bulwark of a free people, an en- 
lightened press. Belloc is a well 
known journalist, who is obsessed by 
a liking for facts. French by blood, 
English by birth, soldier by educa- 
tion, and a publicist by profession, 
his weekly letter on the war lifted 
a dying magazine out of the ditch. 
People began to read it. 

"Ah," his readers would say to 
themselves, "now I begin to under- 
stand." 

Pretty Close to High Treason. 
People in America cannot compre- 
hend how nearly that approaches to 
high treason. Kitchener not only has 
the contempt of the military man for 
civilians who do not clank and rattle, 
but he fears war correspondents. 
They criticize, damn 'em! They jab 
holes in reputations with their filthy 
pencils. Years before his name had 
ever been heard in England Kitch- 
ener said: 

"If ever I have the power, I will 
forbid the publication of any news 
whatever about a war which is be- 
ing fought." 

Kitchener Believes His Course Is 
Right. 
Bear in mind that Kitchener sin- 
cerely believes that this course is 
best for the country. It is the coun- 
try's duty to raise money, send fight- 
ing men, donate blankets and let 
Kitchener do the thinking. This 
may seem a long way around Hilaire 
Belloc's barn, but wait. We're com- 
ing to it. People began to read the 
official communiques issued by the 
war office in the light furnished by 
Hilaire Belloc's letters. 
"So," said they. "So." 
Belloc is as patriotic as Kitchener. 
But he thinks this British nation Is 
big enough and brave enough to face 



^We reprint below the editorial which 
was published in the same issue of the 
"St. Paul Dispatch." — Editor. 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



257 



a fact without screaming. He didn't 
put liis facts in blunt, cold, shocking 
language. He sugar-coated 'em. But 
they were there. He intimated that 
the German army is not composed ex- 
clusively of child-killers and cow- 
ards. He said that, as a matter of 
fact, they are fighting quite as well 
as the English and French. Belloc's 
portion was that this war is not to 
he decided by popular vote. It 
didn't do any good to mislead people. 

Trouble for Other Patriots. 

There isn't a more acidulously 
loyal paper in London than the 
Globe. Its military correspondent is 
Major Redway, a retired officer of 
the army. Redway has carefully 
avoided printing anything in his col- 
umn which might give aid or com- 
fort to the enemy. He lived up to 
the war office theory that the reason 
for a censorship is to keep informa- 
tion out of German brains and hands. 

But he couldn't help seeing that 
the battle of the Aisne was not the 
sort of an affair that the Kitchenered 
communiques indicated. It took an 
acute mind to burrow this conviction 
out of the mass of words with which 
Redway surrounded it. The censor 
came down on Redway. The latter 
indicated that "an attempt to voice 
professional opinion is resented by 
those in authority. We must learn 
to look upon the manufacture of 
mendacities during the war as a 
heroic attempt to keep us going in 
the absence of truth." 

What Happened to Patterson. 

Joseph Medill Patterson^ was one 
of the American correspondents who 
had been with the German army and 
later with the Belgians. Patterson 
didn't believe the reiterated talk of 
German atrocities. He didn't say 
they were not possible. He only said 
that patient investigation, personally 
conducted, had failed to discover 
them. He had traced yarn after yarn 
only to find them wholly untrue, or 
the quite natural exaggeration of war 
time incidents. Some of Patterson's 
stuff got back to Antwerp. The Bel- 
gians — who are pretty good sports — 
didn't care. Then the English 
reached Antwerp. 

"Did you write this?" Patterson 
was asked. 

He said he did — and he was frog- 
marched across the frontier. The 
London correspondent of the Asso- 
ciated Press has had frequent reason 
to complain of the manner in which 
his dispatches have been altered or 
suppressed. There was a typical case 
in which the present pope had issued 
a note to his cardinals — I am not 
clear as to the precise form of this 
papal communication, for reasons 
that will appear— in which he urged 
upon them that their duty is to pray 
for peace. The English censors, 
through their control of the only Eu- 
ropean cable, except the French 
cable, which is similarly under the 
control of the French censors, as- 
sume to feed the American people 
upon what news they will. Pope 
Benedict's note was "killed." 



"Mr. Joseph Medill Patterson is "The 
Chicago Tribune's" special representa- 
tive in the war zone. — Editor. 



One Oorrespondent Beat Censor. 

"Why?" asked Frederick' Roy Mar- 
tin, assistant general manager of the 
Associated Press, now in charge of 
the situation here. The chief censor 
tried to sidetrack Mr. Martin's ques- 
tion by asking him to lunch. Lunch 
has been a complete answer to all 
protests voiced heretofore by Eng- 
lish journalists. Martin would not 
be shifted. The chief censor, in 
honeyed tones and rose-petaled 
words, explained: 

"No doubt the censors thought it 
inadvisable that the millions of 
Catholics in the world should learn 
that the pope desired peace. It 
might interfere with the proper con- 
duct of the war — " 

"But they have learned," said Mar- 
tin. 

The chief censor was bland and in- 
credulous until he learned that Mar- 
tin sent on every America bound 
steamer a complete file of all dis- 
patches cabled from London. In 
New York the originals of the cables 
are compared with the mutilated re- 
mains received there. Then the 
words and sentences eliminated by 
the censors are replaced in red ink 
capitals in a newly typed file. That 
file is tremendously illuminating. 

"You mail these files to New 
York?" asked the chief censor, 
kindly. 

"I do not," said Martin. "I send 
them by my trusted friends to be de- 
livered by hand." 

Sharp Surprise for Censor. 

The chief censor's face fell. He 
began to be alarmed by the situation. 
Obviously, a rigid censoring of the 
mail was not to be resorted to. But 
Mr. Martin left with the impression 
that the censorship would be quite as 
severe in the future as in the past. 
So far as the war office can prevent, 
the world is to be kept in ignorance 
of what is going on in France. It 
may be that the arms of the allies 
are being crowned with success. 
They may be on the verge of defeat. 
No one can certainly say. 

Jimmy Hare is easily the dean of 
war photographers. He has smelled 
powder in every war for twenty 
years. He ventured over into France 
in the very week that the British 
had succeeded in rounding up the 
last seven war correspondents still at 
large. These men had all been put 
under a pledge not to write any more 
war news until the war office gave its 
assent, on pain of being held pris- 
oners until the end of the war. 

"But I'm not going to write," said 
Hare. "I only want to take a few 
pictures." 

"We'll have no pictures of this 
hell going to our folks at home," said 
an officer. "What effect, do you 
think, they would have on recruit- 
ing?" 

No Chance lor Jimmy Hare. 

"But I'll not take that sort of 
pictures," pleaded Hare. "I only 
want news pictures — not horrors." 

"We want no news pictures 
printed," said the officer. 

So Hare came back and started 
for Belgium. The very day he 



started, the newspaper offices and 
correspondents here got this word: 

"Nothing Is to be printed of the 
arrival of British troops in Belgium 
or the bombardment of Antwerp." 

The first part of that order must 
be taken as quite a legitimate exer- 
cise of the censor's functions. Per- 
haps the Germans may not have 
known that the English were going 
into Belgium. One is permitted to 
doubt this, but the criticism may be 
made of the order. The second part 
was obviously designed to conceal 
from the world the fact that Ant- 
werp was beleaguered. English 
military authorities always have as- 
sumed in print that Antwerp is im- 
pregnable. In private they always 
have doubted it. This order was a 
part of the plan to keep truth from 
the people. There are hard times 
ahead for Jimmy Hare. 

Tried to Suppress Antwerp Story. 

Of course, the bombardment was 
so huge a story that the military au- 
thorities could not suppress it long. 
The net result of the suppression plus 
revelation was to render the think- 
ing portion of the public that buys 
newspapers most uneasy. For three 
weeks, as Major Redway said in the 
"Globe," the public "has been per- 
suaded that we are engaged in a 
battle" in the territory of the Aisne. 
The day that Antwerp's bombard- 
ment began a note appeared in the 
paper that General von Kluck's army 
is "being pushed north." 

Maybe he was marching north. No 
one knows. But he certainly could 
not be "pushed" north. If he moved 
north it was in the effort to outfiank 
the French army opposing him. So 
persistently has the British public 
been fed on military half-truths and 
no-truths that such a statement be- 
comes at once alarming. Before this 
letter appears in print something may 
be known of the situation. Today 
London is beginning to get fright- 
ened. The city has been so persist- 
ently misled by the war office that 
it is beginning to dread the unknown. 

London Papers Begin Rebelling. 

The London newspapers, patient, 
as they have been under this mili- 
tary despotism, are beginning to 
rebel in a mild, tea-and-milk sort of 
way. Almost without exception they 
are referring to the military censor- 
ship as stupid. But their criticism 
does not extend to what may be con- 
sidered the legitimate operations of 
the censorship. They are genuinely 
proud of the fact that the expedi- 
tionary force of 150,000 was landed 
in France before a word had ap- 
peared in the papers. Every editor 
knew — but not one broke faith. 

The 70,000 Indian troops were 
landed at Marseilles four days before 
the fact was printed. That was quite 
all right, too. But it happened that 
the day the Indians were landed 
Prime Minister Asquith delivered a 
speech at Dublin. He told his audi- 
ence that the Indians had been 
landed that day. The news came to 
London in the report of his speech. 
It was printed in Ireland. Here it 
was submitted to the censors. 

"That must not be printed," said 
the censors. 



258 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



Suppressing the Prime Minister. 

And so it wasn't. There is a cer- 
tain quality of mirth in the thought 
that the utterances of Prime Minister 
Asquith are suppressed as dangerous 
by some pig-headed retired coloneL 
The qualifying adjective is not mine. 
It was first used by Prime Minister 
Asquith when for seven days the cen- 
sors would not permit a report of 
Asquith's speech, delivered in the 
House of Commons, to be cabled to 
America. 

Nothing will be printed that has 
not the approval of the war office. 
The editors know perfectly well what 
would happen to them if they of- 
fended. Being a citizen of a more or 
less free land I have been incredu- 
lous. So I have asked editors. 

What Kitchener Would Do. 

"Kitchener would suppress a paper 
that defied him and put the editors 
in jail," they say. 

Lately the gossip of Fleet Street 
is that Lord Kitchener is seriously 
displeased with the manner in which 
some of the London papers have been 
conducted. It is not that they are 
not fully patriotic. It is not that they 
have printed anything which is not 
perfectly well known to the enemy. 
But they have permitted certain 
doubts to find their way into the tone, 
rather than into the words, of edi- 
torials. They have not dreamed — any 
more than I have — that the allies 
■will not be successful in the end. 
But it would seem that they are not 
quite satisfied that the success of the 
allies has been absolutely over- 
whelming in the first sixty days of 
the war. 

"Mark my words," said an editor 
who is suspected of being well liked 
at the war office, "if this keeps on 
Kitchener will take the papers over 
and run them himself." 

Couldn't Bluff Jack Spurgeon. 
But this may not be. There is a 
certain amount of bluff discoverable 
at every military headquarters. Some 
weeks ago the New York "World," 
"Tribune" and "Times" in order to 
reduce cable costs "Siamesed" their 
services. One day an item which 
displeased the censors was stopped in 
their report. Jack Spurgeon of the 
"World." who had been in charge on 
the night in question, was called up. 



He explained that the error had been 
a perfectly innocent one, as shown 
by the form in which it reached the 
cable censors. 

"We will do this and that," said 
the three censors who acted as a trial 
board. They were very severe and 
unkind to him. By and by Mr. Spur- 
geon's nimble American goat began 
to parade. 

"You will?" he asked, in low, gen- 
tle tones. "I am representing three 
great American papers, and what will 
you three gentlemen do to them?" 

Well, on second thought it ap- 
peared the censors wouldn't do any- 
thing to the three papers. There is 
a rumor that Mr. Spurgeon was asked 
to lunch. But that isn't the worst 
charge that American correspondents 
have brought against the censors. 
Some of the censors seem to have 
felt from time to time that America 
was not being properly informed as 
to the conduct of the war. So they 
have not merely struck words out of 
dispatches, but have struck words in. 

"This isn't your stuff," the editor 
of a great American daily wrote its 
correspondent. "I know your style. 
Some one has been tampering with 
your message." 

The correspondent referred to his 
file and found that some one in the 
censor's office had inserted words and 
sentences in his "copy" which had 
completely changed the tenor of the 
dispatch. As it appeared in the home 
office it was of a character highly 
pleasing to the war office. As it left 
the correspondent's hands it had been 
a dispassionate review of the situa- 
tion and a forecast of certain future 
happenings which has since been 
shown to have been singularly ac- 
curate. 

"Surely you are wrong," said a 
chief censor when the case was put 
before him. 

"Refer to the files in the cable of- 
fice," said the correspondent. "That 
will show you that I am telling the 
truth and will give you the name of 
the man who monkeyed with my dis- 
patch." 

"Oh," said the censor, "we couldn't 
do that." And they didn't do that. 

Holding tip Mail to Read It. 

Of course, that is an extreme case. 
But there is no doubt In my mind 



that the war office made up its mind 
at the beginning that the world 
should have such facts as it chose to 
give — and only such. Because it has 
been in complete control of all the 
cables It has partly succeeded. 

Press matter coming here via Hol- 
land is not only censored at the point 
of origin, but is censored again here 
before it Is delivered to the news- 
papers and correspondents — and even 
then it is held up. All Holland mall 
is held up five days, in order that 
the letters may be read. One news 
association got a letter from its cor- 
respondent in Amsterdam. That let- 
ter originally contained 1,500 words! 
This was what reached the associa- 
tion: 

"Telephone to my wife that I am 
quite well." 

Stanley Washburne of Minneapolis 
wanted to go to Russia to write the 
story of the war in the East for a 
New York paper and the London 
"Times." Lord Northcllffe, editor of 
the "Times," interested himself per- 
sonally In the project. Through the 
co-operation of the Russian ambas- 
sador in London he secured the per- 
mission of the Russian government. 
Washburne started for Russia. It 
seemed that he was to be enthusias- 
tically welcomed. The Russians 
actually wanted correspondents with 
their armies. Then General Kitch- 
ener heard of It. 

But Kitchener Steps In. 

"No American newspaper man can 
go with the Russian army," said he. 

He communicated with the Rus- 
sian government, and Washburne was 
headed off. It is quite likely that If 
Washburne had been permitted to get 
through he would have written some 
of the real news, as It seemed de- 
sirable that whatever Is happening 
In the East should be written by 
British hands, this morning's papers 
contain this statement: 

"Mr. Bernard Pares, professor of 
Russian at the Liverpool university, 
has been appointed official corre- 
spondent with the Russian armies. 
But one British and one French cor- 
respondent have been authorized." 



Atrocity Reports are Libelous 
Crime of Political World Machinations and Intrigue ! 



A SUPREME TASK. 



Mr. Asquith's Stirring Ijead. 



SPEECHES IN THE FOUR CAPI- 
TALS. 

The Prime Minister has issued a 
stirring call to the whole United 
Kingdom that the justice of our cause 
may be made plain and the duty of 
every man to do his duty may be en- 
forced. It is contained in the follow- 
ing letter which he has addressed to 
the Iiord Mayor of London, the Lord 
Provost of Edinburgh, the Lord 
Mayor of Dublin, and the Lord 
Mayor of Cardiff: — 



My Lords: 

The time has come for combined 
effort to stimulate and organize pub- 
lic opinion and public effort In the 
greatest conflict in which our people 
has ever been engaged. 

No one who can contribute any- 
thing to the accomplishment of this 
supremely urgent task is justified in 
standing aside. 

I propose, as a first step, that 
meetings should be held without de- 
lay, not only in our great centers of 
population and Industry, but In every 
district, urban and rural, throughout 
the United Kingdom, at which the 
Justice of our cause should be made 



plain, and the duty of every man to 
do his part should be enforced. 

I venture to suggest to your lord- 
ships that the four principal cities, 
over which you respectively preside, 
should lead the way. 

I am ready myself, so far as the ex- 
igencies of public duty permit, to 
render such help as I can, and I 
should be glad, with that object, to 
address my fellow-subjects in your 
cities. 

I have reason to know that I can 
count upon the co-operation of the 
leaders of every section of organized 
political opinion. 

Your faithful servant, 

H. H. ASQUITH. 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



259 



THE BIGHT TO DEFEND YOUR 
HOME. 



Editorial from the "Chicago Herald," 
September 12, 1914. 

The German Emperor has sent a 
personal protest to President Wilson 
against the alleged use of "dumdum" 
bullets by the allies, and accusing the 
Belgians of conduct which is held to 
justify the destruction of Louvain 
and other German severities. France 
retorts that the Germans have been 
using the "dumdum" bullets quite 
extensively. 

The use of "dumdums," so named 
from an Indian town where these 
cartridges are made, is forbidden by 
the Hague declaration of 1899. The 
French and English governments 
deny making or using them. That 
such bullets may have been found on 
captured French or English soldiers 
proves nothing against their govern- 
ments. 

Anybody can make a "dumdum" 
from the steel-jacketed military bul- 
let in a moment with a common file. 
They were first so made by British 
soldiers in India, who found that the 
new small caliber bullet would not 
"stop" fanatical Mohammedan tribes- 
men, bent on dying in battle, as the 
old large bullet did. 

The German Emperor's charge that 
"the Belgian government has openly 
incited the civil population to partici- 
pate in the fighting" will not arouse 
much sympathy for Germany in this 
country. To the average American 
the Belgians seem altogether justified 
in defending their homes against the 
invaders. Our theory of the rights 
of an invaded people is quite different 
from the German notion. 

In Europe the notion is that fight- 
ing should be confined to the "reg- 
ular" armies, and that "the people" 
should merely look on. We don't look 
at It that way. We cannot. To do so 
would brand as criminals the farmers 
who drove the British "regulars" 
from Lexington and Concord. 

Americans honor those farmers as 
patriots, and the Belgians who de- 
fended their homes as best they 
could, without waiting for red-tape 
formalities, seem to us worthy of the 
same honor.* 



♦Emphasized in bold type by the 
publisher of "War Echoes" in order 
to call the reader's attention to "The 
Chicago Tribune's" editorial: "Cruel- 
ty and Inhumanity," reprinted in full 
on this page. "The Tribune" takes 
the opposite view from the "Chicago 
Herald." Unbiased Americans will 
know how to judge for themselves 
as to which of the two powerful 
dailies is right. — Editor. 



It may be all right for "The 
World's Greatest Newspapers" to 
write sanctimonious editorials and 
then print without comment cable- 
grams such as the one printed on 
September 14. We are told in that 
that "a British officer had caught a 
German Uhlan officer in the act of 
cutting off both breasts of a poor 
Belgian girl." The cablegram is re- 
printed in full on another page under 
the heading." In the words of "The 
Tribune," we presume that if Great 
Britain "has gone to war cold," it can 




©eneialinfpelteut bei VII. Strmeeinfp.Jtion. 

HERMANN VON EICHHORN 
General Inspector of the Seventh Army 
(By Courtesy of the "Illinois Staats-Zeitung" ) 



be aroused to what is regarded as a 
fighting spirit by tales of cruelties in- 
flicted upon its innocent countrymen, 
in the present war, its allies. But in- 
asmuch as the United States is at 
peace with Germany, and its citizens 
do not have to be "aroused to what 
is regarded as a fighting spirit by 
tales . of cruelties" in order to help 
take the chestnuts out of the fire for 
Great Britain, we believe, it is not 
out of place to call "The Tribune's" 
attention to part of a letter it re- 
ceived from one of its readers and 
which it printed in its "Voice of the 
People" column on August 24. The 
letter, which we reprint in full in this 
book, says in part: 

"* ■* * But I am convinced 
that every true American, regardless 
of the land of his birth, would con- 
demn any sneaky reports or lies 
which are submitted from unscrupu- 
lous sources across the ocean and re- 
printed by some of our papers with- 
out any comment or even manufac- 
tured by them. That is not true 
American spirit, nor does it conform 
with the ideas of our illustrious Pres- 
ident, who warns his officials to 
strictest neutrality in word and deed, 
and who, I am sure, gladly would 
mu77!e some of the papers if it could 
he done. 



On the face of it, that cablegram 
shows its origin. It spells "London 
War Lies News Factory." If "The 
Tribune" really was hoodwinked into 
believing it was gospel truth because 
the British officer had told the nause- 
ating cruelty of the German cavalry 
officer to a London preacher in a let- 
ter, as the cable to "The Tribune" 
states, then we really pity the mil- 
lion daily readers who were served 
that abominable cablegram at their 
breakfast table, without one word of 
comment by "The Tribune" as to the 
advisability of taking the cablegram 
with an extra grain of salt. There 
was no "kind" editorial, commenting 
on the fact, because the space occu- 
pied by the cablegram had to be filled 
and nothing else was handy to fill it, 
in the rush of "making up," the nau- 
seating cablegram, itself, had been in- 
serted, merely to show to what de- 
gree of perfection the fanatical hatred 
of Germany could make the "London 
War Lies Factory" work overtime 
concocting lies. 

Of course, "The Tribune" could 
have added a postscript so as not to 
offend such of its readers who sym- 
pathized with the cause of the Allies 
to such an extent that they believed 
the German barbarians capable of the 
most fiendish outrages imaginable or 



260 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



unimaginable. The postscript could 
have said that "The Tribune" really 
did believe that the outrage had been 
committed, and, to make the pleasure 
of those who sympathized vv^ith the 
Allies still more complete, it could 
have suggested to them to imagine 
that the fiendish cavalry officer had 
been — a Prussian. In that way, the 
editorial comment would have been 
complete and would have pleased 
even Messrs. H. G. Wells, A. Conan 
Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Jerome K. 
Jerome and the other thirty famous 
writers who, on September 17, signed 
the statement which we took the lib- 
erty of reprinting from "The Tri- 
bune" on another page of this book. 
—Editor. 



CBUEIiTY AND INHUMANITY. 



Editorial. 



The Chicago Tribune. 

By the representations and plead- 
ings of belligerent nations the United 
States is being set up in a judicial 
position to hear accusation and de- 
fense. Germany, France, and Bel- 
gium are making official presentation 
of their cases, the Belgians by the 
submission of evidence and the Ger- 
mans and French by definite protest. 

Charges that humanity has been 
ignored may be divided into two 
classes, one having to do with severe 
measure taken upon authority and 
the other with the acts of individuals 
or groups of individuals unauthor- 
ized. 

The burning of Louvain was an 
authorized act. Attack by civilians 
upon troops probably is unauthor- 
ized.! The revenge taken by the 
troops might be by order or upon 
individual initiative. 

American opinion is being appealed 
to by the nations at war, and if they 
recognize that it has a value we ought 
to recognize the importance of form- 
ing it fairly. 

The first thing that will be con- 
sidered is that such destruction as 

fThere are strong reasons for be- 
lieving that the Belgian authorities 
incited tlie civilian population to fire 
from ambuscade upon German sol- 
diers. 

Also note that Mr. James O'Donnell 
Bennett, "The Chicago Tribune's" 
war correspondent, says: "A few 
days later Louvain lost its head. It 
went mad. Its civilians fired from 
ambuscade upon German soldiers. 

"The deed was the supreme out- 
rage against laws of civilized war- 
fare * * *." This entire article 
to "The Chicago Tribune," entitled 
"German Atrocities Fiction, So Far 
As Tribune Men in Belgium Can 
Find," is reprinted elsewhere in this 
book. 

We will not comment on the fact 
that the strong pro-British "Chi- 
cago Herald," in an editorial entitled, 
"The Right to Defend Your Home" 
(also reprinted in full on this page) 
should defend the act of Belgian ci- 
vilians firing from ambuscade upon 
German barbarians. We prefer to 
leave the "Herald's" editorial to the 
careful consideration and judgment 
of our readers. — Editor. 



Belgium has seen is apt to craze a 
population. Men and women are in 
danger of becoming lunatic in such 
circumstances, of losing all restraints 
and forgetting all humanity. 

. Germany charges that some Bel- 
gian peasant women were converted 
into fiends and went out like Afghan 
women to mutilate the dead and kill 
the wounded. This seems incredible 
here, but we have no conception of 
the terrors of the invasion of Belgium 
and scarcely any of their effect upon 
the mind. 

Germany also charges that civil- 
ians have taken opportunity to shoot 
soldiers. This is entirely credible 
and understandable — and unforgiv- 
able. The civilian is not treated as 
an enemy; soldiers are not on their 
guard against civilians; and an attack 
by civilians is not an act of vrar, but 
one of murder. If an army knew that 
resistance would be offered by every 
person in the country invaded, the 
objection to civilian attack would not 
be made, but every civilian would be 
shot as soon as he showed himself.* 
The explanation, if not defense, in 
the case of Belgium, is that citizens, 
finding themselves over night sub- 
jected to the destruction of a war 
in which they had no concern, be- 
haved much as they would if a band 
of robbers had set upon them. In 
doing so they made themselves liable 
to i>unishment. * 

The whole question between Ger- 
many and Belgium concerns the 
nature of the provocation and the 
severity of the punishment. Ger- 
many may find it expedient to deny 
that any German troops were guilty 
of inhuman practices upon Belgians. 
That individual Germans, demented 
or intoxicated, escaped from disci- 
pline, crazed by the sight of the 
slaughter of comrades or infuriated 
by battle, would mistreat Belgians 
is just as probable of occurrence as 
the outrages said to have been com- 
mitted by the Belgians upon Ger- 
mans. 

Nations cannot be convicted upon 
evidence of brutal acts by individuals. 
If they could, then any Mississippi 
town would have the character of the 
whole United States in its keeping. 
The burning of one negro, in such a 
case, would be sufficient excuse for a 
world combination in the name of 
civilization against such a country. 
It is the policy of nations at war to 
hurt their enemies in the opinion of 
neutrals. For that reason the indi- 
vidual cases are seized upon as bases 
for generalizations which are not 
justified and cannot stand. 

We do not believe that the Bel- 
gians are a barbarous people; we do 
not believe that the Germans have 
an army of brutes. There are then 
to be considered the admitted acts 



*Emphasized in bold type by the 
publisher of "War Echoes," in order 
to call the reader's attention to the 
"Chicago Herald's" editorial entitled, 
"The Right to Defend Your Home," 
reprinted in full on this page. The 
"Chicago Herald" takes the opposite 
view from "The Chicago Tribune." 
Unbiased Americans will know how 
to judge for themselves as to which 
of the two powerful dailies is right." 
—Editor. 



of repression which the German army 
authorized against the Belgians. It 
is upon these that judgment finally 
will be given. 

Was the punishment of the inno- 
cent demanded by the offenses of the 
guilty? Was the destruction of a 
tov/n like Louvain demanded by the 
military exigencies of the army? Did 
the punishment fit or exceed the 
crime? Was there a crime which de- 
manded punishment? Have hasty 
acts of great severity been such as 
will make Germans themselves apol- 
ogetic? 

As to dumdum bullets, rational 
opinion wanders hopelessly afield. 
The accusations that these hideous 
bullets are being used is the first 
to get circulation in any war. 

The United States does not ask to 
be set up in a judicial character in 
these disputes, but if its opinion can 
have weight for the good of humanity 
it is willing to exert it. 

And if the belligerents want our 
opinion of the whole business, they 
may have it. It is that a wasteful, 
unnecessary, wicked war is in prog- 
ress; that it never will have a result 
which will justify it, and that the 
only good thing it can come to is its 
end. 



liEST WE FORGET. 



Extracts from Editorial. New 

Yorker Staatz-Zeitung, 

New York, Herman 

Bidder. 

It serves no purpose to exaggerate 
the stories of German brutality. 
Neither is it worth while to minimize 
the horrors of war. It will in all 
probability be found on Investigation 
that the cathedral of Rheims has suf- 
fered no worse fate than the cathe- 
dral of Strassburg during the Franco- 
Prussian war. It is incredible that 
the Germans wantonly and deliber- 
ately destroyed that magnificent 
landmark of mediaeval art. I, for 
one, do not believe it. Military ne- 
cessity knows no law, and that is as 
true of French necessity as of Ger- 
man. 

I do not wish to draw odious com- 
parisons, but it does seem to me that 
the British people forget a great deal 
of their own history when they raise 
the cry of Louvain and Rheims. It 
was only fourteen years ago that 
General Wilson, U. S. A., brought the 
blush to the cheeks of a British Gen- 
eral on the outskirts of Peking, when 
he asked permission to withdraw his 
troops from the punitive expedition 
sent against the Western Hills, before 
the threat of the British to blow up 
the White Pagoda of Pa-ta-chu's was 
carried out. Europe has other cathe- 
drals, but China had only one White 
Pagoda, and the destruction of that 
priceless piece of religious architec- 
tecture was carried out by a British 
commander not during the bombard- 
ment of a city held by the enemy, but 
as an act of cold-blooded retaliation. 
The British ' have painted on their 
legation walls in Peking the motto: 
"Lest we forget." It would seem as 
if the time had come when those 
same words might well be painted on 
the British conscience at home. 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



261 



WHO MAIMS THE DEAD? 



Editorial, the Fatherland, New York. 
Evidences that the Victims of Bel- 
gian Mobs are Passed Off as 
Those of German Barbarians — 
Asquith Has Heard of No 
German Atrocities. 

Ordinarily the New York daily pa- 
pers would rather miss the greatest 
news item of the hour than copy it 
out of the columns of a rival with 
full credit. But since they have be- 
come allies of Russia and Japan as 
well as Servia, Montenegro, England 
and France, they are the best of 
bed-fellows. 

If the "World" has a particular 
gruesome story of German barbarity 
which the "Times" has missed, it is 
promptly copied by that paper and 
displayed under a pyramid of start- 
ling headlines. Even Premier As- 
quith on September 14 told the 
House of Commons that "no official 
information had reached the Minis- 
try of War concerning the reported 
stories that German soldiers had 
abused the Red Cross flag, killed and 
maimed the wounded, and killed wo- 
men and children as had been al- 
leged so often in stories of the bat- 
tlefields" (Associated Press cable), 
and a group of American correspond- 
ents recently denied similar stories 
of atrocity credited to the German 
troops. In spite of which the or- 
ganized press campaign in the New 
York editions of the London dailies 
goes merrily on. 

Who Maimed the Body? 

The "World" on September 13 
published an alleged interview be- 
tween General von Boehn of the 
German army and E. Alexander 
Powell, commissioned by the Belgian 
Government to familiarize American 
readers with the talefe of cruelty at- 
tributed to the Germans. General 
Boehn denied these accounts and 
told Powell to look at his officers and 
note that they were gentlemen, and 
the German troops marching by, most 
of them fathers of families. But 
Powell retorted promptly, "How 
about a woman's body I saw with 
hands and feet cut off?" 

The inference, of course, is that 
this mutilated body was that of a 
Belgian woman, and that the muti- 
lation was the work of the German 
troops. 

Since this war, as reflected in the 
American press, is the first war in 
which German troops have been ac- 
cused of positive savagery — even De 
Maupassant, going to the last ex- 
treme of vindictive spite in "Mile. 
Fif§," never went farther than to 
coin a- licentious story of a carousal 
of young lieutenants with a bevy of 
French demi-monde in the war of 
1870-71- — is it not far more prob- 
able that the body of the woman ob- 
served by Mr. Powell was that of 
a German woman killed and muti- 
lated by the Belgians? 

When the truth about this cam- 
paign of lies comes out we shall 
learn the other side. We have be- 
fore us now a pitiful picture of two 
men and a woman who are shown 
with their hands completely severed 
by the Belgians. 



Belgians on Record. 

This picture is from authentic 
sources, photographed for the Brit- 
ish investigating committee, which 
unearthed the Belgian atrocities 
committed against the natives of thi^ 
rubber districts in the Congo and 
South America, and is but one of --i 
large manifest of proof which shock- 
ed the civilized world a few years 
ago. 

As to the character of these fright- 
ful cruelties, and incidentally what 
a high literary authority deposes as 
to German civilization, let us quote 
Sir Conan Doyle's "The Crime of the 
Congo" (1909). 

"Sir Edward Gray has told us in 
his speech of July 22nd, 1909, the 
danger of European peace lies In 
this matter. Let us look this danger 
squarely in the face. Whence does 
it come? Is it from Germany, with 
her traditions of kindly home life — 
is this the power which raised a 
hand to help the butchers of the 
Mongolia and of the Domaine de la 
Courenne? Is it likely that those 
who so justly admire the splendid 
private and public example of Wil- 
liam II would draw the sword for 
Belgium? Both in the name of trade- 
rights and of Humanity Germany has 
a long score to settle on the Congo. 
"The witnesses of the crime are 
of all nations, and there is no possi- 
bility of error concerning the facts. 
There is finally the incorruptible evi- 
dence of the kodak. The terrible 
facts set out here, and which we 
know are only the mere margin of 
that welter of violence and injustice 
which the Jesuit Father Verreersch 
has summed up in the two words: 
'Immeasurable Misery.' 

"Often the white man acted him- 
self as torturer and executioner. 

"They talk of philanthropy and 
civilization. Where it is, I do not 
see. In one instance Captain Le- 
thaire had put sixty women in irons 
and allowed nearly all of them to 
die of hunger, because one village 
had not brought in enough rubber. 
One Lacroix writes a letter to the 
"Niew Gazet," of Antwerp, that he 
had murdered one hundred and fifty 
men, and crucified women and chil- 
dren and had mutilated many men. 
"Sums aggregating at least 7,000,- 
000 pounds of money have been 
traced to the King, and this money 
has been spent in buildings in Bel- 
gium, in buildings on the Riviera, in 
corruption of public men, and of the 
European and American press, the 
English not excepted, and finally in 
such a private life as has made the 
king's name notorious throughout 
Europe." 

In August, 1909, a year after Bel- 
gium had annexed the Congo Free- 
State, Prince Albert, the heir to the 
Belgian throne, returning from the 
Congo, said: "What we must do is 
to work for the moral regeneration 
of the natives," etc. On that occa- 
sion Sir Doyle has this to say: "Mor- 
al regeneration of the natives! 
Moral Regeneration of his own fam- 
ily and of his country — that is what 
the situation demands." "The hon- 
esty of German colonial policy is a 
proof of the fitness of Germany to 



be a great land-owning power." "Re- 
form is an absolute impossibility as 
long as Belgium holds the Congo." 
"Surely, there should be some pun- 
ishment for those who by their in- 
justice and violence have dragged 
Christianity and civilization in the 
dirt. The wretched agents on the 
spot will be offered up as victims, 
whereas the real criminals will es- 
cape; but the curse of blood and the 
scorn of every honest man rest upon 
them already. They have been guil- 
ty of the greatest crime in all history, 
the greater for having been carried 
out under the odious pretence of 
philanthropy. Surely, somehow, 
somewhere, they will have their re- 
ward." 

Belgian Atrocities Ignored. 

The German press has been glut- 
ted with accounts of Belgian atroc- 
ities committed upon defenseless 
Germans at Louvain and Antwerp. 
But of these the New York editions 
of the London papers take no notice. 
A gentleman acting for a large Ger- 
man firm in Antwerp makes affidavit 
that he saw the German barmaids 
in Antwerp stripped by the mob and 
dragged through the streets by their 
hair. He also testifies that in mak- 
ing his escape from the city he saw 
the body of a German woman in a 
public place. She had been hacked 
to death, and Belgian viragoes were 
kicking her lifeless form and spit- 
ting in her face. German laborers 
escaping from Antwerp were found 
crucified by the wayside. In many 
places German soldier boys were 
found with their arms tied and their 
eyes cut out of their sockets. But 
why dwell on these horrors! 

The Belgians have been equalling 
the Cossacks in inhuman cruelty. It 
will stagger humanity to know the 
truth. But the truth must be offset. 
So the Germans must be made to 
appear equally barbarous. To this 
end the testimony of milk maids and 
strumpets, hoboes and irresponsible 
vagrants are quoted as authorities^ 
Premier Asquith hasn't heard of any 
such outrages. American newspaper 
men deny charges over their signa- 
tures. Authoritative French sources 
say they are ignorant of them. Let 
the reader draw his own conclusion. 
But the "Times" reprints the 
"World's" story, and then adds in a 
cable dispatch of its own from Lon- 
don that the correspondent of the 
"Standard" has it from a resident of 
Aershot "that the chief of staff of 
General von Boehn at night while 
drunk entered the sleeping room of 
the daughter of the burgomaster and 
that the burgomaster's son thereupon 
shot and killed the invader." 

No responsibility attaches to this 
informant; anyone inspired with mal- 
ice can twist the truth to make out 
a justifiable case under such circum- 
stances. But the assumption that 
the chief of staff of a commanding 
general who was enjoying the hos- 
pitality of a private home, that of 
a man of the indispensable educa- 
tion and dignity of character pre- 
supposed in a man of such age and 
rank, should get drunk, and assault 
the defenseless daughter of the house 
is so preposterous that none but a 



262 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



thoroughly vitrified brain would 
credit the story. On the face of it, 
the account is a mere variation on 
the fiction of De Maupassant. 



WAR OB VANDALISM. 



Editorial. 



ALIjEGED cruelty of GERMANS 
UNTRUE. 



Statement of Tribune War 

Correspondent. The 

Chicago Tribune. 

New York, Sept. 6. — The Asso- 
ciated Press has received by wire- 
less from Berlin a message which 
was sent from Aix-la-Chapelle to 
Berlin for transmission. The authors, 
all of whom are well known Amer- 
ican newspaper men, were originally 
assigned to Brussels, and when that 
city was taken they were returned to 
Aix-la-Chapelle, from which city 
they have been endeavoring to reach 
London, but without success. 

The telegram was partly mutilated 
by Interference and certain words are 
missing, but the text here given is 
clearly that intended* by the au- 
thors: 

In spirit we are a unit in render- 
ing German atrocities groundless, as 
far as we are able to. After spending 
two weeks with and accompanying the 
troops upward of one hundred miles, we 
are unable to report a single instance 
unprovoked. 

We are also unable to confirm 
rumors of mistreatment of prisoners 
or of noncombatants with the Ger- 
man columns. This is true of Lou- 
vain, Brussels, Lungville, and Nancy, 
while in Prussian hands. 

We visited Chateau Soldre, Sam- 
bre, and Beaumont without substan- 
tiating a single wanton brutality. 
Numerous investigating rumors 
proved groundless. Everywhere we 
have seen Germans paying for pur- 
chases and respecting property rights 
as well as according civilians every 
consideration. 

After the battle of Biass (probably 
Barse, a suburb of Namur) we found 
Belgian women and children moving 
comfortably about. The day after 
the Germans had captured the town 
In Merbes Chateau we found one 
citizen killed, but were unable to con- 
firm lack of provocation. Refugees 
with stories of atrocities were unable 
to supply direct evidence. Belgians 
in the Sambre valley discounted re- 
ports of cruelty in the surrounding 
country. The discipline of the Ger- 
man soldiers is excellent, as we ob- 
served. 

To the truth of these statements 
we pledge our professional and per- 
sonal word. 
JAMES O'DONNELL BENNETT, 

Chicago Tribune. 
JOHN T. McCUTCHEON, 

Chicago Tribune. 
ROGER LEWIS, 
The Associated Press. 
IRVIN S. COBB, 
Saturday Evening Post. 
HARRY HANSEN, 
Chicago Daily News. 

*We reprint elsewhere in this book 
the confirmation of this telegram 
under the heading: "German Atroc- 
ities Fiction." — Editor. 



Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago. 

Under this heading, "The Chicago 
Tribune" writes editorially, in its is- 
sue of September 21st, 1914, partly 
as follows: 

"Military necessity pleaded by the 
German government in defense of the 
violation of Belgium's neutrality will 
doubtless be advanced to cover the 
destruction of Rheims cathedral by 
cannon fire. The statement of the 
general staff as to Louvain is not 
satisfying and the destruction of the 
Rheims cathedral following it quick- 
ly will encourage the charge by Ger- 
many's enemies and the suspicion 
among neutrals that the German gen- 
eral staff is willing to punish her 
enemies at the cost of all civilization 
. " "No time should be lost 
in making the fullest and most satis- 
factory statement as to both inci- 
dents if a most unfavorable impres- 
sion upon intelligent American opin- 
ion is to be avoided . . . " 

We are not authorized by the 
German government to explain why 
Louvain was partially destroyed, nor 
why Rheims was bombarded. There- 
fore our remarks are expressions of 
our opinions and as such are en- 
titled to the same careful considera- 
tion as are the opinions of "The 
Tribune." 

Our opinion is, that the present 
German general staff is as loath to 
destroy property in Belgium and in 
France as it was loath to do so in 
1870. We firmly believe that Amer- 
icans will bring proof of this conten- 
tion in the future notwithstanding 
the highly colored reports now com- 
ing to us from London, Paris, Bor- 
deaux and Antwerp. The Belgian 
charges of German atrocities, now 
disproved by American war corre- 
spondents, have been shifted to 
charges against Germany of vandal- 
ism and unnecessary destruction of 
Belgian and French cathedrals and 
art treasures. Truthful accounts 
from Americans will reach us later, 
entirely disproving these latter 
charges. 

The first line in "The Tribune's" 
editorial proves that the writer of 
that editorial does not remember 
that which he surely must have read 
many times, viz: Belgium's neutral- 
ity was violated by the French long 
before a German soldier set foot upon 
Belgian soil: 

1. By French troops assembled 
"en masse" at the railway station at 
Exquellines on August 1st, 1914. 
(See reports of hundreds of eye- 
witnesses as printed in Belgian and 
German newspapers.) 

2. By French troops massed on 
the Belgian border prior to August 
1st, 1914. (See official report of 
German government.) 

3. By French aviators flying from 
Belgian soil over the German boun- 
dary, into German jurisdiction, re- 
connoitering German military man- 
euvers and then returning to Bel- 
gian soil. (See statement by German 
government, never denied by Bel- 
gium nor by France) 



4. By French military aviators 
over Nuernberg, a German city, and 
dropping bombs upon it before war 
was declared between France and 
Germany. (See official statement of 
German government never denied by 
the French) 

France did not first request Ger- 
many to permit its aviators to drop 
bombs upon Nuernberg, nor was 
Nuernberg in a state of siege, nor 
had the city first been asked to sur- 
render, nor were the inhabitants 
warned that French bombs would 
drop out of the clouds . . . Ger- 
many and France were at peace with 
each other . . . but the French 
bombs were dropped upon Nuernberg 
and France does not deny it. 

France did not request Belgium's 
permission to send French troops to 
Exquellines (in Belgium) although 
Prussia ( before the German Empire 
existed) together with France and 
England did guarantee to respect the 
neutrality of Belgium, and France 
does not deny that French troops 
were at Exquellines "en masse" be- 
fore England declared war upon Ger- 
many and consequently before a 
single German soldier had set foot 
upon Belgian soil. 

Let the really neutral American 
citizen weigh above facts and THEN 
endeavor to convince the .biased 
American that Belgium's neutrality 
was first violated by France without 
official England making it a cause 
for declaring war upon France. 

The "Tribune" (in its editorial) 
sneers that "military necessity" will 
be advanced to excuse the burning 
of Louvain and Rheims. We have 
seen that "military necessity" was 
NOT the reason for breach of Bel- 
gian neutrality — for Belgian neutral- 
ity no longer existed when German 
troops entered Belgium, but "mili- 
tary necessity" is the reason given 
for entering France via Belgium, in- 
stead of Alsace, Switzerland or 
Luxemburg. 

Nor will "military necessity" be 
given as the reason for burning part 
of Louvain. The citizens of Louvain, 
in great numbers, fired from the 
windows of houses and of churches 
upon the German soldiers as they 
marched through the streets of 
Louvain after its capitulation. In 
retaliation the German army attack- 
ed those civilian belligerents as a 
military force and in doing so de- 
stroyed many of the houses and 
churches in which they were con- 
cealed. 

The case is not parallel with our 
occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 
where a few Mexican soldiers con- 
cealed in houses, fired upon and 
killed a few American marines. Vera 
Cruz had not capitulated to the 
Americans, the soldiers had a right 
to fire from houses and we had a 
right to fire at them — but not at 
peaceful civilians — nor burn houses 
in which citizens had concealed 
themselves. We had a right to 
riddle those few houses from which 
Mexican soldiers fired upon our 
marines and in fact those houses 
were attacked, searched and cleared 
of our enemy. In Louvain, the citi- 
zens in very large numbers attacked 
an unsuspecting, victorious army and 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



263 



killed a great many of its soldiers; 
in Vera Cruz, a few Mexican soldiers 
attacked an invading army and killed 
a few marines. 

Nothing very authentic is known 
about the attack upon the Rheims 
cathedral. No German report has 
affirmed the French version of the 
burning of the Rheims cathedral. 
Therefore, in the words of President 
Wilson: "We will NOT condemn any 
one of the warring nations at pres- 
ent, because to do so would be to 
pass judgment prematurely. To 
condemn Germany because the 
French reports depict the bombard- 
ment of Rheims and the burning of 
its cathedral even before word of 
confirmation has come from German 
or American sources would indeed 
be passing judgment prematurely." 

Nor is the judgment of the 
"Tribune" correct, that "military 
necessity" will be pleaded by the 
Germans in defense of the violation 
of Belgium's neutrality, (nor the ex- 
cuse for burning part of Louvaln), 
nor will it "doubtless be advanced 
for the destruction (if this be true) 
of the Rheims cathedral by cannon 
fire." 

If the "statement is not satisfying" 
as to Louvain, then the statement of 
any man, who is attacked from> be- 
hind "is not satisfying," when that 
man says he struck his assailant 
down, where he found him, because 
he had been first attacked. 

If there is a vestige of an opinion 
left in the mind of an American that 
Louvain was partly destroyed because 
the "German general staff is willing 
to punish her enemies at the cost 
of all civilization" then that Ameri- 
can is NOT neutral, but like the 
Tribune's editorial writer, does NOT 
want to accept any reason whatever 
for changing his biased view con- 
cerning the fact that part of Lou- 
vain was destroyed by Germans. 

Denial of the Atrocity Charges. 

(Editorial from "The Chicago Tri- 
bune," September 8, 1914.) 

It is hardly necessary to direct 
special attention to the importance 
of the message of the five war cor- 
respondents — two of whom are rep- 
resentatives of The Tribune and 
known throughout the country — 
with reference to the charges of. 
atrocity and savage cruelty that 
have been made against the German 
troops in Belgium. 

The correspondents refute the 
charges, naturally only "so far as 
they are able to," but their testi- 
mony, as far as it goes, is direct and 
significant, as well as highly gratify- 
ing. They speak of the excellent dis- 
cipline of the German soldiers; they 
investigated various reports and 
rumors only to find them untrue. 
They had ample opportunities tor 
observation and have not one single 
case of unprovoked cruelty to record. 
They say that the Belgians them- 
selves discount rumors of this kind, 
and that refugees who circulated 
them were unable to furnish evi- 
dence. 

If the Belgian commissioners now 
on the way to this country have facts 
and evidence to present, they will be 



heard and their case will be con- 
sidered. Meantime to repeat the de- 
nial is grateful and reassuring. The 
charges of atrocity against the army 
of a great and civilized people have 
had a depressing and profoundly 
disquieting effect. One London 
weekly of weight and character has 
appealed to President Wilson, as 
head of the greatest neutral nation, 
to address Emperor William openly 
and ask him what "his intentions 
are" with regard to respect for the 
laws of humanity and the prohibi- 
tions by solemn treaties of savage 
and barbarous forms of warfare. If 
the charges were well grounded in 
most cases one would despair of civ- 
ilization and culture. 

The message should at least cause 
everybody to suspend judgment and 
demand convincing testimony. 



.\N AUTHORITATIVE STATEMENT 
ON GERMAN "ATROCITIES." 



Editorial. 
The Springfield TJnion. 

The Union has repeatedly admon- 
ished its readers to take with a grain 
of salt the stories of German atro- 
cities emanating very largely from 
sources hostile to the German cause, 
and now comes a statement signed 
by American correspondents of the 
highest repute that most of these re- 
ported atrocities are utterly without 
foundation. That there have been 
certain outrageous and uncivilized 
acts committed by German soldiers 
probably is true, just as it is equally 
true that individual soldiers among 
the Allies have not been without 
fault in these respects. War is not 
a lovely thing whether engaged in 
by so-called civilized peoples or by 
savages. It arouses passion and im- 
pulses sure to find expression in 
deeds that seem to offer no excuse. 
It has been so with every war, and 
80 it will be so long as war endures. 
But to charge the German troops, 
as they have been charged, with un- 
speakable cruelties, such as might 
be expected from barbarians, is as 
unfair as it is senseless. 

Roger Lewis, of the Associated 
Press; Irvin S. Cobb, of the Phila- 
delphia Public Ledger; Harry Han- 
sen, of the Chicago Dally News, and 
.lames O'Donnell Bennett and .John 
T. McCutcheon, of the Chicago Trib- 
une, after spending two weeks 
with, and accompanying the German 
troops upwards of 100 miles, assert 
that they are unable to find a single 
instance in which unprovoked atro- 
cities have been committed. "Every- 
where," they say, "we have seen Ger- 
mans paying for purchases and re- 
specting property rights as well as 
according civilians every considera- 
tion." To this they add: "The dis- 
cipline of the German soldiers is ex- 
cellent," and to the proof of their 
statements they pledge their "pro- 
fessional and personal word." 

These correspondents are wholly 
disinterested. They are concerned 
merely with reporting the facts as 
they find them, and until there is 
overwhelming evidence to the con- 
trary, their findings in this matter 



should be accepted by the American 
public. The Germans apparently 
have much to answer for in the de- 
struction of Louvain, but already ac- 
counts of their operations there are 
being somewhat toned down by later 
versions. It is just as well not to 
convict the Germans on testimony 
emanating from Paris and London, 
neither should the allied forces be 
convicted of anything on the strength 
of reports sent out from Berlin. So 
long as the present indefensible 
censorship continues, accounts are 
bound to be colored according to the 
sources from which they originate. 
If the respective nations are really 
desirous of setting themselves right 
in the eyes of the people of the 
United States, they cannot go about 
it better than by giving the corre- 
spondents of the press associations 
and individual newspapers a full op- 
portunity to record and transmit 
their observations. ■ 



THE FALL OP ANTWERP. 



Editorial. 



The New York Evening Post. 

(Reprinted from the "Milwaukee 
Free Press," Otcober 16, 1914.) 

Despite the efforts in dispatches 
from Paris to minimize the fall of 
Antwerp, there can be no doubt that 
German elation over its capture is 
justified. It is not only that they 
have smashed to pieces in ten days 
what was considered to be an impreg- 
nable stronghold, and thereby con- 
summated a feat of arms which is 
only partially paralled even in the 
fall of Liege and Namur; they have 
achieved a success which cannot but 
have a profound moral effect upon 
their enemies. 

A week ago the value of Antwerp 
was admitted in dispatches which rep- 
resented the allies as racing to the 
rescue of the city; the hasty dispatch 
of the British naval guns that were 
so effective in South Africa Is further 
proof that the allies recognized the 
enormous value of a German check 
or of a long-delayed siege. French 
newspapers freely stated that Ant- 
werp was sure to hold out for weeks 
or months; but just as the expert of 
the London times declared the day 
before the fall of Namur that that 
city would block the Germans for 
four weeks, so the experts again went 
astray. The German attack was be- 
yond anything ever seen in modern 
warfare, and the Krupp artillery can 
now boast of unsurpassed victories. 

The military value to the Germans 
of the capture of Antwerp is best 
measured it we think what would 
have happened if the allies had suc- 
ceeded in preventing its capture, or 
raised the siege. Then they would 
have been in a position gravely to 
menace Brussels and the German 
communications in Belgium. It 
would have been hailed as necessi- 
tating the retirement of the kaiser's 
forces from France, as well it might 
have, and the allies would have 
cheered it as indicating the begin- 
ning of the end of the struggle on 
anything except German territory. 



264 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



Now conditions are reversed; tlie 
Belgian army has again received a 
stunning blow, and may have lost as 
high as 40,000 more men by casual- 
ties and internments in Holland, the 
latter are said to total 26,000, all in ad- 
dition to the British loss of 2,300 
from similar causes. That the Brit- 
ish marines' support was so futile and 
that they were bundled out so uncere- 
moniously in forty-eight hours will 
cause more rejoicing in Berlin than 
anything else, since the feeling 
against England is so Intensely bit- 
ter. 

As to the direct military advan- 
tages to the Germans, that, as we 
have already pointed out, lies chiefly 
in the fact that the attacking army 
Is now free to move on Ostend and 
Calais, and that the last menace to 
the German communications in Bel- 
gium itself is at an end. It is the 
great battle line in France and the 
extreme northwest corner of Belgium 
which is now protecting the trans- 
portation lines to Cologne and Aix-la- 
Chapelle. Everything but a skeleton 
force of railroad guards may now be 
thrown towards Lille or towards Os- 
tend, to meet the allied troops. With 
them must now be fought out the 
question whether the Germans can 
cut off and hold the channel ports 
as far as Calais, or whether they must 
content themselves by building the 
last link in the 300-mile line of 
breastworks from Switzerland to the 
sea, and waiting until the German 
artillery can crack the hardest nuts 
of all, Toul and Verdun, or until they 
are compelled to fall back toward the 
Rhine. 

Whatever the outcome of the next 
moves, the allies fight with a heavier 
burden than before. In England 
fresh anxiety and a recognition of 
the heartening effect upon the Ger- 
mans must bring about considerable 
depression, not because of any real 
danger of the enemy's using Antwerp 
for naval or aerial attacks — we can- 
not believe that they will seek to 
violate Dutch neutrality — but be- 
cause of the plain fact that every 
such German success means the stif- 
fening of the backbone of the empire. 
In Austria, as in Italy and Turkey, 
the moral results will be far-reach- 
ing as well. To the hard-pressed 
Austrians this fresh proof of the 
power of the German arms comes in 
the nick of time. In Prance, too, 
with her large reliance upon those 
eastern fortresses which have fought 
so manfully, the collapse of Ant- 
werp must have a chilling effect. In- 
deed, the whole world outside of the 
sympathizers with Germany must 
grieve at this fresh evidence that we 
are in for a long-drawn-out brutaliz- 
ing struggle, In which the poor Bel- 
gians are apparently to be ground to 
pieces, since there is every prospect 
for further terrible fighting upon 
their soil. 

There is but one satisfaction for 
the humanitarian and anti-militarist 
In it all — the universal admission that 
fortresses have been vanquished by 
ordnance, unless supported by great 
mobile forces, in which case hasty 
earthworks seem to serve about as 
well. As the honors at sea are for 
the moment, at least, with the sub- 
marine, so on land the prestige be- 



longs to the guns, not the forts. Ant- 
werp's defences were planned by the 
ablest French and Belgian engineers, 
only to go down like paper before 
what was probably chiefly an army of 
reserves and of the Landsturm. 

It will be difficult, hereafter, for 
war ministers to demand millions for 
structures that are certain to prove 
merely the tombs of their defend- 
ers. In addition to this the question 
must also be asked whether the 
money which may be lost by the 
shelling of so great and rich a city 
as Antwerp does not now exert a 
powerful If unconscious Influence 
against the defenders and in favor 
of an early surrender. In the future 
It should be a powerful argument 
against fortifying any great urban 
marts of trade. 



army? Will It be as serious to the 
army of the allies as the reinforce- 
ment of the Japanese at Mukden by 
Nogi after the fall of Port Arthur and 
the release of Nogi's army from that 
task? A few days must tell decis- 
ively. 



ANTWERP AND AFTER. 



The Chicago Tribune. 

The fall of Antwerp adds another 
sanguinary act to that tragic drama 
whose denouement waits behind the 
impenetrable curtain of the future. 
In all that drama the most heroic fig- 
ure Is little Belgium, little in physi- 
cal power, great in high-hearted 
courage and patriotic sacrifice; little 
in physical power and yet history may 
record how that little turned the 
scale of battle and gave victory to 
the allied arms." Indeed, we know 
now that LiSge saved Paris ; that the 
stubborn resistance of the small Bel- 
gian army, which will go down In 
history as one of the most heroic 
feats in the records of war, parried 
the deadly lunge that German war- 
craft had leveled at the French cap- 
ital. 

And now Belgium has lost all the 
great citadels the genius of her great 
military engineer, Brialmont, had de- 
signed for such an extremity as this. 
She has paid in blood and sorrow, but 
not a drop In shame. Whatever her 
fortune may be from now on she has 
this to sustain her. 

As to the military consequences of 
the capture of Antwerp, it is foolish 
to prophesy. The talk of Antwerp as 
a base against England is exagger- 
ated. Napoleon is quoted as calling 
Antwerp a pistol at the head of 
England. But it was a pistol that 
he could not discharge. Germany 
had a base for operations against 
England, but she will not be able to 
use it until the British fleet is beat- 
en.^ Zeppelin raids will count for 
little except to rouse British war feel- 
ing still more and increase the rate 
of enlistment. 

The main strategic motives for the 
determined attack upon Antwerp 
were based upon the fact that it was 
a danger to the German communica- 
tions and the fact that its existence 
on the flank or rear of the German 
advance necessitated withholding a 
large force from the main battle line. 

What will be the result of the re- 
lease of the large body of troops and 
heavy guns assigned to the taking of 
Antwerp? The Belgian defending 
force was not captured and will join 
the allies. What will be the effect of 
the reinforcement of Von Kluck's 



"It is heart-rending to watch the 
crocodile tears which "The Tribune" 
sheds, editorially, for poor "little 
heroic Belgium" at every available 
opportunity. It Is interesting to note 
at the same time how this friend of 
the Allies Is hoping against hope that 
the allied arms may yet lick the 
"German barbarians." — Editor. 

'From "The Chicago Daily News" 
of October 16: 

"London, England, Oct. 16, 1:42 p. 
m. — Another thrust from the Ger- 
man submarine service has robbed 
the British navy of the cruiser Hawke 
and has raised the tally of the list of 
warships sunk by the Germans to 
seven. To this must be added the 
virtual destruction of the cruiser Pe- 
gasus by a German warship at Zanzi- 
bar. 

"The Hawke, a cruiser of 7,350 
tons, under command of Capt. Hugh 
Williams, was sunk yesterday in the 
North sea, the graveyard of six other 
warships, which were the victims of 
German torpedoes. * * * 

"* * * According to one re- 
port, she had only 400 aboard. What- 
ever the number, only fifty-two men 
were saved, and there was not a sin- 
gle commissioned oflicer among 
them. 

Iiist of British Naval Losses. 

"The Cruisers Amphion, Pathfind- 
er, Aboukir, Cressy, Hogue, Pegasus 
and Hawke, and the torpedo gunboat 
Speedy make up the British formid- 
able list of losses in warships in the 
first ten weeks of the war. Against 
this the British admirallty claims 
four German cruisers, two torpedo 
boat destroyers, one torpedo boat, 
three submarines and eight torpedo 
commerce destroyers. 

"Omitting the armed merchant- 
men, the aggregate warship tonnage 
loss to England is, of course, much 
greater than that to Germany." 

Slowly, but surely the German 
beavers are doing their work, Mr. 
Editorial Writer of "The Tribune." 
Contrary to English reports, the sub- 
marine TJ9 was unaccompanied when 
it sank the British cruisers Aboukir, 
Cressy and Hogue in September. It 
was again the same submarine U9, 
with Captain Otto Weddingen, Lieu- 
tenant Spiess and twenty-four men 
on board, that also sank the cruiser 
Hawke. Winston Churchill has not 
been making any more "Dig German 
warships out like rats from holes" 
speeches of late. If the British war- 
ships at the bottom of the North 
Sea have failed "to rouse British 
war feeling" we cannot believe the 
prophesy of this champion of Eng- 
land that Zeppelin raids will rouse 
it still more "and increase the rate 
of enlistment." 

An article entitled "For King and 
Country" in "The Outlook" (New 
York) for October 14, says: 

"You pass through Tottenham 
Court Road into Oxford Street and 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



265 



Regent Street (London). In many 
of the shop windows are such printed 
appeals as' these, in large letters: 

TO ARMS FOR KING AND COUN- 
TRY! 

YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU! 

LORD KITCHENER WANTS 100,- 
000 MORE VOLUNTEERS. 

JOIN THE ARMY TILL THE WAR 
IS OVER. 

"And then, more rarely, such a 
pithy, appealing notice as this to any 
Britisher of backbone: 

UP TILL NOW YOU HAVE 
LOOKED ON AT THE GAME. WE 
CALL UPON YOU TO PLAY IT 
NOW. FORWARDS WANTED! NO 
BACKS! PLAY UP! 

"And then, above all, this one: 

COME NOW, DON'T HAVE TO 
BE FETCHED! THE PEOPLE WILL 
LOOK AFTER YOUR HOMES. 

"Just how any Englishman who 
believes in his country's cause can 
withstand this last appeal is beyond 
me. 

"Then there are other and rather 
more commercial appeals in the shop 



windows. In a Piccadilly cigar em- 
porium there is this: 

ALL TOBACCO AND CIGARS FOR 
THE CONTINENT ARE NOW DUTY 
FREE. REMEMBER OUR MEN AT 
THE FRONT. 

"And then there is still another 
kind of appeal: 

YOU DON'T WANT US TO CLOSE 
UP BECAUSE OF THE WAR, DO 
YOU? TWO HUNDRED AND FIF- 
TY EMPLOYEES ARE DEPEN- 
DENT FOR THEIR DAILY BREAD 
ON THIS ESTABLISHMENT. PAT- 
RONIZE US INSTEAD OF BUYING 
GOODS "MADE IN GERMANY." 

"But the recruiting's the thing. It 
is going bravely forward, and an ad- 
ditional fillip is given wherever a 
band is present outside the recruiting 
office playing patriotic airs. Several 
orchestras make a point of accom- 
panying, without charge, the various 
contingents from the London Central 
Recruiting Depot in Great Scotland 
Yard to the railway station. 

"Yet with all the recruiting there 
comes to us who have been in Ger- 



many two pathetic convictions. The 
first is that these preparations are 
being made much too long after the 
war has begun. The second is that 
the preparations are meeting with in- 
adequate response. Day before yes- 
terday was London's largest recruit- 
ing day; four thousand men joined 
the ranks. But the total of recruits 
is small as compared with the TWO 
MILLION VOLUNTEERS IN GER- 
MANY." (The last five words are 
emphasized by capitals by the Editor. 

In Germany there were two mil- 
lion volunteers, besides the million 
and more men that were compelled 
by law to join the standards at the 
mobilization of the German army, in 
spite of the fact that the Anti-Ger- 
man press says it is the "Kaiser's 
war" and the Germans are but "his 
pawns." However, if that is the 
case, and many Anglomaniacs still as- 
sert it. Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, 
the Imperial Chancellor, did not have 
to go on the stump and make 
speeches to arouse the furor teuton- 
icus. But he accompanied the "War 
Lord" to the front. * * * 



The Position of France 
How France has Behaved for a Century among her Neighbors! 



WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF? 



The Fatherland, New York. 
EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! 



SIX GERMAN BATTLESHIPS SUNK. 



FRANCE WHIPS THE KAISER'S 
ARMY. 



Entire Corps of Uhlans Mowed Down 
By French Machine Guns. 



Paris Delirious With Joy Over First 
Victory. 

In the above manner the first 
events (or suppositions, rather) of 
the gigantic struggle are being dis- 
played to New York. The people 
show a feverish interest, and "ex- 
tras" are sold, aggregating a tre- 
mendous total. Today, the newsboy 
is the only business man downtown 
doing a real business. 

The sentimental effect of these 
glaring headlines on the masses vary: 
Delight — disbelief — and a little de- 
pression. To those who are taking 
the present "war news" with a good 
grain of salt, and those who feel un- 
easy over the members of their fam- 
ilies and friends who may be fighting 
for the "Vaterland" or are within 
the danger zone, a reproduction of 
the "New York World" exactly 44 
years ago will be of interest. 

To explain the actual situation, it 
should be stated that the serious 
fighting had started with the en- 
gagement at Saarbrucken on August 
2, the French occupying the city, 
Paris at once heard of the "grande 
victoire." With his breakfast on 
August 4, 1870, the New Yorker was 



served the following "extras" from 
the war: 

The Fight at Saarbrucken. 

Napoleon's Account of the Storming 

of the Heights. 

His Despatch to Eugenie. 

Half of the Town Destroyed. 

The Mitrailleurs at Work. 

Moral Effect of the First French 

Victory. 

More Fighting. 

Reported Storming of Weissenberg 

by the French. 

Bazaine's Corps Engaged. 

King William Assumes Command of 

His Army. 

Position of the Prussians. 

The Whole of Europe a Vast Camp, 

England Distrusted Everywhere. 

Negotiations to Keep Open the Ports 

of Hamburg and Bremen, 

etc., etc., etc. 

Three Thousand Prisoners Captured. 

Paris, Aug. 3. — The division of the 
French army under General Bataille, 
captured the town of Saarbrucken 
and took 3,000 Prussian prisoners. 

The Battle of Saarbrucken. 

London, Aug. 3. (Noon) — The fol- 
lowing details of the affair at Saar- 
brucken have been received here: 

The fight began at 11 o'clock yes- 
terday forenoon. The French passed 
the frontier in force. The Prussians 
were driven from their strong posi- 
tion by the sharp artillery fire of the 
French. The latter remained mas- 
ters of the position, which they won 
without serious loss. The Emperor 
and Prince Imperial witnessed the 
confiict, and returned to Metz to din- 
ner. 



London, Aug. 3. — Saarbrucken 
was taken by the French this morn- 
ing. The loss was slight on both 
sides. 

Half of the Town Destroyed. 

Paris, Aug. 3. — The French jour- 
nals this morning publish the follow- 
ing account of the Saarbrucken af- 
fair: 

Metz, Aug. 2.— The French troops 
passed the frontier at 11 o'clock. 
They instantly encountered the Prus- 
sians, strongly posted on the heights 
commanding Saarbrucken, which 
were carried by a few battalions. 
The capture of the town instantly 
followed, the artillery compelling the 
Prussians to evacuate it in great 
haste. General Frossard with one 
division defeated three divisions of 
the enemy. Buildings in Saar- 
brucken caught fire from the French 
artillery, and half of the town was 
destroyed. The mitrailleurs were 
used for the first time, and are re- 
ported to have worked wonders. 

Napoleon's Despatch to Eugenie. 

The Emperor, on his return to 
Metz, after the battle, sent the fol- 
lowing telegraphic despatch to the 
Empress: 

"Louis has received his baptism of 
fire. He was admirably cool, and 
little impressed. A division of Fros- 
sard's command carried the heights 
overlooking the Saar. The Prussians 
made a brief resistance. Louis and I 
were in front where the bullets fell 
about us. Louis keeps a ball he 
picked up. The soldiers wept at his 
tranquillity. We lost an officer and 
10 men. Napoleon." 

The City of Metz was illuminated 
last night In honor of the victory. 
After the retreat of the Prussians 
the French did not occupy the place. 



266 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



The Empress with her nieces went 
this morning to the Chapel of Notre 
Dames des Victoires to offer prayers 
of thanksgiving for the safety and 
success of the Emperor and Princs 
Imperial. 

The Victory Important. 

Paris, Aug. 3. — The Figaro claims 
that the victory at Saarbrucken was 
one of great importance. The Em- 
peror wished to gain possession of 
Saarbrucken because it commands 
the valley of the Saar and the rail- 
way to Treves. The- latter cannot 
now be of any service to the enemy. 

A comparison of the above with 
the actual facts is interesting and 
instructive. It supplies a good par- 
allel of what we see today in the 
Anglo-American press. 

The garrison of Saarbrucken con- 
sisted of two battalions of the In- 
fantry Reg. No. 40 and one escadron 
of 7th Uhlans. "Sniping" had been 
going on at the border for more than 
a week. An effort was made to con- 
ceal the weakness of the garrison. 
They turned out in various combina- 
tions of uniforms, and in order to 
increase the variety they borrowed 
the outfit of the local fire depart- 
ment. 

They succeeded very well. The 
French wasted many a valuable day 
before they marched on to Saar- 
brucken. The garrison withdrew 
after stubborn resistance. In the 
meantime, the concentration of the 
First German army had been com- 
pleted. The French withdrew to 
Spichern Heights on the fifth of Au- 
gust — their position had become dan- 
gerous. 

The telegram Napoleon sent to 
Paris about the "elan" of troops and 
the rejoicing in Paris was more than 
premature. In fact, it was a "joke." 
Later, news from Amsterdam spoke 
of it as a "coup de theatre." 

It will be noted that General 
Bataille reports the capture of 2,000 
Prussians. Probably an error in 
transmitting the telegram, unless he 
estimated the population of Saar- 
brucken at 2,000 and considered 
them prisoners of war. 

Frossard's army was severely 
beaten four days later on the 
Spichern Heights. 

Very interesting, indeed, is the re- 
port that the French had stormed 
Weissenberg. The report was only 
partly correct. There was some 
"storming," but Bavarians and Prus- 
sians did it, and a part of the French 
army under McMahon received its 
first blow, which was followed by a 
severe defeat at Worth on the sixth 
of August. 

A study of the subsequent issues 
of the daily papers at that time dis- 
closes that the news became more 
unreliable as the war progressed. 
For instance, on September 3, 1870, 
New York papers report from Paris: 

Great French Victory Near Sedan! 
McMahon Effects Juncture With 
Bazaine! 
Although the German troops had 
succeeded in closing the ring around 
Sedan on September 1, and Napo- 
leon, McMahon and their entire army 
had become prisoners of war on Sep- 
tember 2. 



PARIS NOW AND IN 1870. 



Editorial. 
Boston Evening Transcript. 

Forty-four years ago today, on 
September 15, 1870, the siege of 
Paris began. The first fighting of 
any moment did not occur until the 
19 th, but the 15 th is commonly reck- 
oned as marking the beginning of the 
investment. Ingress and egress were 
prohibited without the permit of the 
military authorities of Paris from the 
15 th, and the city settled down to 
endure a long, formal investment, 
with the imminent probability of 
bombardment. We know how well 
Paris held out, the capitulation not 
coming until the 28th of January, 
1871, more than four months after 
the German advance guard began the 
operations preliminary to the siege.' 
A fortnight back Paris was pre- 
paring to sustain a second siege. The 
German army rolled on with a force 
which compelled the Allies to fall 
back until they should gather up re- 
enforcements and come in touch with 
the great garrison of Paris. The 
French Government took refuge at 
Bordeaux. Paris was cleared for 
action. The people who would eat 
and could not be expected to fight 
were urgently invited to leave the 
city. Today Paris is resuming some- 
thing of its old ante-bellum aspect. 
The enemy is retreating;- he is rap- 
idly approaching the bases from 
which that great raid started that 
was to carry the Kaiser to Paris by 
Sept. 15.* Sept. 15 has come and 
the German army has gone out of 
the region in which it was operating 
within ten days. 

The contrast between the situation 
today and that in which Paris found 
itself in 1870 is a contrast between 
the vigorous France of the Republic, 
and the debilitated France of the 
Empire. Today from a military 
standpoint France is four or five 
times as strong as she was when the 
great Moltke sat down to besiege 
Paris. The contrast on the German 
side is found apparently in the medi- 
ocrity of the present German lead- 
ers.* Those who headed the Ger- 
man hosts of 1870 were men of more 
than ordinary ability. Indeed, Bis- 
marck" and Moltke come in the cate- 
gory of genius. The military sub- 
ordinates of Moltke were all men 
who added to special training special 
fitness. Today, if there is among the 
German generals one who rises above 
the level of a good routine officer* he 
has yet to make his presence and his 
infiuence manifested. The German 
army of invasion is far larger than 
any Moltke ever handled,' but it lacks 
a real Moltke to handle It to the ut- 
most advantage. It is on the defen- 
sive now and when it assumes that 
position the power of the initiative 
passes from it and goes over to the 
Allies.*' 



♦Emphasized in bold type by the 
Editor. 

•The "Transcript's" editorial writer 
forgets that in 1870 "Tante Bertha 
from Essen" had not yet made her 
appearance. "Tante Bertha from 
Essen" is the nickname the German 



soldiers have given to the 42 centi- 
meter Krupp siege guns that reduced 
the powerful fortress Namur in two 
days, while Antwerp, one of the 
strongest fortresses in the world, 
could withstand their fire for only 
ten days. What these monsters have 
done at Liege, Namur, Maubeuge 
and Antwerp, they will do again at 
Paris, when they get there. The 
"Transcript's" enthusiastic prophet 
therefore should not crow too early 
about the "mediocrity of the pres- 
ent German leaders." He will find 
out yet that "the great Moltke was 
not an accident." — Editor. 

'A perusal of the article "Retro- 
spective," reprinted on another page, 
will help the "Transcript's" mili- 
tary expert to grasp at least in part 
the reasons for the German army's 
retreat, a retreat which the jingo 
press of London, Paris and this side 
of the water gleefully termed a hope- 
less rout. — Editor. 

'Does the "Transcript's" editorial 
writer wish to have his readers be- 
lieve that Bismarck "headed the 
German hosts of 1870" ?— Editor. 

*It would be really interesting to 
know whether this miltiary critic 
considers the elusive von Kluck as 
at least deserving to be counted as 
"one who rises above the level of a 
good routine oflicer." He certainly 
seems to be a general "of more than 
ordinary ability." After the Al- 
lies have repeatedly reported his 
army retreating, annihilated and 
captured, he is still successfully forg- 
ing ahead. "Verschiedene Anzeichen 
sprecheu dafiir, dass auf dem Kluck 
schen Fliigel das Ei bald gelegt 
wird," says the "New Yorker Staats- 
Zeitung" in a recent issue, which 
translated means: "Several symp- 
toms indicate that the egg will soon 
be laid in Kluck's nest." — Editor. 

"Precisely. But does the "Tran- 
script's" editorial writer realize what 
science is required to handle suc- 
cessfully a "far larger" number of 
men? He does not or he would not 
infer that the successors of the great 
Moltke in the present German Gen- 
eral Staff who are battling success- 
fully against tremendous odds in a 
war at two frontiers, do not add "to 
special training special fitness" and 
that the German army "lacks a real 
Moltke to handle it to the utmost ad- 
vantage." 

What can be said of the extraor- 
dinary ability of the German General 
Staff is also true of the generals who 
are carrying out its orders, and 
therefore it would seem that gen- 
erals must be endowed with "more 
than ordinary ability" and besides 
must possess the power of the initia- 
tive to perform feats such as von 
Hindenburg at Tannenberg and else- 
where in the eastern theater of war, 
and such as have been performed on 
the western by von Kluck. 

Of the latter general the "Mil- 
waukee Free Press" in its issue of 
October 24 says editorially: 

Gen. Von liluck. 

Among all the names that will go 
down to history from the great Eu- 
ropean war, none will shine with 
greater luster on the military roll 
than that of Gen. von Kluck. 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



267 



Of all the problems offered by the 
conflict in the eastern field, his has 
been the most difficult, and he has 
met it, and, up to this time, solved 
it, with a display of soldierly skill, 
energy and daring, as well as con- 
summate strategy, that has won for 
him the praise of the enemy's gen- 
erals. 

The operations of the German 
right wing have been so generally 
mlspointed in America, that the 
achievement of von Kluck has won 
scant measure of appreciation outside 
of military circles. Yet ever since 
he accomplished his remarkable cov- 
ering movement that led him almost 
to the gates of Paris and thereupon 
began his masterly withdrawal, the 
fortunes of the German cause in 
France have largely rested upon the 
ability of this general. 

It is true that his operations have 
been directed by the general staff of 
the German army, but it is von 
Kluck and not the staff who with 
greatly inferior numbers has met and 
checked every attempt of the Franco- 
British flanking movement, drawn 
their left wing away from its base 
and isolated this new battle front 
from that which runs east and west. 

In other words, he has created and 
maintained a situation against tre- 
mendous odds, which, because of its 
peculiar triangular form, permits the 
Germans to resist successfully a nu- 
merically superior force, and in case 
they reduce the fortifications oppos- 
ing their center, to roll back each 
wing of the allies with little hope of 
future juncture. 

Since the reports from Paris and 
London have been almost exclusively 
concerned with the fighting against 
von Kluck, the impression has gained 
currency here that the German right 
wing was the offensive force. This 
is not the case. Von Kluck's prob- 
lem has been to resist, weaken, and 
if possible overcome the offensive of 
the allies, at least to hold the situa- 
tion until the German center could 
break through the French fortifica- 
tions that block their way. 

His accomplishment of this feat 
thus far is, as we have said, the most 
remarkable that the European war 
has had to offer, and it enrolls Gen. 
von Kluck among the really great 
military leaders of his time. — From 
the "Milwaukee Free Press." — Editor. 

°It seems that no statement is too 
idiotic for a certain class of news- 
papers to make, as long as it dis- 
credits or ridicules German institu- 
tions, the "War Lord" and his army. 
— A Friend. 

No, no. Brother! you are on the 
wrong track ; it's the Pennies they 
need ! — Editor. 

Mr. Editorial Writer of the "Bos- 
ton Evening Transcript," what say 
you when even "The World," yes, 
the New York "World," tries to im- 
mortalize the military abilities of 
this "mediocre leader" by the follow- 
ing near-verses in a recent issue? 

Von Kluck. 
It was three weeks ago today 
That first we heard the allies say 
"Tomorrow morning you'll have 
learned 



How von Kluck's right flank has 

been turned." 
Somehow the turning movement 

stuck; 
He didn't budge, did Herr von 

Kluck! 

A few days later word from Paris 
Announced that two new corps 

would harass 
Von Kluck's right wing, and rank by 

rank. 
Maneuver round and turn his flank. 
But these new corps had rotten luck; 
It's no dead cinch to turn von Kluck. 

A week went by when we were glad 
To get a cable from Petrograd. 
It said von Kluck's communication 
Was threatened with annihilation. 
But he stood pat and passed the 

buck; 
He's got some flank, has Herr von 

Kluck! 

And all last week our headlines 
whirled 

With the various ways von Kluck 
was "hurled"; 

Von Kluck's right flank was being 
pounded; 

Von Kluck's whole army'd been sur- 
rounded ; 

The hour for' turning that flank had 
struck! 

But the flank's still there, and so's 
von Kluck. 

So take your kaisers and princes and 

Grafs, 
Your iron crosses and general staffs. 
Your Gen. Joffre's and Sir John 

Frenches, 
With all their men in the shelter 

trenches; 
I'll take for mine that game old 

buck 
Who won't be turned — ja. Herr von 

Kluck! 

— From the New York "World " — 
Editor. 



RETKOSPECTIVE. 



Editorial from the "Chlcagoer 
Presse," October 9, 1914. 

The rapid victorious advances of 
the Germans apparently came to a 
sudden stop. The advance guards 
of the armies, that had reached 
Meaux, Sezanne, and even Vitry le 
Francois and Troyes fell back as rap- 
idly as they had advanced, followed 
by the exultant French and English, 
while our hearts began to feel the 
sting of doubt. 

What had happened? 

The western seat of war is divided 
into three sections. In the southern 
section extending from Basel to the 
heights at Strassburg everything is 
quiet. The French are guarding the 
defiles of the Vosges, the dangerous 
line of attack on Belfort. German 
skirmishes incessantly harass the en- 
emy, thereby forcing the enemy to 
keep a large force in this region. 

In the center the struggle for the 
possession of Verdun and Nancy is 
continuing. The French armies of 
the field operating in Louvain, are 
supported by the strongest line of for- 
tifications ever known to the world 



and their obstinate resistance shows 
the effectiveness fortified towns still 
possess. When isolated and defended 
only by their garrison, fortifications 
that formerly held out for months, 
now fall quickly as did the strongly 
fortified Maubeuge with its garrison 
of 40,000 men. A force of this 
size is needed to defend a post 
of moderate dimensions. When how- 
ever a fortress is supported by an 
army they work together like a cen- 
ter rush and goalkeeper at a football- 
game: If the attacking party is suc- 
cessful on the field, the fortifications 
deprive them of the fruits of the 
victory. 

The great victory of the Bavarian 
Crown Prince between Strassbourg 
and Metz could not be fully utilized 
owing to the proximity of fipinal 
and Toul. 

But how different, the advance in 
the North, where the French circle 
of fortifications was entered into: 
Maubeuge could not check the vic- 
torious advance of the Germans, its 
fall was only a question of a few 
days. After the battle of St. Quentin 
the French-British had entirely dis- 
appeared. La Fere, Laon and the 
Rheims forts that obstructed the 
road to Paris — were deserted. With 
fabulous rapidity German cavalry 
swarmed forth as far as Compiegne. 
Paris seemed to be the goal of the 
German army. Onward they rushed 
at an incomprehensible mad pace. 
The report that German soldiers had 
taken Troyes, which lies on the road 
from Belfort to Paris and to the 
rear of Toul and Spinal seemed like 
a fairy tale. 

And now for the second time the 
question arises: What has happened? 

Joffre, whom the impatient French 
had already began to call Cunctator, 
knew full well that his army could 
no longer withstand the onslaught 
of the Germans in the open. Only 
when supported by strong forts and 
where, after giving way it could seek 
cover, it was still strong. The psy- 
chology of the French soldier, who, 
whenever there is a chance, fires 
from houses, is the psychology of the 
French army. 

Why lose from 40,000 to 60,000 
men at Loan, La Fere and Rheims, 
which would only share the fate of 
Maubeuge and Namur? The com- 
mander needs them. To make a 
stand at Paris would be fruitless. 
The defeated armies needed time to 
recover. More English should be 
brought on. In Paris and the South 
there were new fresh troops. The 
army with whom the fate of France 
rests, should retire to the west of 
Paris. Then the Germans might 
come and settle down before the 
capital. Woe to the Germans, if they 
attempted to foil this plan and at- 
tempt to force a battle in the rear of 
Paris. Being far away from their 
own country and depending on an 
endless line of supply that could be 
interfered with by every French 
native — man, woman or child, with 
all the means at their command, the 
slightest set back would mean catas- 
trophy for them. Joffre would have 
retired as far as Langres and Dijon to 
prepare this catastrophe for the en- 
emy. « * * 



268 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



Ideals, Customs, Laws, Progress, and the 
The First Law of Nature 



Laws of War 




IN THE GERMAN TRENCHES AGAINST RUSSIA 
This picture, taken at Darkehmen in East Prussia, gives an excellent idea of 
the plans and nature of German Trenches. It has been a hard and wearisome 

conflict 



MODERN WARFARE AND THE 
PRESENT WAR. 

This is the ninth article of a series 
on THE EUROPEAN WAR, which 
appeared in the Octolier Number of 
THE OPEN COURT, under the title 
"Modern Warfare," written by the Edi- 
tor, Dr. Paul Cams. 

Comult the INDEX for the complete 
series, and, in order to see where, in 
the various Chapters of the book, the 
different articles of this treatise may 
be found, Idok for EUROPEAN WAR 
(THE). In this loay the reader may 
read the entire series of articles in 
their original order, if he chooses to do 
so, while the present arrangement still 
gives him the advantage of bringing 
the various articles under their proper, 
respective Chapter-headings of the 
book. 

This is a series of exceptionally fine 
articles on the subject in question, and 
they bear «• unique and important rela- 
tion to each other. Be sure to read 
them also in their original order. — 
Editor, "War Echoes." 

Modem Warfare. 

What wrong notions prevail about 
warfare can be seen in almost every 
American newspaper. In the opinion 
of many people, including reporters 
in America as well as abroad, the 
purpose of war seems to be to kill as 
many of the enemy as possible, and 
the losses of the victor are sometimes 
described and emphasized as if the 
vanquished army had got the best of 
the battle. This might be compared 
to a game of chess in which he would 
be the victor who loses the fewest 
pieces. It is true that every party 
laments the loss of men for humani- 
tarian reasons and also on account of 
weakening its forces, but for the sig- 



nificance of the war the purpose of 
a battle is to gain a position which 
dominates the roads and places the 
enemy's country at the invader's 
mercy. 

For this reason the Germans have 
introduced the use of bullets making 
clean wounds from which a healthy 
man may easily recover. There is 
no advantage in massacring the 
enemy, but it is very desirable to put 
great numbers of them hors de combat. 
The humanitarian motive of sparing 
the lives of the enemy is not upper- 
most in this idea, but the practical 
advantage of burdening the enemy 
with the care of their wounded men. 
For the same reason, the principle 
has been adopted in the international 
agreements as to the rules of warfare 
that all expanding rifle bullets shall 
be strictly barred. It is sufficient to 
hit an enemy and wound him; it is 
unnecessary to cause him to die In 
agony, or to inflict upon him wounds 
that are incurable. Dumdum bullets 
are no factor in the decision of vic- 
tory in battle and are barbarous and 
inhuman. 

A French report informs the French 
public that only two per cent of their 
wounded soldiers die, which means 
that 98 per cent, i. e., almost all of 
them, survive; and the writer of that 
note adds that the Germans are poor 
riflemen; they cannot shoot, and 
when they hit they do not kill. 

Victories may be gained without a 
battle, by forced marches; for a vic- 
tory consists in gaining a dominant 
position. How little the British gen- 
erals know of warfare appears from 
the report of General French who 
finds himself in an untenable position 
and is proud of having escaped anni- 
hilation. Tommy Atkins is brave in 



battle, but he must be placed in the 
right position or his courage will 
manifest itself in his "brilliant re- 
treat." Courage is an essential ele- 
ment in the winning of a victory, but 
leadership cannot be dispensed with. 
A general should at le'ast be familiar 
with the fundamentals of warfare. 

There is another superstition prev- 
alent which is that the results of 
war may be calculated by seeing 
troops on paper. England will find 
out that material consisting of raw 
recruits is not dangerous to her ene- 
mies. A new army of one or several 
hundred thousand may be raised to 
serve as food for cannons, not to turn 
the tide of German triumph. In war, 
as everywhere, it is quality that 
counts and not quantity; efficiency, 
not numbers. 

Still another error is repeated ad 
nauseam in Britsh and French pa- 
pers. Whenever the Germans are to 
be recognized for advantages gained, 
they are accused of unintelligent 
energy, slavish obedience, or the dis- 
play of brutal force with their supe- 
riority of numbers. As to numbers, 
there is no question that the Ger- 
mans are by far inferior in this re- 
spect to their enemies, the allied 
troops; but it is an important prin- 
ciple in warfare that at the critical 
point there must be a display of su- 
perior strength, and it is the part of 
strategy to recognize the decisive 
point and concentrate there a supe- 
rior number of men. This is not 
brute force but superior intelligence. 
By and by the English will learn 
more of warfare and will gradually 
appreciate the part which intelligence 
plays in battle. 

Modern warfare is based upon the 
principle that the armies should fight, 
not the citizens. Wlien the citizens 
of a village or a city attack soldiers 
from their windows, thus taking part 
in battle, they forfeit the right to 
have their lives and their property 
respected, and the enemy punishes 
them by burning their houses. Strict 
neutrality on the part of civilians is 
universally considered an indispensa- 
ble rule because only in this way can 
an invading army be expected to con- 
fine its attack to the hostile soldiers. 
If invading troops were obliged to 
regard every inhabitant as an enemy 
who may shoot from an ambush, they 
would have to massacre every one in 
sight in self-defense. The participa- 
tion of civilians in the fight is of no 
assistance to their country, for they 
are necessarily unorganized bodies of 
fighters; though they inflict damage, 
they suffer more in return. Thus 
they would renew the savage condi- 
tion in which hostility between two 
nations becomes a struggle for mu- 
tual extermination. For this reason 
a civilized army can not allow civil- 
ians to take up arms and participate 
in the war; nor can any government 
let such occurrences go unpunished, 
first because it must protect its own 
men, and then because a combat of 
civilians leads back to a most ter- 
rible barbarism. 

Now the Germans claim that while 
the Belgians made a sortie from Ant- 



BY THE LAW OF WAR AND THE FIRST LAW OF NATURE 



269 



werp, some patriotic Belgians dis- 
tributed rifles among the citizens of 
Louvain, who thereupon suddenly at- 
tacked the small force of Germans in 
their midst. After a battle in the 
streets they were overpowered and 
for punishment the city or part of the 
city was doomed to destruction. It 
is stated, however, that the quaint old 
City Hall was spared. The incident 
of Louvain, having occurred simul- 
taneously with an Antwerp sortie, 
seems to have been inspired by Bel- 
gian government officials acting in 
concert with military authorities at 
Antwerp. Similar outbreaks of the 
same kind have happened before and 
the King of the Belgians officially ex- 
pressed his thanks for the brave re- 
sistance not only of the army but 
also of the people against the invader. 
King Albert, of Belgium, has given 
the military golden cross to Private 
J. J. Rousseau of the Fourth Belgian 
Chasseurs for killing Major General 
von Buelow after the battle of Hae- 
len. It must have been a lonely spot 
on the battlefield where the German 
general appeared unfolding a map 
and studying the geography of the 
place. Rousseau was lying on the 
ground among the wounded; he fired 
and mortally wounded the general. 
The newspaper account adds: "On 
the general's person the Belgians 
found besides a number of dispatches 
$33,000 in currency which money was 
turned over to the Red Cross." Dis- 
guised with the helmet of a Prussian 
cuirassier, Rousseau escaped. The 
deed was confessedly done from am- 
bush, not in open battle, so it is dif- 
ficult to appreciate its heroism; and 
the appropriation of the dead man's 
property is scarcely defensible. 

The government of France has been 
guilty of similar offenses. The 
French have preached revenge in 
their schools and have praised the 
brave francs-tireurs, thus encourag- 
ing a repetition of civilian hostility 
against the Germans by sowing ha- 
tred against them in the minds of 
the children and fostering the bar- 
barous habit of allowing the partici- 
pation of the populace in war. To 
reproach the Germans for burning 
Louvain is the more unfair, as under 
the same circumstances every other 
army would have done the same. 
Think of the treatment which the 
English accorded to their Hindu pris- 
oners as presented in a most horrify- 
ing picture by Verestchagin! 

The Belgian explanation of the oc- 
currence in Louvain, to the effect that 
the Germans had shot upon their 
own men by mistake and had then 
attempted to cover up their error by 
accusing the inhabitants of Louvain, 
is strangely improbable and lacks 
verification as much as the accusa- 
tions of other alleged "atrocities.'"* 
There are vulgar men in every 
army, but any one who is really ac- 
quainted with armies of different na- 
tionalities will grant that the German 
men are more cultured and of a 



•The reader will find this awful pic- 
ture in "War Echoes," which I repro- 
duce with a great reluctance, person- 
ally, but as they have set the example 
they should at least be "willing to ac- 
cept some of their own medicine. This 
no German will give even to the worst 
of them, — Editor. 



higher moral standing than any other 
private soldiers the world over; and 
the reason is that they are not sol- 
diers proper, but sons of honest citi- 
zens, children of home folks who per- 
form their military duties while be- 
ing themselves traders or craftsmen 
or laborers, who before and after 
military service earn their honest and 
peaceable living in some regular call- 
ing in the community. There are no 
soldiers of fortune among them, no 
adventurers, no warriors by profes- 
sion. 

Americans have heard only one 
side of the situation. The cable be- 
ing cut, uncensored news begins to 
reach us very slowly, so the sympa- 
thy with Belgium has developed 
among us an unfair hostility towards 
Germany. Not only was it known 
to the Germans that the French 
would break Belgium's neutrality 
with the consent of the Belgian gov- 
ernment, but hatred against the Ger- 
mans was spread among the popula- 
tion, afterwards causing many civil- 
ians to take part in the fighting. 
Shortly before the actual beginning 
of the war the Germans were treated 
most barbarously in Antwerp. The 
Chicago Herald of September 15 con- 
tains a letter, written August 7, 
which Mrs. O. C. Buss, of 6104 Ken- 
wood Avenue, received from her sis- 
ter: 

"In Belgium they are murdering 
Germans everywhere. They dragged 
German women out of their beds and 
through the streets by the hair. 
Threw little children out of windows 
while their mothers begged for 
them." 

About happenings which took place 
during the war the same lady writes: 
"They fired on and killed Red Cross 
nurses and murdered the wounded. 
They went into a house where three 
wounded German soldiers were and 
murdered them. At the railroad sta- 
tion when Germans and Austrians 
were leaving, they tore children from 
their mothers' arms, and the mothers 
have never seen them again. ... 
One poor fellow was wandering about 
with his hands tied behind his back, 
and his eyes gouged out. Others 
were found dead from the same treat- 
ment. . . . All war news is given to 
the people through the police. Every 
policeman stands at the corner and 
cries out the news like a 'barker.' " 

The French did not remain behind 
the Belgians in maltreatment of in- 
offensive Germans. We will quote 
only one statement of an American 
eyewitness, dated New York, August 
24, and published in the Chicago Ex- 
aminer, August 25: 

" 'It will never be known how 
many Germans were killed in Paris 
during the riots July 30 and 31 and 
August 1. The crimes of that pe- 
riod, could they become known, 
would shame the civilized world.' 

"This statement was made today 
by Henry M. Ziegler, a Cincinnati 
millionaire who has made his home 
in Paris for five years, but fled with 
the American refugees on the steam- 
ship La France. Describing the 
scenes in Paris during these three 
days, before martial law was de- 
clared, Mr. Ziegler said: 

" 'It was unsafe for any foreigner, 
particularly one who could not speak 



French, to go on the streets. For 
a German it was little short of sui- 
cidal. I saw one German driving 
down a boulevard with a woman in a 
cab. The mob upset the cab. The 
woman fainted and was trampled on, 
hut some one finally dragged her 
away. 

"The man made a gallant fight for 
his life. With his back to the over- 
turned cab he fought desperately for 
several minutes. He was a big fel- 
low, too. He struck out right and 
left with his fists and bowled over 
his assailants as fast as they got 
within reach, but he was finally over- 
powered, trampled and stabbed to 
death. 

"I know a family that had a Ger- 
man cook who had been with them 
many years. The sons went off to 
war, but that was no guarantee of 
protection for the woman. Some one 
told the mob, and my friends had to 
hide the old woman in the cellar to 
save her life. 

"One evening a friend and I saw 
the mob chasing a German. He al- 
most got away, but was caught in an 
alley. My friend recognized one of 
his employes in the mob. The next 
day his employe boasted that they 
not only got the German we saw them 
after, but three others. All were 
stabbed to death after being beaten 
into insensibility. 

"One of the most noticeable things 
in Paris are the electric signs of a 
big milk distributor. He has up- 
wards of 100 milk depots in Paris, 
and is worth more than $5,000,000. 
He is a German who has lived in 
Paris for twenty years. The mob 
wrecked his electric signs and milk 
depots, and then some one started 
the report that he had poisoned the 
milk and was going to kill all his 
customers. The mob went hunting 
for him, but he escaped." 

According to German testimony 
recorded in German papers, the 
cruelty of civilians towards helpless 
wounded German soldiers on the 
battlefield has become quite common 
in Belgium, and gouging out the eyes 
seems to have developed into a sport 
among a certain class of patriots 
who, when caught, are not treated 
very tenderly. It is the punishment 
of these offenders which has given 
rise to the stories of German atroc- 
ities, so far as they are based on 
facts. 

Five American reporters, three of 
whom are residents of Chicago and 
all well known throughout the United 
States, write thus in a round robin 
about the alleged German atroci- 
ties:* 

"After spending two weeks with 
and accompanying the troops upward 
of one hundred miles, we are unable 
to report a single instance unpro- 
voked. 

"We are also unable to confirm 
rumors of mistreatment of prisoners 
or of non-combatants with the Ger- 
man columns. This is true of Lou- 
vain, Brussels and Luneville while in 
Prussian hands. 



*An extensive report of these men 
and detailed circumstances preceding 
and attending the Round Robin re- 
ferred to, is given elsewhere in "War 
Echoes." (See Atrocities.) — Editor 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 




GERMAN ORDNANCE OFFICERS IN POLAND 
Receiving a Telephone Message at tlieir Field Telephone Station in a Polish Village. 

Coat ; also the seriousness of the Situation 
(Photograph by the International News Service) 



Note the heavy, white Sheepskin 



"We visited Chateau Soldre, Sam- 
bre, and Beaumont without substan- 
tiating a single wanton brutality. 
Numerous investigated rumors 
proved groundless. Everywhere we 
have seen Germans paying for pur- 
chases and respecting property rights 
as well as according civilians every 
consideration. 

"After the battle of Biass (prob- 
ably Barse, a suburb of Namur) we 
found Belgian women and children 
moving comfortably about. The day 
after the Germans had captured the 
town of Merbes Chateau we found 
one citizen killed, but were unable 
to confirm lack of provocation. Ref- 
ugees with stories of atrocities were 
unable to supply direct evidence. 
Belgians in the Sambre valley dis- 
counted reports of cruelty in the sur- 
rounding country. The discipline of 
the German soldiers is excellent, as 
we observed. 

"To the truth of these statements 
we pledge our professional and per- 
sonal word. 

James O'Donnell Bennett, 

Chicago Tribune. 

John T. McCutcheon, 

Chicago Tribune. 

Roger Lewis, 

The Associated Press. 



Irvin S. Cobb, 

Saturday Evening Post. 
Harry Hansen, 

Chicago Daily News." 

Some of these American reporters 
had been arrested for some time in 
the German lines. The subject is re- 
sumed in the Tribune of September 
17 where we read on the first page 
in big print: 

"That Mr. Bennett's fears of Brit- 
ish censorship were well founded is 
made clear by the fact that the copy 
of the round robin sent by Mr. Mc- 
Cutcheon and himself direct to The 
Tribune has never been received in 
this office. The copy 'wirelessed' to 
the Associated Press from Berlin is 
the only one that got through." 

Mr. James O'Donnell Bennett is 
very serious in his insistence that the 
truth shall come out because the un- 
truth is spread with the obvious in- 
tent to injure the German cause. He 
speaks of the "round robin" as "a 
bare statement in which we expressed 
our earnest belief — a belief based on 
days of personal observations in the 
theater of war — that the reports of 
barbarities alleged to have been per- 
petrated by German troops on an In- 
offensive Belgian countryside are 
shocking falsehoods." 



Referring to English censorship he 
speaks of that "thing as the vaunted 
English sense of fair play"; he men- 
tions the "bundles of London news- 
papers" containing "column after col- 
umn of the most harrowing and 
dreadful accounts of most infamous 
barbarities inflicted upon the Belgian 
peasantry by German troops." Try- 
ing to verify one case Mr. Bennett 
says: "Always on our march the 
facts relative to the German atrocities 
evaded us. Always it was in 'the 
next village' that a woman had been 
outraged, a child butchered, or an 
innocent old man tortured. Arriv- 
ing at that 'next village,' we could 
get no confirmation from the inhabit- 
ants. 'No,' they would say, 'it did 
not happen here; but we heard that 
It was in the next village, messieurs.' 
But the next village would develop 
naught authentically — only wild 
stories, rumors, hearsay. At Soire- 
sur-Sambre, all around which there 
had been fighting on Sunday and 
Monday, the 23d and 24th of August, 
the burgomaster said to us in the 
late afternoon of Wednesday, the 
26th: 'As reports come in from sur- 
rounding lowns I am unable to verify 
these rumors of cruelties perpetrated 
against unarmed civilians, and X give 
no credence to them.' " 



BY THE LAW OF WAR AND THE FIRST LAW OF NATURE 



Much has been said also of the 
maltreatment of women, and this sub- 
ject, too, is mentioned by Mr. Ben- 
nett, who says: 

"The most terrific outrage any of 
us has seen was seen by Cobb. With 
his own appreciative eyes he saw a 
laughing German soldier, who was 
crossing a street in Louvain, lean 
forward and imprint a kiss on the 
cheek of a Belgian girl who was ban- 
tering him. The girl promptly 
slapped his face. The soldier laughed 
the louder. The girl began to laugh, 
too. The incident was closed. Cobb 
said it was as quaint and merry a 
scene in homely life as ever he saw. 
That was week before last." 

Mr. Bennett in speaking of the 
falsehoods of the English reports of 
German atrocities blames the Louvain 
citizens themselves for the destruc- 
tion of their city. Having mentioned 
another item he says: "A few days 
later Louvain lost its head. It went 
mad. Its civilians fired from ambus- 
cade upon German soldiers. The 
deed was the supreme outrage against 
laws of civilized warfare. The pun- 
ishment was terrible and it has put 
the fear of the Prussian god into 
every Belgian city and hamlet from 
Antwerp to Beaumont, from Ostend 
to Ligge. Today the ancient and re- 
nowned university city of northern 
Europe lies in ashes." 

Louvain is not a "university city" 
in the usual sense of the word. Its 
great educational institution is called 
"the Catholic University," in con- 
trast to modern scientific universities, 
and some young priests there appear 
to have taken a prominent part in the 
fight against the heretical Germans. 

While I write, the German official 
report of the destruction of Louvain 
reaches me. It was published in Ber- 
lin, August 30, and disposes of all 
the Belgian fables: 

"The city of Louvain surrendered 
and was given over to us by the Bel- 
gian authorities. On Monday, August 

24, some of our troops were shipped 
there, and intercourse with the in- 
habitants was developing quite 
friendly. 

"On Tuesday afternoon, August 

25, our troops, hearing about an im- 
minent Belgian sortie from Antwerp, 
left in that direction, the command- 
ing general ahead in a motor car, 
leaving behind only a colonel with 
soldiers to protect the railroad (Land- 
sturm Bataillon 'Neuss'). 

"As the rest of the commanding 
general's staff, with the horses, was 
going to follow, and had gathered on 
the market place, rifle fire suddenly 
opened from all the surrounding 
houses, all the horses being killed and 
five officers wounded, one of them 
seriously. 

"Simultaneously fire opened at 
about ten different places in town, 
also on some of our troops just ar- 
rived and waiting on the square in 
front of the station, and on incoming 
military trains. That it was a de- 
signed co-operation with the Belgian 
sortie from Antwerp was established 
beyond a doubt. 

"Two priests who were caught 
handing out ammunition to the peo- 
ple were shot at once in front of the 
station. 



"The street fight lasted till Wednes- 
day, the 26 th, in the afternoon 
(twenty-four hours), when stronger 
forces, which arrived in the mean- 
time, succeeded in getting the upper 
hand. The town and northern suburb 
were burning at different places, and 
by this time probably have burned 
down altogether. 

"On the part of the Belgian gov- 
ernment a general rising of the popu- 
lace against the enemy had been or- 
ganized for a long time; depots of 
arms were found, where to each gun 
was attached the name of the citizen 
to be armed. 

"A spontaneous rising of the peo- 
ple has been recognized at the re- 
quest of the smaller states at The 
Hague conference, as being within 
the law of nations, in so far as 
weapons are carried openly and the 
laws of civilized warfare are ob- 
served; but such rising was only ad- 
mitted in order to fight the attack- 
ing enemy. 

"In the case of Louvain the town 
had already surrendered and the 
populace submitted without resist- 
ance, the town being occupied by our 
troops. 

"Nevertheless the populace at- 
tacked us on all sides and discharged 
murderous fire on the occupying 
forces and newly - arriving troops, 
which came in trains and automo- 
biles. 

"Therefore it is not a question of 
the means of defense allowed by the 
law of nations, nor of a warlike am- 
bush, but only of a treacherous at- 
tack by the civilian population all 
along the line. This attack is all the 
more to be condemned as it was ap- 
parently planned long beforehand to 
take place simultaneously with an at- 
tack from Antwerp; for arms were 
not carried openly, and women and 
young girls took part in the fight, 
blinding our wounded and gouging 
their eyes out. 

"The barbarous attitude of the 
Belgian population in all parts occu- 
pied by our troops has not only justi- 
fied our severest measures, but forced 
them upon us for the sake of self- 
preservation. 

"The violence of the resistance of 
the populace is shown by the fact 
that in Louvain twenty-four hours 
were necessary to break down their 
attack. 

"We ourselves regret deeply that 
during these fights the town of Lou- 
vain has to a large extent been de- 
stroyed. Needless to say, these con- 
sequences were not intentional on 
our part, and could not be avoided." 

The truth leaks out more and 
more. Mr. Joseph Medill Patterson, 
editor of the "Chicago Tribune," now 
on the theater of war, writes an 
explicit account of the alleged atroc- 
ities and says: "I firmly believe 
that all the stories put out by the 
British and French of torture, muti- 
lation, assaults, etc., by Germans are 
utter rubbish." 

George F. Porter of Chicago, now 
in London, writes in the same spirit. 
Here is an account of one of his 
many personal investigations and the 
inkling of truth it contained: 

"They did tell me, however, of a 
Belgian nurse at the St. Thomas 



Hospital here (London) with the 
tendons of her wrist cut. I went 
there immediately, saw the secretary 
of the hospital and found there was 
a nurse there, but that instead of 
the tendons of her wrists being cut 
she had burned her wrists badly by 
the explosion of a spirit lamp on 
which she was making tea. Here 
was a typical example of the way 
stories are fabricated out of noth- 
ing." 

We learn from German papers that 
only about one-sixth of Louvain has 
been burned down. The rest has 
been preserved. Some churches and 
other valuable buildings were de- 
stroyed during the fight, but were 
not set on fire by the Germans. 
Some German officers did their best 
to save valuable pictures. 

The lies of German atrocities are 
strangely offset by the great wrongs 
committed by the Belgians, not only 
in taking an active part in the war 
but also in the most heinous crimes 
of battle-hyenas. Many persons have 
been captured who found a pastime 
in torturing wounded German sol- 
diers and indulged mainly in gouging 
out the eyes of their helpless vic- 
tims.* 

The Belgians complain of German 
atrocities, but they seem to think 
that private citizens are not bound 
to respect the rules of warfare. They 
deemed it right to drive German in- 
habitants out of Antwerp in a most 
cruel feud; and the French and Eng- 
lish make use of dumdum bullets. 
The Kaiser made the following state- 
ment to President Wilson, to whom 
complaints had been submitted by 
the Belgians: 

"I consider it my duty, sir, to in- 
form you as the most notable repre- 
sentative of the principles of human- 
ity — that after the capture of the 
French Fort of Longwy my troops 
found in that place thousands of 
dumdum bullets which had been 
manufactured in special works by the 
French government. Such bullets 
were found not only on French killed 
and wounded soldiers and on French 
prisoners, but also on English troops. 
You know what terrible wounds and 
awful suffering are caused by these 
bullets, and that their use is strictly 
forbidden by the generally recog- 
nized rules of international warfare. 

"I solemnly protest to you against 
the way in which this war is being 
waged by our opponents, whose 
methods are making it one of the 
most barbarous in history. 

"Besides the use of these awful 
weapons, the Belgian government has 
openly incited the civil population to 
participate in the fighting, and has 
for a long time carefully organized 
their resistance. The cruelties prac- 
ticed in this guerrilla warfare, even 
by women and priests, toward 
wounded soldiers and doctors and 
hospital nurses — physicians were 
killed and hospitals fired on — were 
such that eventually my generals 
were compelled to adopt the strong- 
est measures to punish the guilty and 
frighten the bloodthirsty population 



• The Chicago Herald of September 22, 
page 1, contains an extract from "W. 
Scheuermann's report of the cruelty of 
Belgian civilians, among them young 
girls. 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



from continuing t li fe i r shameful 
deeds. 

"Some villages, and even the old 
town of Louvain, with the exception 
of its beautiful town hall (Hotel de 
Ville), had to be destroyed for the 
protection of my troops. 

"My heart bleeds when I see such 
measures inevitable and when I think 
of the many innocent people who 
have lost their houses and property 
as a result of the misdeeds of the 
guilty." 

The worst feature of the citizens' 
fight in Louvain is the attitude of the 
Belgian government in sending out 
oificial orders in writing to the lead- 
ers of the patriotic party. These 
misguided fanatics had hoped to ex- 
terminate the entire little garrison. 
That the Belgian government had 
taken an important part In this mur- 
derous work, may serve as an excuse 
to the citizens who ventured into the 
fight, but we can not blame the Ger- 
mans for insisting on severe punish- 
ment. Apparently in the opinion of 
the King of Belgium there is no dif- 
ference between war and assassina- 
tion. He may be well-intentioned, 
hut appears to lack judgment. 



MODERN AVARFARE AND THE 
WAR. 

(Continued.) 



Modem Warfare. 

And here is Mr. Jourdain's reply to 
the Editor's discussion of tliis subject. — 
Editor, War Echoes. 

This section attempts the defense of 
the German army by stating: (1) that 
German "atrocities" in Belgium did not 
take place; (2) that the Belgians com- 
mitted atrocities against Germans. 
With regard to the first contention it 
may be pointed out that the only offi- 
cial inquiry, the Belgian, produces a 
vast mass of evidence from sufferers 
and eye-witnesses ; while the round 
robin of the five American reporters' 
only comes to this, that these five 
gentlemen, after spending two weeks 
with, and accompanying the troops up- 
ward of one hundred miles, were "un- 
able to report a single Instance unpro- 
voked." This is quite possible with 
regard to the districts seen by them, 
but obviously does not cover the whole 
country of Belgium. The German offi- 
cial statement that "the only means of 
preventing surprise attacks from the 
civil population has been to interfere 
with unrelenting severity, and to create 
examples which by their frightfulness 
should be a warning to the whole coun- 
try" seems by its wording to allow for 
atrocious treatment of the civil popula- 
tion. 

The destruction of Louvain, whether 
the civil population fired upon the Ger- 
mans or no, has shocked all neutral 
countries. The Editor gives the Ger- 
man official report' (published in Ber- 
lin, August 20), as disposing of "all 
the Belgian fables," while he describes 
the Belgian account as improbable and 
lacking verification." The utmost that 



'Quoted in "O. C," p. 620. * 

'"Ibid.," pp. 632-633. 

""Ibid.," p. 62S. Tlie Belgian account 
was issued to the British press on Sep- 
tember 15 by the Press Bureau. 

♦The Reader may find the complete reference 
by conBulting the Index, for Jourdain. — Editor. 



could be said is that the two accounts 
are inconsistent ; and neither side gives 
"verification." It cannot be said that 
the German version disposes of the Bel- 
gian, any more than that the Belgian 
disposes of the German, as far as evi- 
dence is concerned, though one may 
have a clear idea as to which story is 
the more probable. It is not correct 
to say that "to reproach the Germans 
for burning Louvain is the more un- 
fair as under the same circumstances 
every other army would have done the 
same ;"'" as the English, French and 
Italian presses have repudiated such 
measures. The execution of a certain 
number of Indian rebels as a definite 
punishment of the guilty cannot be com- 
pared with the German treatment of 
Louvain, Termonde and Aerschot, in 
which many innocent civilians, women 
and children, perished. In the sugges- 
tion that Belgians have been guilty of 
"the most heinous crimes of battle- 
hyenas," and that many people have 
been captured who found a pastime in 
torturing German soldiers,^ no proof is 
adduced; and as far as the evidence of 
hospitals is available the "Vorwarts," 
investigating this question, found there 
was absolutely no foundation for these 
imaginary "atrocities." 

The final "atrocity" charge made by 
the German emperor'' to President Wil- 
son, is that French and English troops 
make use of dumdum bullets. Such 
accusations are easy to make, and no 
verification is attempted on the German 
side ; that is, the German emperor 
merely states that "after the capture 
of the French fort of Longwy my 
troops found in that place thousands 
of dumdum bullets which had been 
manufactured in special works by the 
French government. Such bullets were 
found not only on French killed and 
wounded soldiers but also on English 
troops." The German case was that 
the Government supplied large quanti- 
ties of these bullets, and the German 
legation in Berne invited all and sun- 
dry to go and see the dumdum bullets 
in their possession which had, it was 
said, been taken from French and 
British soldiers. The "Journal de 
GenC-ve" sent Herr Meyer von Stadel- 
hofen, the well-known Swiss rifle 
champion, who also carefully scrutin- 
ized these bullets in the German lega- 
tion. He reported: 

"I noticed first that the transforma- 
tion had been effected with the help of 
rudimentary tools, such as a file, a 
saw, or a puncheon ; secondly, that of 
. these five bullets no two were cut in 
the same place, the mark of the instru- 
ment having been sometimes made 
nearer and sometimes farther from the 
nose of the bullet ; thirdly, that the 
scooplng-out was not done in the mid- 
dle of the bullet; fourthly, that the 
metal had been recently worked, for 
the lead was still very bright." 

His conclusions, therefore, are that 
obviously these bullets were not altered 
by mechanical means, and that they 
were not altered at the time or under 
the conditions referred to in the Ger- 
man note handed to him. To put it 
plainly, the statements of this note are 
not borne out by the examination of 
the bullets with which it was accom- 



panied, while, to put it still more 
plainly, the famous dumdum bullets 
were made in Germany, or, at any rate 
turned into dumdum bullets there. 
Herr Meyer von Stadelhofen then 
asked whether the secretary of the 
Berlin foreign office had sent the Ger- 
man legation in Berne any medical evi- 
dence testifying to the use of dumdum 
ammunition, to which the answer was 
"No," an explanation being added, 
about which an army surgeon's opin- 
ion would be highly interesting, that 
"German doctors consider that it is 
virtually almost impossible to know 
whether a wound is or is not due to 
a dumdum bullet, owing to the fact 
that modern bullets have such a rotary 
movement that they often cause wounds 
similar to those produced by dumdum 
bullets, especially when they do not 
strike quite direct, as is frequently the 
case." 3 * 

Corroborative testimony directly con- 
troverting the use of dumdum bullets 
by the allies is that of Dr. Haberlln, a 
member of the Ziirich medical associa- 
tion, who acted as a volunteer surgeon 
in various military hospitals in Arlen 
(Grand Duchy of Baden) and Lud- 
wigsburg, and reported he never heard 
anything of a dumdum bullet wound. • 
I have given prominence to these re- 
ports of neutrals, but the memorandum 
issued from the War Office, dated Oc- 
tober 7, denies the use of dumdum bul- 
lets by English troops. There is. the 
report runs, clear evidence that Ger- 
many has not confined herself solely 
to the use of unobjectionable ammuni- 
tion. Her troops both in Togoland and 
in France have been proved to have 
used bullets with a soft core and hard 
thin envelope, not entirely covering the 
core, which type of bullet is expand- 
ing and therefore expressly prohibited 
by The Hague Convention. Such bul- 
lets of no less than three types were 
found on the bodies of dead native 
soldiers serving with the German 
armed forces against British troops in 
Togoland in August, and on the per- 
sons of German European and native 
armed troops captured by us in that 
colony. All the British wounded 
treated in the British hospitals during 
the operations in Togoland were 
wounded by soft-nosed bullets of large 
calibre, and the injuries which these 
projectiles inflicted, in marked con- 
trast to those treated by the Brit- 
ish medical staff amongst the German 
wounded, were extremel.v severe, bones 
being shattered and the tissue so ex- 
tensively damaged that amputation had 
to be performed. The use of those bul- 
lets was the object of a written pro- 
test by the general officer commanding 
the British troops in Nigeria to the 
German acting governor of Togoland. 
Again, at Gundeln, in France, on Sep- 
tember 19, 1914. soft-nosed bullets (i. 
e.. those in which the lead core is ex- 
posed and protrudes at the nose) were 
found on the dead bodies of German 
soldiers of the Landwehr, and on the 
persons of soldiers of the LandweJir 
made prisoners of war by the British 
troops. 

One of these bullets has reached the 
War Office. It is undoubtedly expand- 



'""Ibid.," p. 628. 
i"Ibid.," p. 634. 
"•Ibid.," p. 634. 



♦But how about the packages found 
with the French manufacturing stamp on 
them, Mr. Jourdain? — Editor, War Echoes. 

^ Quoted in the "Morning Post," Octo- 
ber 30, 1914. 



BY THE LAW OF WAR AND THE FIRST LAW OF NATURE 



273 



iDg, and directly prohibited by the 
Hague Convention.* 



*To say "it is reported," or "undoubt- 
edly," is not "proof," Mr. Jourdain, and 
furthermore, if Germans sliould have used 
such bullets in Togoland as are prohibited 
by law, it was the British who first taught 
this trick by the making and introducing 
them in Dum-Dum, India, against their 
"Dear Allies." — Editor, War Echoes. 



THE MOBILIZATION OF GERMAN 
WOMEN. 

The war has swept away the chief 
argument against the admission of 
women to political and industrial 
equality in Germany. The opponents 
of women's rights have been willing 
to admit that the bearing of children 
demanded as much courage as military 
service and even that it was as use- 
ful to the nation, but since it was an 
individual act it could not — in Ger- 
man estimation — rank with the organ- 
ized activities of men. So long as 
women showed themselves deficient in 
the ability to organize and co-operate 
they could not claim membership in 
the supreme organization, the state. 

But now the women have demon- 
strated that they can equal the other 
sex in what the Germans regard as 
the highest attainment of Kultiir. 
Their success in forming and manag- 
ing an association of varied activities 
and national scope is in some respects 
a more remarkable feat than the mobi- 
lization of the German army, for it 
was effected without compulsion or 
previous training. On the morning of 
the day when Germany declared war 
against Russia Dr. Gertrud Baumer, 
president of the Federation of Wom- 
en's Clubs, issued a call for the mobi- 



lization of German women for social 
service. The Federation itself in- 
cludes half a million members and 
with it are associated all the philan- 
thropic and relief organizations of the 
country as well as an army of other 
women all working under the general 
direction of the "Nationale Frauen- 
dienst." It corresponds somewhat to 
the Ladies' Aid Society of our Civil 
War, but has a wider range. While 
one branch is working with the Red 
Cross and another caring for the com- 
fort of the soldiers in the field, the 
chief duty assumed is looking after 
the homes deprived — perhaps forever 
— of the breadwinner. Here are 
women and children, sometimes sick 
and often' helpless, thrown suddenly 
upon their own resources when in- 
dustry is paralyzed and times are 
hardest. Self-supporting women were 
deprived of employment and the sing- 
ers and actresses were harder to place 
than the discharged factory girls and 
housemaids. During the first months 
the volunteer visitors in Berlin made 
personal investigations of 255,000 
cases and in October the twenty-three 
relief committees distributed 100,000 
bread tickets, 56,000 milk tickets and 
300,000 meal tickets to the needy of 
the capital. 

One of the most valuable forms of 
social service has been the establish- 
ment of cooking schools in various 
quarters of the cities, where free in- 
struction has been given to housewives 
in the preparation of cheap and nutri- 
tious foods, in the use of the fireless 
cooker and in making bread twenty 
per cent potatoes and cooking accord- 
ing to the Government War Cook 
Book. In the National Women's Serv- 
ice the same spirit of unity has been 



displayed as elsewhere in Germany, 
and for the first time in the history 
of the country rich and poor, bourgeois 
and socialist, churchly and worldly, 
worked together in a common cause. 
Let us hope that when peace comes 
the German women will not forget 
what they have learned to do and 
that the German men will remember 
it, too. — The Independent. 



TO GERMAN WOMEN. 



An Appeal from, the Kaiserin. 

On the summons of the Emperor our 
people are preparing for an unprece- 
dented struggle, which it did not in- 
voke and which it is only carrying on in 
its defense. Whoever can bear arms 
will joyfully hasten to the colors to 
defend the Fatherland with his blood. 
The struggle will be gigantic and the 
wounds to be healed innumerable, there- 
fore I call upon you women and girls of 
Germany, and all to whom it is not 
given to fight for our beloved home, for 
help. Let every one now do what lies in 
her power to lighten the struggle for 
our husbands, sons and brothers. I 
know that in all ranks of our people, 
without exception, the will exists to 
fulfill this high ideal, but may the Lord 
God strengthen us in our holy work 
of love, which summons us women to 
devote all our strength to the Father- 
land in its decisive struggle. 

The organizations primarily con- 
cerned who should be supported first 
have already sent out notices regard- 
ing the mustering of volunteers and 
the collection of gifts of all kinds. 
AUGUSTE VICTORIA. 

Berlin, Aug. 6. 



18,000,000 MEN UNDER ARMS; 
2,000,000 LOST. 



From the New York. Evening Sun. 

Even the most exaggerated predic- 
tions, made sixty-six days ago when 
the European war began, regarding 
the number of men that would be 
called into the conflict and the tre- 
mendous losses that would accom- 
pany it have been borne out. 

Events now show that the nations 
at war have men under arms or at 
the battle fronts as follows: 

Russia 6,000,000 

Germany 4,300,000 

France 4,000,000 

Austria 2,500,000 

England ; . 250,000 



Servia -. 300,000 

Japan 230,000 

Belgium 200,000 

Montenegro 80,000 

Total 17,860,000 

A New York physician has received 
a letter from a reputable source in 
France, saying that more than 300,- 
000 Frenchmen were killed, wounded 
or taken prisoners in the battle of 
the Marne and the battle of the Aisne 
so far as it has gone. A fair esti- 
mate places the German losses in the 
battles at 500,000 men. The British 
loss is proportionate to the French, 
and a conservative estimate places 
their casualty list at 30,000. 

The German loss in the eastern 
theater of war is largely a matter of 



guesswork. Colonel R. N. Maude, au- 
thor of "The Evolution of Strategy," 
estimates the total German loss along 
all the battle fronts at 1,000,000. 

The Austrian loss in the Galician 
campaign in killed, wounded and 
prisoners has been estimated at more 
than 500,000. In inflicting this d-^m- 
age it is believed that the Russians 
lost at least 250,000. Then there are 
the losses to the Belgians and the 
casualties of the fighting in the far 
East. 

Thus the estimates of the killed, 
wounded and missing in the war so 
far place them in the neighborhood 
of 2,000,000 men. — Reprinted from. 
"The Chicago Evening Post," October 
9, 1914. 



THE EASTERN CAMPAIGN 
SECOND GREAT MOVE AGAINST THE ENEMY 

According to the Strategic Plans of the German Mihtary Staff 
The Russian MobiHzation "Trick" — Mobihzing long before a Declaration of War 



THIS FORCES THE WAR ON AUSTRIA AND GERMANY 
MAKES POSSIBLE THE RUSSIAN BARBARITIES IN EAST PRUSSIA 
Accounts for the sporadic Russian Successes during the First Stages of the War 
France and Great Britain in this "Game" with Russia 
The "Bear" Must Save Us 



What will the Coming Century bring Germany from Russia? 
We Dread to Think of it! 



VON HINDENBUKG IS HERO OP 
EVERY GERMAN TOWN. 



General Who Drove Russians Out 

Revels in Adulation; Saved 

Maznrian Iiakes by Appeal 

to Kaiser. 



From the "Chicago Examiner," Feb. 
28, 1915. 

BERLIN, Feb. 27. — There is no 
parallel to the enthusiasm Von Hin- 
denburg's name has invoked. If he 
had descended like an archangel from 
the skies and rushed the Russian 
armies into the Black Sea there could 
have been no more extravagant accla- 
mation. 

Towns and villages have been re- 
named after him; Hindenburgstrasse 
has become as common as Friederich- 
strasse; universities have showered 
their dignities upon him; Hindenburg 
marches by the score have come for 
his acceptance; hundreds of cigar 
merchants have implored him to per- 
mit them to associate his name with 
their products; honors and gifts, tele- 
grams and decorations have inun- 
dated him beyond precedent. 

Victory Truly Notable. 

Undoubtedly the achievement 
which gave rise to this extravagant 
adulation of Hindenburg was a very 
notable thing. The victory of the 
Mazurian Lakes, which resulted in 
the destruction of three Russian army 
corps and the suicide of General Sam- 
sonoff, is an indisputable triumph. 

Measured by the standards of past 
wars, it was one of the greatest and 
most complete disasters in history, 
and in the horror of its circumstances 
— the shrieks of hosts of men and 
horses sucked into those terrible 
swamps are said to have driven even 



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GENERAL VON HINDENBURG 



some of the German officers Insane — 
it has rarely been paralleled. 
Saved Mazurian Lakes. 
That it discovered a man of bold, 
original powers among the "card- 
index" minds of the Prussian hier- 
archy is clear. "Old Hindenburg," 
as they call him affectionately — he is 
not old as generalship in this war 
goes, being sixty-seven — belongs to 
that type which in normal times is 
dismissed by conventional official 
minds as a crank, and in times of 
stress is found to be a genius. The 
special subject of his supposed cranki- 
ness was the Mazurian Lakes. 

S74 



About the military meaning of this 
marshy region there were two views 
in Germany. The popular view was 
that in the event of war the Russians 
must not be permitted to reach this 
region. The heterodox view was that 
of Hindenburg, who maintained that 
the Russians must be forced into the 
Mazurian Lakes. 

To this view he clung with an ob- 
stinacy that made him something of 
a jest, and when he heard that the 
Reichstag was about to consider a 
scheme for draining his beloved 
marshes and bringing the land under 
cultivation he descended like a whirl- 
wind on deputies, party leaders and 
committees. When all this failed he 
carried his cause to the Kaiser him- 
self. There he prevailed. The 
marshes were saved, and "Old Hin- 
denburg" went on with his study of 
the region, and every year at maneu- 
vers punctually drove the "Russian" 
enemy into the swamps. 

"Today we shall have a bath," was 
the proverbial saying of the soldiers 
when "Old Hindenburg" was against 
them in the maneuvers. 

But when the war came Hinden- 
burg was in retirement at Hanover 
and forgotten. Weeks passed and 
his offer of service was ignored. 
Meanwhile the Russians were over- 
running East Prussia. Then the boy- 
cott collapsed. 

"Suddenly," to use his own words, 
"there came a telegram informing me 
that the Emperor commissioned me 
to command the Eastern army. I 
really only had time to buy some 
woolen underclothing and make my 
old uniform presentable again. Then 
came sleeping cars, saloon cars, loco- 
motives — and so I journeyed to East 
Prussia like a prince. And so far 
everything has gone jolly well." 



WITH THE EASTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



275 




SAYS GERMANY IS BEATEN. 



Russians Take Optimistic View of 
War, John Bass Cables. 



©efedftt§6ercife SKofcfttnenBCttje^rnBtScHung in SRttfftf^ igolen. 

MACHINE-GUN DIVISION IN RUSSIAN POLAND READY FOR ACTION 

(By Courtesy of the "Illinois Staats-Zeitung" ) 



Delights in Hero Worship. 

For he is a garrulous old boy. Per- 
haps It was that quality that made 
him distrusted, for there is a preju- 
dice in favor of the silent man, who 
after all, may only be silent because 
he is dull. 

Hindenburg is neither silent nor 
dull. He has torrential gayety and 
physical enjoyment of his job and he 
accepts the hero-worship of Germany 
with unconcealed delight. 



WHAT BISMARCK SAID. 

"If the French are willing to keep 
peace with us until we attack them," 
he said, "then peace is assured for- 
ever." 

"If Germany became involved in 
war with France, it would not be 
necessary to expect Russia to strike 
Germany, but if Russia should strike 
first, France would be sure to join 
her in attacking Germany" — a most 
remarkable forecast of what has now 
actually taken place. 

As early as 18 87 he said: "Russia 
and France will sooner or later at- 
tack Germany." 

"The English are full of anger and 
jealousy because we fought great 
battles — and won them. They do 
not like to see us prosper. We only 
exist in order to fight their battles 
for pay. That is the opinion of the 
entire English gentry. They have 
never wished us well, but have done 
all they could to injure us. This is 
also the position of the crown prin- 
cess (the Empress Frederick, mother 
of Kaiser Wilhelm II.). She always 
thought wonder how she had humili- 
ated herself by marrying into this 
country. I remember how she re- 



marked at one time that two or three 
Liverpool merchants possessed as 
much silver as the entire Prussian 
nobility. 'That may be true, your 
royal highness,' I answered, 'but we 
value other things much higher than 
we do silver,' " 

"German rulers," he said, "are in 
the habit of leading their armies in 
war so that they may realize its hor- 
rors, which would haunt them if they 
should be able to say to themselves, 
this war I could have avoided with 
honor. Germany would never begin 
aggressive wars or wars of conquest, 
as France so often had done, nor 
would she bleed a conquered nation 
as Napoleon had bled Prussia in 
1807. 

"The Germans are like bears in 
this respect; they do not attack of 
their own accord, but they fight like 
mad when they are attacked in their 
own lairs. An appeal to fear will 
never find an echo in the German's 
heart. The German is easily be- 
trayed by love and sympathy, but 
never by fear. The Germans will not 
start the fire. Some other nation 
may, but let any nation that provokes 
Germany beware of 'the furor teu- 
tonicus.' " 

"We Germans fear God, but noth- 
ing else in the world; and the fear 
of God induces us to love and seek 
peace. Whoever breaks the peace 
will soon realize that the same pa- 
triotism which called weak and down- 
trodden little Prussia to the stand- 
ards in 1813 has today become the 
common property of united Germany, 
and that whoever attacks the German 
nation will find her presenting a 
united front, every soldier having in 
his heart the firm faith: God will 
be with us." 



From "Chicago Daily Neves," Thurs- 
day, March 18, 1915. 

By John F. Bass. 

Special Cable to "The Daily News." 
Petrograd, Russia, March 18. — I am 
back in Petrograd, where I find that 
the political and intellectual center of 
Russia has laid aside its workaday gar- 
ments of pessimism and assumed the 
bright attire of self confident hope. In 
well informed circles there is a firm 
conviction, which has not hitherto pre- 
vailed, that Germany is beaten. In 
spite of the ultra and at times exag- 
gerated optimism of the local press, the 
prevailing feeling iu Petrograd hereto- 
fore has been one of grave doubt as to 
the issue. But all that is changed and 
from mouth to mouth goes the word 
that Germany has beaten her army to 
pieces in fruitless batterings, without 
a decisive strategic success. 

Russia Ready for Emergency. 

Considering the war as a whole, it is 
true that Germany has won tactical suc- 
cesses, as for instance, in Poland, but 
no one of the allied ai-mies has been 
materially weakened. This optimism 
finds its origin in the check of the great 
Austro-German movement of the last 
two or three weeks in East Prussia and 
Galicia. The information given out is 
that Russia finally has met the situa- 
tion and Is ready for every emergency. 

At Przasnysz the Russian lines are 
lengthening and pushing around the 
flanks of the German advance here. 
The Russians have taken the villages 
of Jednowjes and Stegna, northwest of 
Przasnysz and have driven tbe Germans 
beyond the bridge over the Orzyc river. 
An attempt by the Germans to cross 
the river on the ice is said to have been 
frustrated by Russian cavalry. In this 
region the fighting is gradually edging 
toward the frontier. 

Ossowetz is not actually besieged, the 
causeway connection being still intact 
on the south. The Germans are re- 
ported to be using larger guns than 
formerly, or guns similar to those em- 
ployed at Antwerp. They were able 
to put these into position on account of 
the recent heavy freezing. This fort 
and that at Przemysl are now the 
important storm centers. At the latter 
fortress a relief party of Austrians 
with a strong force of Germans is now 
in the neighborhood of the Dukla pass, 
while the Russians have closed in on 
the fortress in hopes of capturing it. 

Conditions Reversed at Ossowetz. 

At Ossowetz the conditions are re- 
versed, as the German forces in front of 
Grodno have been driven back into the 
forest of Augustowo. News from the 
Bzura front indicating renewed activity 
on the part of the Germans shows that 
the forces, which have retired from the 
east of the Prussian front are now be- 
ing switched rapidly to the Warsaw 
front in the hope that the Russian line 
there is being weakened by the concen- 
tration on the East Prussian battle line 
so much that it might prove too weak to 
resist. Indeed, this may have been one 
reason for the recent German advance 
from East Prussia. 



276 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 




(From the National Geographic Magazine) 



THE EASTERN WAR ZONE 



The Germans have the faculty of in many of their engagements, but ful slaughter at Liege shows that the 
not knowing when they are whipped. they didn't. On the contrary, they Teutons have lost none of their fight- 
In 1870-1871, according to the rules kept pouring men into craters until ing qualities. — Prom the "Public 
of war, they should have withdrawn they reached their goal. The fright- Ledger," Philadelphia, August 9. 



WITH THE EASTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



277 



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PEOPLE WAITING IN THE STREETS OF LODZ FOR POOD FROM THE GERMAN ARMY 
(Photograph by the International News Service) 



The Deadly Parallel 

From "The Fatherland," New York 



The Duchess of Marlborough. 

From New York papers: — Mrs. 
Oliver H. P. Belmont has received a 
letter from her daughter, the Duchess 
of Marlborough, who is engaged as a 
Red Cross nurse in a London hos- 
pital, charging that German soldiers 
cut off the hands and arms of Eng- 
lish surgeons and hospital nurses in 
order to disable them from perform- 
ing their duties. 



Joseph Medill Patterson. 

The Hague, September 11. — To 
"The Chicago Tribune": — I firmly 
believe that all stories put out by 
the British and French of tortures, 
mutilations, assaults, etc., by Ger- 
mans are utterly rubbish. 



In casting off German influence 
will the Russians spurn the useful 
Vienna roll, the succulent Hamburg. 



MEMEL REGAINED. 

On March 18, Memel, the most 
northern of Prussian seaports, was 
captured by a force of 6,000 to 10,000 
Russians. The town was defended by 
a small force of the Landsturm or 
militia, with the assistance, according 
to the Russian account, of civilians. 
Four days later, on the approach of 
a land force of German troops from 
the south and the arrival of German 
warships in the harbor, the Russians 
retired, taking with them the mayor 
of Memel and three other prominent 
citizens whom they had seized as 
hostages. But the car carrying the 
hostages broke down, their escort fled 
and the prisoners escaped. The raid 
on Memel was, according to the Rus- 
sian version, for the purpose of break- 



ing up the contraband trade which has 
been passing through that place. The 
Russians seized large quantities of 
goods stored here and burned what 
they could not carry away. 

The Germans accuse them of burn- 
ing fifteen villages in the vicinity, and 
wilful destruction of private property. 
As reprisals for the sacking of Memel 
the Germans have imposed an indem- 
nity of $250,000 on the city of Lodz, 
Poland, and $25,000 on the town of 
Suwalki. 

A similar raid was attempted on 
Tilsit, but was not successful. Along 
the Niemen, in the forest of August- 
owo and on the eastern frontier of 
Bast Prussia there are rumors of 
fighting, but their significance is ob- 
scure. 



Premier Asquith. 

London, September 14, 3:23 P. M. 
— Premier Asquith told the House of 
Commons today that no official in- 
formation had reached the Ministry 
of War concerning the repeated 
stories that German soldiers had 
abused the Red Cross flag, killed 
and maimed the wounded, and killed 
women and children as had been al- 
leged so often in stories of the battle- 
fields. 



The German bombardment of the 
Polish fortress of Osowiec (Ossowetz) 
seems to make little progress. Their 
big siege guns were brought up to 
within three miles of the fortifications, 
but were obliged to withdraw. The 
new 42-centimeter howitzers were used 
at long range, but according to the 
Russian account, did not make a single 
hit, and the 2S-centimeter howitzers 
did little damage to the concrete case- 
ments when they struck. 



The correspondents manage to get 
past the censors with stories of their 
personal hardships and insuperable 
difficulties. — From the "St. Louis 
Globe-Democrat," August 18, 1914. 



278 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



The Central Empires — Germany and Austria 
Past, Present and Future 



AUSTRIA AND THE NATIONAIi 
lilBEBTIES OF HER PEOPLE. 



The Vital Issue. 



Dr. Irwin Klein. 

From many quarters attacks have 
been made upon Austria's ruler as 
the oppressor of Servia's freedom. 
However, these attacks have not 
taken into consideration the fact that 
Austria is the only land enjoying per- 
fect national freedom and equality, 
and that Emperor Francis Joseph is 
as a matter of fact the founder and 
pEOtector of this national freedom, 
and that his policy of protecting the 
various races combined in the Aus- 
trian Empire against agitation has 
hitherto been a guarantee for the in- 
terior peace and for the freedom of 
his people. 

To be sure, the United States is a 
country guaranteeing the freedom 
and equality of all races and yet any 
one asking for the establishment of 
government schools in which the lan- 
guage of the teacher shall be that of 
the majority of the foreign-born pop- 
ulation settled in any particular lo- 
cality, would be ridiculed. In Aus- 
tria now there are government 




Franz Joseph — Austria-Hungary 



schools conducted in the German, 
Czech, Italian, Ruthenian, Polish, 
Roumanian, Croatian, Turkish, etc., 



languages, and these are not element- 
ary schools, but most of the national- 
ities represented have institutions of 
learning corresponding to our Ameri- 
can colleges. 

The population of any town has the 
right to demand that court proceed- 
ings be carried on in their own lan- 
guage provided that the number of 
people speaking this language 
amounts to 25 per cent of the whole 
population. Almost all the above- 
named languages are admitted to 
parliament as a vehicle of communi- 
cation. This is indeed an absolute 
national equality. 

In Switzerland there are similar 
conditions, but there the situation is 
tar more simple since only three lan- 
guages (German, French and Italian) 
come into consideration and more- 
over since these three nationalities 
are settled in locally separated dis- 
tricts. 

Austria (with the exception of four 
wholly German provinces) has not 
one province of the size of even the 
smallest American state where three- 
fourths of the population are mem- 
bers of the same nationality. If we 
now suppose that any one of these 
Austrian provinces were to be freed 
from the Austrian "yoke," for exam- 




LOYAL COMRADES IN ARMS 
300,000 Germans are said to have gone to the Assistance of the Austrians in Galicia 
(By Courtesy o( the "Chicago Abendpost") 



WITH THE WESTERN GERMAN ARMIES 



279 




AN AMAZONE 

Olma Stepanio of the UKAINIC LEGIOK received the Silver Medal for Bravery 
in the Field 
(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 



pie "Bucowina," we will find that at 
least one-half of the population is 
not composed of Ruthenians (Slavs), 
but of Germans, Roumanians and 
Poles. All of these would then lose 
their freedom if the province were 
to be turned over to the Slavs. In 
Galicia the majority of the popula- 
tion is composed of Poles, but this 
constituent does not quite amount to 
two-thirds of the entire population, 
the balance being Germans and Ru- 
thenians. In Bohemia the Czechs are 
in the majority, but they do not total 
more than 75 per cent of the entire 
population. 



If we except the southern provinces 
we find everywhere from 15 to 3 per 
cent Germans; the balance is com- 
posed of Italians, Croats and other 
South-Slavs such as Serbs, etc. It 
would be impossible to say, therefore, 
that the Italians or Slavs anywhere 
amount to three-fourths of the popu- 
lation. In Bosnia and Herzegowina 
we have not only to reckon with 
Slavs, Germans and Italians, but 
there is also a large percentage of 
Turks. 

So long as they remain under Aus- 
tria's rule all these nationalities en- 
joy equal rights. But if any one por- 



tion were to be severed from Aus- 
tria at least one-third of the popula- 
tion of this portion would lose their 
rights in favor of the so-called "lib- 
erators." 

Whosoever — no matter to which of 
the nationalities represented in Aus- 
tria he may belong — says that he de- 
sires to be separated from that coun- 
try for the purpose of obtaining na- 
tional liberty is either insincere or 
else his wish is an attempt to de- 
prive those of his neighbors who 
speak a different language of their 
rights and privileges. 

The promotion of this absolute na- 
tional equality has been one of the 
chief objects under the sixty-six 
years' rule of Emperor Francis Jo- 
seph, and to say that he intends to 
deprive any race of its rights, Is 
either a sign of gross ignorance, or 
an act of malice. Any TBXJE IiOVER 
OP FREEDOM will earnestly hope 
that the Austrian emperor will con- 
tinue to regard as his sacred duty the 
preservation of the rights of the 
many different races embodied in the 
Austrian Empire. 

If the Servian Agitation in Aus- 
tria were to be successful, all other 
races residing in those districts would 
immediately suffer by the loss of all 
their rights. 



AUSTRIA'S PART IN THE WAR. 



The Crucible. 

Reports that Austria has made 
overtures for peace with Russia 
through a neutral party are to be 
taken with reserve. The report 
comes from Italy and Russia, which 
in itself throws doubt upon its au- 
thenticity. Part of the Italian public 
seems to have convinced itself that 
Austria is on the verge of disruption, 
and that this is an opportune time 
for beginning a war for the acquisi- 
tion of Adriatic territory. The gov- 
ernment of Italy, however, is con- 
sidering long and seriously the conse- 
quences that might follow a plunge 
into war. And well it might. 

The fighting in the Carpathians is 
of the bloodiest and most desperate 
character. It could not be so if Aus- 
tria were decadent and disheartened. 
The truth is that Austrian troops 
have displayed remarkable bravery 
and effectiveness throughout the war. 
They have practically disposed of 
Serbia and are holding back the Rus- 
sian masses, while other forces are 
disposed along the Italian border 
ready to make serious work for any 
Italian offensive movement. 

There have been many reports of 
conflicting sentiment in Austria and 
frequent statements that the Empire 
was divided within itself. But the 
government keeps at work, the troops 
are effectively used, the navy is 
shrewdly placed and the wise old 
man at the head of affairs is appar- 
ently as strong and capable as he was 
in his prime. 

Germany and Austria keep their 
own counsel as to the nature of their 
alliance. That it is a compact which 
holds together in life-and-death bonds 
is conceded. This fact alone makes it 
certain that Austria will not make 
separate peace, and it also serves as 
a warning to Italy that its hopes of 



280 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 




AUSTRIAN MOTOR-BATTERY ON THE WAY 

(By Courtesy of the "Illinois Staats-Zeitung") 



an easy acquisition of Austrian ter- 
ritory are vain. Not a foot of Aus- 
trian or German territory is occupied 
by any enemy, although the foes con- 
tending against them are immensely 
stronger than Italy. 

The report that Austria is willing 
to make peace is echoed in Russia — 
an indication that the wish is father 
to the thought. It is far more likely 
that Russia desires to make peace 



than that her enemies are seeking it. 
Russia has nothing to gain from try- 
ing to penetrate Germany and Aus- 
tria. The prize she really seeks is 
Constantinople — a vain and empty 
ambition so long as Great Britain 
stands in her path. ■ Unquestionably 
if Constantinople were handed over 
to Russia she would quit fighting at 
once. Should the fortunes of war go 
against the Teutonic allies, they may 



take steps to placate Russia by facili- 
tating her ambitions at Constanti- 
nople. But the time has not arrived 
when either Germany or Austria 
.must sue for peace. The havoc 
wrought by German submarines, the 
deadlock at Constantinople and the 
stout opposition to Russian advance 
by Austria are sufficient indications 
that the war will go on indefinitely — 
Washington "Post," April 3. 



"What right had Servia to call 
Austria to account in 1908 and since 
then, when the latter, after thirty 
years of faithful administration, ac- 
quired the rights of a lawful owner 
from Turkey, the former owner, with 
a regular deed of transfer by paying 
the price in a regular bargain with 
the rightful owner? 

"Servia had no claim whatever on 
Bosnia. She had never ruled Bosnia, 
but rather has she been under the 
rule of Hungary for many years in 
the past. Austria-Hungary, on the 
strength of these historical rights, 
has never laid claim to her territory. 
Yet has Servia been using and is still 
using the devious means of a would- 
be pretender." 

Nothing could exceed the bravery 
with which the Allies have stormed 
the German breastworks, and it is 
not at all remarkable that this has 
resulted in the capture of so many 
cannon and complete batteries. The 
total number is so great that those 
already reported cover the entire sur- 
face of Prance about three layers 
deep — more or less. Those that will 
be captured tomorrow will be stored 
in Spain, and the following day in 



Portugal, but after that they will 
have to be dumped into the Medi- 
terranean Sea when captured, as it is 
impracticable to hire storage space in 
Italy, a neutral country. 

The uniform success of the Allies 
and the constant disaster which has 
met the attempt of the Germans to 
fight against them shows what 
patriotism will dw for a country. It 
is believed that the Germans are 
fighting unwillingly, while the 
French and English are so crazy to 
fight that they eat bullets to load 
themselves down and prevent them- 
selves from simply galloping over the 
untrained Uhlans, etc. Training is a 
great thing. 

The German line of communica- 
tion to the base of supplies has been 
cut repeatedly, and repeated cut- 
tingly. The consequence is that the 
Germans have not had clean laundry 
for several days, and a number of 
letters have gone astray. 

In short, Messrs. Editors, you have 
performed a great service to man- 
kind in keeping it so well posted 
with such accurate information and 
using your very best English on the 
Germans. The historical value of 



your reports cannot be estimated, but 
probably will be some day. A grate- 
ful public will be only too glad to 
award you the highest praise for this 
great public service. 

The writer trusts that you will 
continue the good work, as thereby 
you are saving the populace a great 
deal of money. People don't need 
to buy today's paper to get the news. 
They can guess it. 

George Edward Moray. 
524 West 162d St., New York City. 



Aliens are returning to fight for 
their countries in such numbers that 
soon we won't have anybody left 
but the I. W. W.'s, the Anarchists 
and the Black Handers. — Prom the 
"Boston Evening Transcript," Sep- 
tember 8, 1914. 



On account of the war the rule of 
the Red Cross Society of Russia re- 
fusing admittance to Jewish doctors 
and nurses has been indefinitely sus- 
pended. — Prom "The Outlook," New 
York, September 9, 1914. 



ITALY IN THE WORLD WAR 
BONE OF CONTENTION— ADRIATIC PROVINCES 

Fact and Comment on Italy's Position in the World War 



ITALY AS AN ALLY, A NEUTRAL, A BELLIGERENT 

Let Italy ponder well the Text: As ye sow, so shall ye also reap! 
What is Italy's Harvest going to be? 



Italy in the World Conflict 
Who Will Venture a Guess as to the Wishes of the Gods in Her Case! 



ITALY'S ENTRY INTO THE WAR. 



By the Military Expert of The 
Fatherland. 



(^''othing is quite so amusing as the 
forecasts of the American military ex- 
perts. InvariaMy these "experts," writ- 
ing ill our greatest journals, hare Been 
grotesquely icrong not only in their 
speculations of what is prohaMy to 
happen, but also in their analysis of 
battles and campaigns ichich have al- 
ready taken place. With the use of a 
feio technical loord's and phrases and 
an attitude of certainty, these pen loar- 
riors have fooled the patient public 
ever since the loar began. To read, for 
instance, the reports of the military 
expert of the N. Y. "Times" is like 
perusing the wildest burlesque by Mark 
Tioain. With pardonable pride ive 
point to the toorlc of The Fatherland's 
military expert. We challenge anyone 
to point out in his admirable articles 
any exaggeration, misstatements, jin- 
goistic folly or ignorance. He lorites 
with the lucidity of one wlio knotos 
and the vision of one who sees. Be 
reallij is an "expert.") 



On August 3, 1914, Sir Edward 
Grey justified England's declaration 
of war by saying that "the good repu- 
tation of England would be lost for- 
ever" if, after having signed and 
guaranteed Belgium's neutrality, 
she would not take, up arms for the 
protection of that country — notwith- 
standing the repeated assurances of 
Germany that she would not — in case 
of victory — cause any territorial 
changes in Belgium or France nor 
attack these countries from the sea. 

This certainly is a lofty conception 
of a country's obligations as a party 
to a treaty, especially if, as in the 
case with England and Belgium, the 
treaty is not one of alliance! 

Evidently Baron Sonnino, the off- 
spring of a North African Jew and 
an English mother, was not troubled 



by such scruples with regard to the 
national honor of his country. Other- 
wise he would not have been capable 
of notifying Austria — in the midst of 
peaceful negotiations — of the ter- 
mination of an alliance which for 
many years brought advantages, 
prosperity and prestige to Italy, and 
of completing the breach of faith on 
May 23. 

The Green Book, published by the 
Italian Government, is a most ridicu- 
lous document. Therein the world 
is told that Austria had disregarded 
her treaty obligations by declaring 
war on Servia without simultaneously 
offering Italy territorial compensa- 
tion — since, according to the treaty 
of alliance, an extension of Austro- 
Hungarian territory in the Balkans 
was only to take place after consul- 
tation with Italy. 

Baron Sonnino forgot entirely to 
mention in the Green Book that Aus- 
tria, on July 26, 1914, firmly and 
solemnly declared that she would not 
keep an inch of Servian territory, 
and that on the day of the Italian 
declaration of war, Austria was not 
in possession of an inch of that coun- 
try's soil. 

The man in the street has won! 
English and French money have won, 
and have dragged into the dust the 
honor of a nation which will be 
stained forever. History will judge! 
It does not forget. 

The military situation of Germany, 
regarded generally, is better to-day 
than it was since the first days of 
September, 1914. 

The Russian lines were pierced at 
several points between the Vistula 
and the Carpathian Mountains, and 
the remains of the Third and Tenth 
armies were driven back across the 
San. This great military success, 
which was achieved under the lead- 
ership of General von Mackensen, 
caused a general wavering of the en- 
tire Russian front in the Carpathians, 
and its panicky retreat through 

381 



Northern Galicia. Partial Russian 
successes in Poland, near Opatov and 
in the Bukovina, will not have ,the 
least influence upon the success of 
this gigantic battle unless the Rus- 
sians should be in position to throw 
vast reinforcements to the San. 

More than 20 0,000 prisoners, hun- 
dreds of cannon, machine guns, great 
stores of war material and ammuni- 
tion, bear witness to this momentous 
victory, the meaning of which the 
American press, because of their bi- 
ased and irreconcilable attitude to- 
wards the Teutonic Allies, have dis- 
credited to the best of their ability 
or passed over in silence. 

The question which commands the 
greatest interest at present is whether 
Italy's entry into the war will have 
an immediate influence upon the sit- 
uation in the Bast. We do not think 
so. 

What are the objectives of the 
Italian war policy? First of all, 
probably, the "lost Provinces"; then 
the consolidation of her position in 
the Adriatic through the occupation 
of Albania, including Valona; — and 
finally the "neutralization" of the 
Dardanelles. 

The first of her designs will nec- 
essitate an advance through Trent in 
a northerly direction and from the 
district of Udine across the lower 
Isonzo in the direction of Laibach. 
An Italian offensive movement across 
the mountain passes would offer im- 
mense difficulties and can hardly be 
expected since Austria for years has 
used all available means towards the 
strengthening of her Alpine boundary 
fortifications. 

Much more likely will be an at- 
tack across the flat and open country 
at the southern Isonzo with the 
strongly fortified camp at Udine as 
a basis. 

Since the Italian fleet is superior 
to the Austrian it is furthermore to 
be expected that an army will be sent 
across the Adriatic — perhaps to Ra- 



282 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



gusa — in order to launch an offens- 
ive movement from Dalmatia towards 
the San. When considering the 
merits of such an undertaking it 
must, however, not be forgotten that 
there is no railway connection what- 
soever from the coast of Dalmatia to 
the north or northeast, since the 
various authorities in Austria have 
never come to an understanding 
about the project of a railroad 
through the Una and Lika valley, a 
fact which now must be regarded as 
offering a fortunate advantage to 
Austria. 

The only connection existing from 
the coast is that with Sarajevo, and 
even from here the narrow-gauge 
railway to Vienna and Budapest 
does not go through, since the track 
between Banjaluka and Jajce has 
not yet been laid. 

He who knows Dalmatia, Bosnia 
and Herzegovina can well imagine 
the diiRculties which an army will 
have to overcome there. 

It is not likely that the further 
occupation of Albania will cause 
great difficulties, although Greece, 
with her interests in Epirus, will 
hardly remain an onlooker. It is 
very doubtful, however, whether the 
pacification of Albania will be more 
successful than that of Tripoli, where 
the Italian army up to the present 
time has hardly dared to proceed 
beyond the reach of her ship's guns. 
My friend. Prince v. Wied, the re- 
tired ruler of turbulent Albania, 
would undoubtedly answer this ques- 
tion in the negative. 

A more difficult problem is await- 
ing Italy at the Dardanelles. Italy 
cannot wish for a Russian Constan- 
tinople, which would be a permanent 
danger to her influence in the East- 
ern Mediterranean and which would 
mean a constant strengthening of 
pan-Slavic interests in the Balkans 
with Servian harbors on the Adriatic 
Sea. 

It is also impossible that Italian 
forces will be employed at the right 
French wing near Belfort, since 
France also must be rewarded for 
her millions. 

Poor Italian people! For things 
which they might have obtained with- 
out a single blow they now have to 
make heavy sacrifices, simply to help 
corrupt statesmen, hired agents and 
morally corrupt poets to gain mil- 
lions. 

One cannot help recalling that 
memorable answer which Bismarck 
gave to Benedetti on July 4, 1866, 
when France tried to despoil Prussia 
of the fruits of the victory of Sadowa. 
Let us hope that in Germany, 
which as during the time of Freder- 
ick the Great is opposed by the whole 
world, a man may arise whose mas- 
terful diplomacy will aid the glorious 
work of the invincible and victorious 
German and Austrian Armies! 




Victor Emmanuel — King of Italy 



many indicates that a new, and if 
possible, stronger wave of absolute 
confidence in Germany's final and 
complete victory is passing through 
Germany. German officials point 
with pride to the entire nation work- 
ing harmoniously to keep the war 
machine running smoothly and also 
to forces amounting to twelve mil- 
lion. 

The view is expressed there that it 
matters little whether Italy joins the 
entente powers or not. It is asserted 
that if she declares war Germans will 
be in Italy in a very few days. Or- 
ders have been sent out to every 
newspaper office in Germany to re- 
frain from all hostile criticisms of 
Italy, whatever nation she hates. The 
opinion is held in Germany that Italy 
has already deserved punishment 
from Germany and that within a 
few years this will be administered 
without mercy. 



itaijY's causes fob war. 



GERMANS DISDAIN ITALY. 



She Deserves Punishment, and Will 
Get it Anyhow, Without Mercy. 

Amsterdam. — (Dispatch to the 
London Daily Chronicle) — The lat- 
est impression brought bv a respon- 
sible Dutch business man from Ger- 



TRANSLATION OF EDITORIAL 
WHICH APPEARED IN "ILLINOIS 
STAATS-ZEITUNGI" IN GERMAN: 

It was a just condemnation of 
Italy which the old emperor on the 
Austrian throne rightfully expressed 
in his appeal to his people. 

"The king of Italy has declared 
war on me. Perfidy, the like of 
which history does not know was 
committed by the kingdom of Italy 
against both allies. After an alliance 
of more than thirty years' duration, 
during which it was able to increase 
its territorial possessions and develop 
itself to an unthought-of-flourishing 
condition, Italy abandoned us in our 
hour of danger and went over with 
flying colors into the camp of our 
enemies. 

"We did not menace Ltaly; did not 
curtail her authority; did not attack 
her honor or interests. We always 
responded loyally to the duties of 
our alliance and afforded her our 
nrotection when she took the field. 
We have done more. 



"When Italy directed covetous 
glances across our frontier, we, in 
order to maintain peace and our 
alliance relation, were resolved on 
great and painful sacrifices which 
particularly grieved our paternal 
heart. 

"But the covetousness of Italy, 
which believed the moment should 
be used, was not to be appeased, so 
fate must take its course." 

By these words of the aged ruler 
of the Austro-Hungarian dual mon- 
archy, the veil was removed which 
the Italian government in the form 
of a Green book had woven to cover 
and justify a faithlessness such as, 
fortunately, has never before been 
known in the history of the world. 

In this Green book the Italian gov- 
ernment boldly presents two causes 
for its entrance into the war against 
its former allies. These causes will 
form the blopk on which the present 
political leaders of Italy will be 
morally decapitated by universal his- 
tory. These causes will destroy all 
confidence in a faithful compliance 
by any nation with her treaty obliga- 
tions, for they show that Italy in 
18 82 with her dagger hidden, entered 
into an alliance to which she owes 
her development, her present power. 
It is stated among other things in 
this Green book, which will go down 
in Italy's history, as a Black book, 
that her national aspirations impera- 
tively demand, that all Austrian prov- 
inces inhabited by Italians be freed 
and annexed to Italy. 

This assertion alone proves that 
Italy, treacherous at heart and with 
hostile intention, for thirty years 
was a party to a compact which af- 
forded her advantages only. The 
provinces in question were in Aus- 
tria's possession prior to 1882, and 
if Italy had had any national honor 
whatever, she would have made the 
ceding of these provinces conditional 
to her becoming a member of the 
Triple Alliance, or otherwise re- 
frain from joining it at all. But 
that the government of Italy, not 
until now when Austria, being sur- 
rounded by enemies, could justly call 
on her ally Italy for aid, remembers 
these provinces, that Italy now tries 
to put her foot upon the breast of 
distressed Austria and after numer- 
ous attempts at extortion tears into 
shreds the agreement of thirty years 
and joins the enemies of her allies, 
to properly describe such action 
words fail. 

The Italian government asserts, 
however, that the principal cause of 
her betrayal of Austria, and conse- 
quently of Germany also, was the 
sending of an ultimatum by Austria 
to Servia, by which the balance of 
power in the Balkans had been dis- 
turbed and Italy's dignity impaired 
and her interests damaged. 

It is still fresh in the minds of 
all that when Austria-Hungary found 
it necessary to send an ultimatum to 
Servia and as a result of its rejec- 
tion was forced to declare war, she 
publicly obligated herself to main- 
tain the status quo in the Balkans, 
and declared that the punitive ex- 
pedition against Servia would not be 
used for the purpose of acquiring ter- 
ritory.' 



ITALY'S POSITION IN THE WORLD WAR 




EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



As Austria's ally Italy, it is only 
reasonable to assume, ought to have 
accepted Austria's declaration seri- 
ously and placed absolute faith in it. 
But for the sake of argument let us 
grant that Austria was not deserv- 
ing confidence, and that Italy's dig- 
nity had really been impaired and 
her interests damaged. This being 
the case no alternative presented it- 
self, if Italy had been honest, than 
to cancel the treaty and forsake her 
allies. 

But Italy preferred to complete her 
preparations for war under the pro- 
tection of the Triple Alliance, and 
when ready to place the dagger at 
Austria's breast, despite the fact that 
only two years ago she signed a 
written agreement whereby a twelve 
months notice of withdrawal from 
the treaty must be given. 

Sir Grey is rejoicing. He takes 
pride in his pupils at the Tiber who 
have accomplished an act of diplo- 
matic brigandage which disturbs the 
rest of real statesmen such as Ca- 
vour, Minghetti and Crispi, and dis- 
honors the Italian people. 

War lias been declared and has 
already begun. The Italian army 
and the Italian navy entering this 
war will find little encouragement 
in the memory of Kustozza and Lissa. 
The Austrian army and the Austrian 
navy, however, strengthened by the 
spirit of Radetzky and Tegethoff, 
which still lives in them, will suc- 
ceed in administering a defeat to the 
traitors which, to be sure, will de- 
stroy the fruits of thirty years of 
honest labor of honest Italian states- 
men, but will, nevertheless, teach 
Italy that treachery is not the seed 
which gives birth to the greatness 
of a nation. — Illinois Staats Zeitung, 
Chicago. 



ITALY'S ACTION TO PROLONG 
WAR; PEACE FAR OFF. 



Germans in Washington Hold Victory 

is Bound to Materialize, Despite 

Heavy Odds. 



[By 



Chicago Tribune, 
a Staff Coirespondent.] 



Washington, D. C, May 23. — [Spe- 
cial.] — So far there are no signs that 
the entrance of Italy into the war 
has produced the ardently hoped for 
psychological moment for bringing 
the war to an end. 

The peace advocates expected that 
if Italy decided to remain neutral the 
allies would regard the prolongation 
of the contest futile; that if Italy 
joined the allies Germany would 
throw up the sponge. Now that Italy 
has cast its lot with the allies Ger- 
many seems as far as ever from con- 
ceding eventual defeat. 

"The action of Italy will only pro- 
long the war and postpone German 
victory," said one of the most promi- 
nent officials of the German embassy 
today. "Germany, is fighting a war 
of defense and will be successful in 
keeping her territory free of invad- 
ers, no matter how many enemies 
combine against it. 

"The question of peace is only the 
question of Germany's enemies per- 




(From the National Geographic Magazine) 

ITALY AND THE ADRIATIC 



ceiving and realizing the futility of 
further wasting of men and money 
to attain their ends." 

Not Afraid of Italy. 

The Germans and Austrians are 
confident that Italy will cause them 
little trouble. They say that the 
Austrian fortifications and 300,000 
men will be sufficient to check the 
Italian attempt to invade Austria. 
Austrian and German officials pro- 
nounce the fortifications on the 
Italian frontier impregnable. 

Military experts here are specu- 
lating upon the possibility that Ger- 
many will invade Switzerland in or- 
der to combat Italy more effectively. 
Switzerland unquestionably would 
consider such invasion a violation of 
neutrality analogous to the German 
invasion of Belgium in the effort to 
outflank the French. 

Swiss Invasion Planned. 

The charge has been made that 
Austrian and German plans for the 
invasion of Switzerland were drawn 
up more than a year ago. 

Inasmuch, however, as Switzerland 
has an army of 500,000 and a stra- 



tegic position on the German frontier 
it is regarded as unlikely that the 
kaiser will permit any disregard of 
Swiss neutrality. 



NO QUARTER TO "DEVILS OF 
HELL". 



Hungarian Premier, Assailing Italy, 
Sees Victory Won from Fate. 



Chicago Tribune. 

BUDAPEST, May 26, via Amster- 
dam, May 27. — Count Stephan Tisza, 
the Hungarian premier, today deliv- 
ered a stirring speech before the 
chamber of deputies. He explained 
Austria-Hungary's position toward 
the Italian demands during the last 
four weeks, and received a tremen- 
dous ovation when he closed his per- 
oration with the following declar- 
ation; 

"We conducted our negotiations 
with Italy in the belief that it would 
be impossible for a state calling it- 
self civilized, and which was allied 
to us, to attack us while we were at 



ITALY'S POSITION IN THE WORLD WAR 



285 



war; all the more so, as we had of- 
fered her everything. 

Force Victory from Fate. 

"We shall now, more than before, 
astonish the entire world with the 
spectacle of our power of action, vir- 
ility, unity, and resolution. The Hun- 
garian nation, united with all the 
peoples of the Austro-Hungarian 
monarchy and with our powerful 
ally, will wage this war to the last 
breath against all the devils of hell 
and force victory from fate." 

Explaining the negotiations with 
Italy, Count Tisza said: 



"The latest speech of the Italian 
premier, Sig. Salandra, contained 
three accusations. The first was that 
the ultimatum to Serbia upset the 
equilibrium of the Balkans. It is 
generally known that we gave a dis- 
tinct declaration to all the great pow- 
ers that we desired no territorial 
changes whatever. The assertion of 
the Italian premier, therefore, is a 
notorious untruth. 

Denies Balkan Alteration. 

"The second accusation was that 
we altered the spheres of influence 
in the Balkans. This assertion is 
somewhat incomprehensible. As re- 



gards the Balkans we always took 
the standpoint that no division of 
the spheres of influence was possible; 
that we were interested in the entire 
Balkans, but claimed no hegemony 
whatever. 

"Slgnor Salandra's third accusa- 
tion was that we violated the triple 
alliance treaty because we neglected 
to come to an agreement with Italy 
regarding our ultimatum to Serbia. 
The only mention of an antecedent 
agreement with Italy in the triple al- 
liance treaty states specifically that 
this was required only in the event 
of the alteration of the status quo in 
the Balkans." 



"MADE IN GERMANY" BEAIi 
CAUSE OF WAR. 



By Sam H. Clark in "Jim Jam Jems," 

Bismarck, North Dakota, 

October, 1914. 

To the thinking man who has 
made a study of the situation with 
bias and prejudice eliminated, just 
one cause can be assigned to the 
present European conflict. Jealousy 
— trade jealousy—jealousy of the 
growth, the advancement and the 
progress of Germany has brought 
down upon her the united strength 
of practically all Europe in the at- 
tempt to cripple and crush the growth 
and advancement with which no 
other nation in the world has been 
able to keep pace. That simple 
trade-mark, "Made in Germany," 
which has been stamped as if by 
magic on the trade products of the 
world, has for the past several years 
kept the British lion's tail switching 
in a furious anxiety to spring upon 
German commerce and crush it ; with 
covetous eyes England has watched 
and waited for the hour that came 
with the declaration of war against 
Germany, the hour when she would 
have the support and backing of the 
allies in what she considered a suffi- 
cient number to deal the death blow 
to Germany. But the best defense 
of a nation is not ships of iron and 
forts of stone, but hearts of oak! 
Washington's ragged continentals 
with their flint-locks proved this fact 
to Britain, and Germany is going to 
prove it to Britain again.. This is the 
death struggle of a giant. Germany 
is fighting for her life, and while she 
may be overwhelmed in armed forces 
and driven to the defensive within 
her present territory, all the allies 
that England is able to summon to 
her aid will never crush Germany. 

To cripple Germany's wonderful 
commerce is England's sole purpose 
in the present struggle. This fact is 
well discerned in the recent edict 
issued from London to the effect that 
"there can never be peace until Ger- 
many's military power is crushed and 
her fleet destroyed." Britannia must 
be king of the high seas and it is war 
to the death so long as Germany 
threatens to usurp the commerce that 
has made England mighty. 

Just what the war situation really 
is at the present time we can only 
conjecture. The American Press is 
certainly not telling the truth. While 



most of the newspapers of the coun- 
try have printed the thoughtful 
"Proclamation of Neutrality" by 
President Wilson, most all of them 
have disregarded it. The American 
press has done its utmost to preju- 
dice the American people against 
Germany; column after column of 
manufactured war news has appeared 
and editorial influence has been 
wielded in behalf of Great Britain. 
The German Emperor has been 
styled a bloodthirsty maniac who 
sought war; we have been told that 
Germany's sons have been ordered 
to set their bared breasts against the 
bayonet, to drink hot blood out of 
the camp skillet, just to satisfy the 
martial soul of the Kaiser with the 
glorious pomp and circumstance of 
war. There seems to be a wilful de- 
sire and a studied move on the part 
of the press to present only the Brit- 
ish side of the crisis and to harm 
Germany's cause as much as possible. 
There has been no spirit of fair play. 
The German Emperor has been 
dubbed a murderer and a madman; 
he has been charged with precipita- 
ting this war without cause. 

For the moment let us consider 
some of the dope handed out by the 
American press. For instance, we 
read that 500,000 Russians were 
landed in Aberdeen on the 23rd of 
August. Anyone with an atom of 
sense must know that it would re- 
quire at least 400 to 500 large trans- 
port steamers to accomplish this feat, 
and yet it is supposed to have been 
done on the quiet without arousing 
suspicion from anyone until the 500,- 
000 Russian troops had landed. But 
if this report is true, then it must be 
admitted that these transports were 
in readiness long before there was 
any war talk, and that the ships had 
been at Archangel as early as the 
middle of July — long before the out- 
break of the war. This fact would 
throw a curious light on England's 
boasted efforts to maintain peace, 
wouldn't it? 

Another phenomenon that deserves 
attention in this connection is the 
statement that Hindu troops passed 
through Canada on the 27th of Au- 
gust. The newspapers speak of no 
less than thirty trainloads. These 
Hindu troops must have been shipped 
from India not later than the end of 
July — that is, before the declaration 
of war — or they could not possibly 
have reached Canada so early. 



This is the kind of bunk that the 
newspapers have been handing out — 
manufactured war news favorable to 
England and her allies in the hope 
to stampede American sentiment 
against Germany when it rightly be- 
longs with Germany. 

Then again comes the cry that the 
Germans are bloodthirsty bandits and 
that in the invasion of Belgium the 
most diabolical atrocities were per- 
petrated. But when investigation is 
made, not one instance can be veri- 
fied where atrocities have been com- 
mitted by the Germans. Right at 
this juncture it might not be amiss 
to reproduce the signed statement 
made by five of America's most dis- 
tinguished newspaper reporters who 
are at the front; their statement is 
as follows. 

It must be recognized by the 
American people that a uniform ef- 
fort has been made since the very 
outbreak of the war to prejudice the 
minds of our people against Ger- 
many. 

And while the press of America 
has been discrediting Germany and 
giving every favorable advantage in 
news-column and editorial to Great 
Britain, the American people have 
failed to see the menace that threat- 
ens in the alliance of England and 
Japan. Had we not better look a 
little to our own colors? Is there 
not a deep significance to this alli- 
ance between the Jap and England? 
Will America not have to reckon with 
this alliance in the future, and espe- 
cially if the allies are successful in 
the present crisis? 

It is high time that the American 
people acquaint themselves with the 
true situation in Europe and with 
the real causes which brought about 
this terrible conflict between the 
great nations of the old world. Prob- 
ably the most comprehensive and 
thoroughly reliable analysis of the 
situation yet attempted is that given 
to the American public by Prof. John 
W. Burgess of Columbia University. 
Prof. Burgess, through this analysis, 
shows a clear grasp of the situation 
and a thorough knowledge of the 
causes that led up to the present 
crisis, but of course the newspapers 
will not give space to an article of 
this kind. For the benefit of Jim 
Jam Jems readers and in the spirit 
of fair play, we reproduce several ex- 
tracts from this masterful analysis. 



MODERN NAVAL WARFARE 
BATTLE SHIPS, CRUISERS, SUBMARINES 

Cutting the German Cable — Capturing the Enemy's Merchant Marine 
Neutral Shipping, Naval Battles, Blockades 

"The German Submarine will Win ihe War" 
By An American Army General 



The Influence of Precedent, and Modern Naval Warfare 
Blockades and Submarines 



ENGLAND'S CONTEMPT FOR 
AMERICAN RIGHTS. 



A Pro-English Sheet Answered — 
Gross Insults to the American 
Flag — American Ship with Non- 
Contraband Cargo Dragged Captive 
to an English Port — American 
Farmers and Cattle Raisers De- 
prived of the Right to Sell and 
Ship Their Products to Non-Com- 
batant Populations — Our Sea Com- 
merce and Sea Prestige Must Be 
Defended — May Bring About a 
War Between America and Eng. 
land. 



(William Bayard Hale, wilier of tlie 
following letter addressed to the New 
York Tribuue, was selected l>y Presi- 
deut Wilson to rejiresent the United 
States in arranging the Mexican 
troubles. He has the reputation of be- 
ing exceptionally well informed in re- 
gard to International law and is, there- 
fore fully competent to ))ass .iudguient 
on England's flagrant violation of it. 
His criticism of the pro-English policy 
of the intensely pro-English New Yoric 
Tribune is well founded. — Ed. I. W.) 

From "The Irish World," New Yorlv, 
Saturday, March 13, 1915. 

Sir: From Ihe standpoint of abso- 
lute neutrality between Great Britain 
and Germany, I am nevertheless con- 
strained to put It to the Tribune that 
in fulminating against what, in com- 
plete indifference to the facts, it de- 
scribes as the German "paper block- 
ade," the German "lynch law threat," 
the German "arrogant invasion of neu- 
tral rights," the German "relapse to- 
ward barbarism," it is surprisingly un- 
complimentary to the understanding of 
the American people. 

Does the Tribune believe that any 
considerable proportion of us are ignor- 
ant of the fact that in its order of Feb. 
4, Germany was only doing what Great 
Britain had done precisely three 
months before? Does the Tribune be- 
lieve that we are unaware that the first 
version of the order cabled to New 
York was a false one, representing as 
included within, and not (as in fact it 
was) excluded from, the danger zone 




ADMIKAE VON TIRPITZ 
In Command of the German Navy 



:i thirty mile strip along the Dutch 
coast? Does the Tribune believe that 
we are so dull as not to have noticed 
that the English order closing the 
North Sea became effective after 
twenty-four hours' notice, while the 
German order closing the British Chan- 
nel was effective only after fifteen days' 
notice? 

Does the Tribune really expect any 
consideralile part of its clientele to ac- 
cept its editorial denunciation of the 
German policy of attacking neutral 
ships, when every declaration of the 
German government declares that only 
ships of Great Britain and her .\llies 
are to be treated as enemies, and tliat 
neutral ships will not be touched? 

England the Real Aggi-essor. 

Does the Trilnme expect \is to fcu'get 
that it is England which is sei/.ing 



-Vmericau ships and other neutral ships 
at sea and dragging them captive to her 
I)orts; that it is England which denies 
American farmers and cattle raisers the 
right to sell and ship their products in 
American bottoms to the non-coml)atant 
populations of Germany and Austria ; 
that it was England which hauled down 
the American flag on the American ship 
Greenbrier and took her ignoniiniously 
captive; that it is England which re- 
fuses to allow Americans to bu.v a for- 
eign vessel, the Dacia, in good faith, se- 
cure American registry and sail the 
seas protected by the American flag: 
while it is the same England, which, 
either in fear or in an attempt to in- 
volve the United States in war, appro- 
priates our national emblem and under 
its protection flees through her own 
waters from the foe with which she 
seeks to embroil us? 

Complaisance Under English Aito- 

gance May Bring About an 

Anglo-American War. 

Some of us are concerned not in the 
least as to the conflict now being waged 
in Europe, but very nnich Indeed as to 
the maintenance of an attitude of real 
neutrality between the combatants, to- 
gether with the preservation of the 
rights that belong to neutrals. It is 
due no doubt; to the naval superiority 
of Great Britain over Germany, and to 
the policy consequent upon that su- 
periority, but, to whatever cause it is 
due, it is the simple fact that the neu- 
trals at sea have been attacked only by 
Great Britain and her Allies so far in 
this war. No doubt if the relative na- 
val positions of Great Britain and Ger- 
many were reversed, it would be Ger- 
many that would be attacking our com- 
merce and contempting our flag at sea. 
But by whomsoever our sea commerce 
and our sea prestige is attacked, against 
him it must lie defended. 

An editoi'lal policy such as that 
which the Tribune is pursuing arouses 
in me. as an American citizen indiffer- 
ent to the outcome of the war abroad, 
the gravest anxiet.v lest our complai- 
sance under the arrogance of Great 
Britain may tempt it to steps which 
may at last arouse this country to a 
(bii'gerous temper. 



PROGRESS AND MODERN NAVAL WARFARE 



287 




(From the National Geographic Magazine) 

THE DARDANELLES AND THE AEGEAN 



TERRORS OP THE SEA OWNED 
BY GERMANY. 



Undersea Dreadnoughts That Are 

Menacing Commerce of the 

World. 



FIRST WAS BUILT IN 1906. 



When Building of Submarines Began 

In Empire, Kaiser Speeded it 

Along. 

Germany's ambitious declaration 
of a submarine blockade of England 
has directed attention anew to that 
style of warship. The successful out- 
come of Germany's plan would prove 
a revolution in naval warfare as far 
reaching as the defeat of the Merri- 
mac by the Monitor. 



No one, aside from a few high offi- 
cials perhaps, knows exactly what 
Germany's submarine strength Is at 
present. In August the United States 
naval Institute estimated It as twenty- 
eight to thirty boats, with nine on 
the stocks. A reasonable estimate 
now, accepting the foregoing as true, 
would be at least thirty-seven, pos- 
sibly as many as forty-five boats. 
United States naval authorities be- 
lieve the number Is thirty-eight. 

All Are of Recent Date. 

It is only nine years since Ger- 
many adopted the submarine as a 
part of Its naval forces, a writer In 
the Kansas City Star says. The effi- 
ciency that branch of its service has 
now attained speaks well for Ger- 
man thoroughness. The Kaiser was 



content to allow England, France, 
Italy and the United States to ex- 
periment with submarines, then, 
when their servlceabiliy was demon- 
strated, he adopted them. 

The first German submarine, the 
U-1, was built In 1906. France then 
had twenty-flve submarines and Eng- 
land nearly as many. The U-1 was 
a tiny craft, compared with recent 
boats. It had a length of 128 feet, 
and a beam of eight feet ten inches. 
It was slow and unseaworthy, traits 
which now are not characteristic of 
German submarines. 

German submarines are numbered 
In order of the date of launching. 
The "U" stands for unterseeboot 
(under-sea-boat). Thus the U-9 is 
the ninth German submarine in point 
of age. It is possible that the new 
submarines being launched in Ger- 
many are given low numbers in 
order that the nation's underwater 
strength should not become known 
to Its enemies. 

Built Submarines Rapidly. 

In 1908-09 Germany built three 
submarines of 2 0-225 tons displace- 
ment, mounting two torpedo tubes, 
having a surface speed of fifteen 
knots and a submerged speed of 
eight and a half knots. They proved 
efficient, so four more were built at 
Kiel and another batch of font at 
Danzig. That gave Germany three 
flotillas of four boats each. It is be- 
lieved the U-1 was replaced by a sis- 
ter boat of the* three built following, 
making that flotilla homogeneous. 

In 1911-12 the German program 
called for six boats, U-13-18, Inclu- 
sive. They were the first designed 
for offensive work. They displaced 
800 tons, carried four torpedo tubes 
and a small gun on a disappearing 
mount. 

Then Dreadnought Submarines. 

In 1913 Germany ordered nine 
boats, U-19-27, from the Krupp 
works at Kiel. Their displacement 
was 8 4 0-890 tons, with a speed of 
seventeen knots on the surface and 
twelve knots submerged. They were 
213.8 feet long, with a beam of 
twenty feet. The torpedo tubes were 
Increased to three and a quick firing 
gun mounted on the superstructure 
forward of the conning tower. These 
boats were armored on their vital 
parts, the deck, the conning tower 
and that part of the hull exposed 
when running on the surface. They 
were dubbed dreadnought submarines 
In popular talk. Each boat had two 
Diesel motors, aggregating a horse 
power of 1,800. Oil was used as fuel 
on the surface and electricity under- 
neath. They were armed with twen- 
ty-one inch automobile torpedoes in- 
stead of the nineteen inch of the 
earlier boats. 

When these boats joined the Ger- 
man fleet the Kaiser had an un- 
dersea fleet nearly as powerful as 
England or France. As soon as 
the dreadnought submarines were 
equipped they left for open water 
and conducted severe tests. The re- 
sult caused the laying down of an- 
other batch of nine boats, U-28-3G. 
When the war began these were 
under way. It Is probable that they 



288 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



have long since been finished and 
Germany has now from fifteen to 
thirty submarines in process of com- 
pletion at its different yards. 

The newest German submarines 
might be termed the super-dread- 
noughts of the undersea boats. 
They will be nearly a thousand feet 
in length. They will be armed with 
a 14-pound gun on a disappear- 
ing mount and a 1-pounder on a 
fixed pedestal, "experiments having 
shown," the United States Naval In- 
stitute has said, "that it is possible 
to expose this gun to salt water with- 
out serious disadvantage." 

Can Cruise for a Month. 

German submarines of the U-19- 
27 class and also the U-28-36 class 
are armed with one 14-pounder and 
it is believed, a 1-pounder. They all 
have a working radius of approxi- 
mately 2,500 miles. It would be en- 
tirely feasible for a flotilla of them 
to journey around England, staying 
away from their bases from three 
weeks to a month. 

At nights the submarines could 
ride the surface in any obscure spot, 
practically free from danger. They 
could cruise slowly by day, either 
just awash or, showing only their 
periscope. Communication could be 
maintained between boats of a flotilla 
by • wireless, and perhaps by sub- 
marine signaling in some instances. 
When necessary they could develop 
a speed equal to that of most dread- 
noughts and superior to that of 
older vessels. Small merchant ships 
would be at their mercy. — From the 
"Chicago Daily News." 



A TKOrP CARD. 



The Xew York Times Says That 

Washington Officials Consider 

Germany Played a Clever 

Game. 

The Washington correspondent of 
the "Xew York Times" writes: 

It has dawned upon oflicials here 
that the German government had exe- 
cuted a rather neat and clever counter- 
diplomatic stroke in notifying the 
world of its Intention to create a war 
zone around the British Isles by taking 
a leaf out of the British book, and do- 
ing the very thing that the British 
government had done. The British 
and German war zone orders, as ofl3- 
cially communicated to the State De- 
riartmeut. were compared and closely 
studied today. This comparison was 
not found to be to the disadvantage of 
the Germans. It was even suggested 
that the German government had 
played a trump card. 

The Situation. 

The situation resolves itself some- 
thing after this fashion : For England, 
the official date of the beginning of 
the war was August 4. England 
waited until three months of the war 
had been fought and then served no- 
tice on the neutral powers of the world 
of her intention to establish a war 
zone. The British war zone was set 
up on November 5. The Germans 
waited an additional three months, 
twice as long as did Great Britain, or 
until February 4. exactly six mouths 



from the official British beginning of 
the war, and then announced its deci- 
sion to establish a war zone very sim- 
ilar to that of Great Britain, although 
somewhat more extensive. However, 
the principle involved with respect to 
both war zones is the same, since each 
is extensive enough to cover the high 
seas outside of the three-mile terri- 
torial limit, and the two war zones 
differ in importance only in degree and 
the character of the operations to be 
conducted in them.* — The "Continental 
Times," Berlin. 



•The generous "New York Times" 
reporter has another guess coming: as 
regards a real blockade that Great 
Britain is maintaining. — Editor. 



liUSITANIA A FLOATING 
ARSENAL. 

Through the courtesy of Hon. Dud- 
ley Field Malone, Collector of the 
Port of New York, two representa- 
tives of the "Irish World" were per- 
mitted to examine the records of the 
Collector's Office on Monday even- 
ing. May 10, and they found that 
millions of dollars' worth of contra- 
band articles were shipped from the 
Port of New York to France and 
England, under the flags of the Al- 
lies, principally English and French 
vessels, from August, 1914, to May, 
1915. 

We give a partial list of the ship- 
ments of fire arms, cartridges, etc., 
etc., during the period mentioned. 
It will be noted that the list does 
not include shipments of horses, 
military saddlery, shoes for soldiers 
or other war supplies. Large guns 
are shipped under the name of hard- 
ware or machinery. 

Month, destination 

and material Value 
August, 1914, France; fire- 
arms $ 1,898 

August, 1914, England; 

firearms 3,646 

September, 1914, England; 

cartridges 214,401 

September, 1914, England; 

firearms 40,087 

October, 1914, France; 

cartridges 383,250 

October, 1914, France; fire- 
arms 392,812 

October, 1914, England; 

cartridges 700,699 

October, 1914, England; 

firearms 80,473 

November, 1914, France; 

cartridges 336,411 

November, 1914, France; 

firearms 80,242 

November, 1914, England; 

cartridges 649,015 

November, 1914, England; 

firearms 83,149 

November, 1914, Scotland; 

firearms 1,656 

December, 1914, France; 

cartridges 273,559 

December, 1914, France; 

explosives 655,810 

December, 1914, France; 

firearms 110,221 

December, 1914, England; 

cartridges 566,016 

December, 1914, England; 

firearms 104.4 80 



December, 1914, Scotland; 

firearms 1,077 

January, 1915, France; 

cartridges 372,648 

January, 1915, France; 

gunpowder 93,319 

January, 1915, France; 

explosives 917,270 

January, 1915, France; 

firearms 50,550 

January, 1915, England; 

cartridges 716,561 

January, 1915, England; 

firearms . . ._ 108,639 

January, 1915, Scotland; 

firearms 689, 95^ 

February, 1915, France; 

cartridges 661,232 

February, 1915, France; 

explosives 606,713 

February, 1915, France; 

firearms 7,354 

■ February, 1915, England; 

cartridges 599,021 

February, 1915, England; 

explosives 70,135 

February, 1915, England; 

gunpowder 400 

February, 1915, England; 

firearms 47,991 

March, 1915, France; ex- 
plosives 485,698 

March, 1915, France; cart- 
ridges 620,554 

March, 1915, France; fire- 
arms 71,826 

March, 1915, England; cart- 
ridges 633,700 

March, 1915, England; ex- 
plosives 9,436 

March, 1915, England; fire- 
arms 160,228 

April, 1915, England; arms 

and ammunition 923,550 

April, 1915, France; arms 

and ammunition 582,207 

There were two items in the list 
of the Lusitania's $750,000 cargo 
over which the knowing ones of the 
maritime world gravely shook their 
heads as soon as the news of her 
sinking became common knowledge. 
That was the entry of her manifest 
of 5,471 cases of ammunition and 
cartridges valued at $200,024. 

"The cartridge alone would have 
been enough," was the opinion of 
one large shipper who discussed the 
question, "but that additional 'am- 
munition' means bulk powders of 
high explosive power, and in their 
presence on board the steamship 
may be seen one reason for her sink- 
ing so suddenly." 

It was generally conceded that the 
Lusitania, following the precedent 
set early in the war, approached the 
Irish coast with all her watertight 
bulkheads closed against any emer- 
gency. In this case the explosion of 
two or even three torpedoes against 
her sides would not have torn her 
suflSciently to sink her in the little 
time that elapsed before she went 
down. Consequently the theory that 
some of this large amount of am- 
munition completed the work of the 
torpedoes took precedent over all 
others. 

The manifest of the Lusitania in- 
cluded the following entries: 260,- 
000 pounds sheet brass, valued at 
$49,565: 111,762 pounds of copper, 
valued at $20,955: 58,465 pounds of 
copper wire valued at $11,000: 189 



PROGRESS AND MODERN NAVAL WARFARE 



289 



packages of military goods valued at 
$66,221; 5,471 cases of ammunition 
and cartridges, valued at $200,023. 
The total value of the cargo was 
$725,000. 

The Lusitania seems to have been 
the vessel on which the largest ship- 
ments of arms and ammunition were 
sent to England. On its trip of 
April 1, it carried military goods, 
valued at $204,064; cartridges and 
ammunition valued at $151,800, and 
firearms valued at $3,379. 

On the books of the Cunard line 
the Lusitania is valued at a flat $5,- 
000,000, and, according to the offi- 
cials at the New York office, she was 
Insured for this amount. The ques- 
tion of making good her loss is as 
yet an involved one because of the 
war insurance issued by the British 
government which has been in force 
on all vessels of the British merchant 
marine since the war began. 

The premiums for this insurance 
are extremely high and are quoted 
on such vessels as the Lusitania and 
the Olympic at about $50,000 for 
each voyage. In return for this 
premium the government offered to 
the vessels the protection of the de- 
fense squadrons off the English coast 
and insured the vessels against such 
loss as the Cunard line has now suf- 
fered. The Lusitania also carried 
insurance from Lloyd's and the cargo 
was Insured by the shippers. — The 
Irish Voice. 



TERRIBLE REVELATIONS. 



THE LUSITANIA DISASTER. 



DID THE BRITISH ADMIRALTY 
PLOT THE DESTRUCTION? 



Read what Congressman Hobson Says. 



The Cunard People AVarned Their 
Friends. 



(Prom the N. Y. Tribune, May 15, 
1915.) 

What Congressman Hobson said: 

"A widowed cousin of mine", said 
fprmer Congressman Richmond P. 
Hobson in an interview on May 15, 
1915, "applied at the New York office 
of the Cunard Line for passage on 
the Lusitania. The booking agent, 
an old friend, took her off apart and 
told her that the vessel was acting 
under Admiralty orders and that she 
simply must not take passage upon 
it. He pledged her to secrecy until 
after the trip. This fact brings up 
pertinent questions. 

"Why did not the Cunard Company 
give to all parties applying for pas- 
sage the same humane advice its 
agent, for old friendship's sake, gave 
to my cousin, instead of loading the 
vessel down with a full passenger 
list, including many distinguished 
Americans, whose loss would nec- 
essarily strike the American imagi- 
nation?" 

"Knowing that German submarines 
were operating in the south of the 
Irish coast, why did not the British 
Admiralty, which controlled the Lusi- 
tania's movements, order her to use 



the uninfested route around the 
north of Ireland? 

"Why was the ship, having a speed 
of 25% knots — a very substantial 
aid to security — ordered by the Ad- 
miralty to slow down to 17 knots in 
the danger zone? 

"How could a torpedo sink such 
a ship in twenty minutes? An ele- 
mentary knowledge of naval archi- 
tecture would convince any one that 
such a thing is impossible unless 
there was contributing cause inside 
the vessel, such as open watertight 
doors or an inside explosion. 

"Why was there no protecting con- 
voy in the danger zone? 

"Why was there no consort for 
the great ship, ready for rescue 
work? 

Who Had a Motive? 

"There could be no possible mo- 
tive," he continues, "for Germany 
wisliing to destroy American lives. 
In fact, Germany sought by extra- 
ordinary warning not to destroy 
American lives, and her commander 
torpedoed the vessel at a point near 
the shore where it was presumable 
there would be ample time for the 
rescue of life. 

"On the other hand, there is a 
full motive for England wishing such 
a tragedy — the motive for thrust- 
ing America into war with Germany. 

The Duty of the United States. 

"Our own self-respect and our po- 
sition in history demand at least 
that we should find out the facts by 
regular, impartial investigation by a 
naval court. We could not condemn 
the basest criminal without a fair 
trial. We cannot pass judgment on 
a fellow Christian people simply from 
the charges of their enemy, given by 
a burning motive to embroil us in 
war. 

"The American people are not 
afraid of Germany and her allies, 
nor are they afraid of England and 
her allies, but we are a God fearing 
people, afraid of His righteous wrath. 
We are not too proud to fight, but 
we are too brave and true knowingly 
to do wrong." 



U. S. NAVY MEN BLAME BRITISH. 

Washington, May 10. 

Ranking officers of the American 
navy expect a radical change in the 
administration of the British admir- 
alty as a result of the destruction 
of the Lusitania. 

"Dumfounded" is the only word 
which adequately expressed the feel- 
ing of naval experts when they were 
assured positively that the admiralty 
allowed the Lusitania to enter the 
danger zone without the protection 
of a single convoy. 

When Germany finally announced 
its intention to make war under the 
water by the use of submarines and 
to blow up every British ship that 
passed within torpedo range, Amer- 
ican naval experts appeared to be 
satisfied that this movement would 
be checkmated without delay. 

Great Britain's failure to take 
drastic steps to put an end to the 
commerce war has given American 
naval experts the impression that 
there is something radically wrong 



v/ith Winston Churchill's manage- 
ment of the admiralty. 

This belief was strengthened a 
thousand-fold when the news that no 
patrol had guarded the Lusitania was 
flashed. Officers immediately called 
attention to the fact that the tiny 
American oil tanker Gulflight, which 
was torpedoed last week, was fur- 
nished with a patrol. 

Officers were of the opinion that 
upon the British admiralty must rest 
the blame, not only for the destruc- 
tion of the Lusitania, but much more 
so on account of the tremendous loss 
of life. 

They pointed to the fact that if 
the Lusitania had been accompanied 
by four or six destroyers at least 
the passengers and crew would not 
have been lost, because the patrolling 
vessels would have been present to 
pick up the victims. — The Daily 
News, Chicago. 



PROMINENT STATESMEN ON 
LUSITANIA CASE. 



General Opinion that Americans Took 

Their Lives in Their Hands as 

Passengers of Enemy Ship. 

Vice-president Marshall said that 
anyone who puts his foot on a ship 
flying the English flag is practically 
on English soil. 

Captain Turner, commander of the 
Lusitania, said: "Well, it is the for- 
tune of war." 

Senator T. J. Walsh: "Our citi- 
zens must yield to the warning given 
to keep out of the waters surround- 
ing Great Britain or we must take 
the other alternative and make war. 
I am not yet prepared to declare 
that either interest or honor requires 
that we choose the latter." 

Senator Wm. J. Stone, Chairman 
Committee on Foreign Relations: 
"American citizens, it must not be 
forgotten, went aboard a belligerent 
ship with full knowledge of the risk 
and after official warning by the Ger- 
man Government. When on board 
a British vessel they were on British 
soil. Was not their position substan- 
tially equivalent to being within the 
walls of a fortified city? It appears 
to me that from our standpoint as a 
neutral nation, the Oitlflight case 
presents a more delicate and serious 
complication than the case of the 
Lusitania." 

Senator Chas. N. Thomas: "The 
Lusitania tragedy differs only in de- 
gree from that of the Falaba. Apart 
from their greater fatalities neither 
may develop a condition so acute as 
the destruction of the Gulflight." 

Senator Gilbert M. Hitchcock: 
"The loss of American lives was not 
caused by desire to injure America, 
but was incidental or accidental, and 
if reparation is made does not be- 
come a cause for us to abandon neu- 
tral attitude." 

Senator Wm. E. Borah: "That 
disaster and the loss of the lives of 
American citizens would be calcu- 
lated ordinarily to arouse great feel- 
ing throughout the country, and 
doubtless the American people do 
feel deeply upon the subject: but to 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



my mind, the sinking of the steam- 
ship of a foe upon which happens to 
be found American citizens is by no 
means to be compared witli the act 
of hunting out, robbing, assaulting 
and murdering American citizens in 
a neighboring country. We have 
lost more citizens in Mexico than we 
will lose on the Lusitania, and as our 
policy with reference to Mexico seems 
to be well settled and accepted, there 
Is no possible reason why we should 
apply a different policy toward Ger- 
many. I don't anticipate any change 
of policy because of this unfortunate 
affair." 

Representative W. L. Jones, of 
Washington: "Our citizens have 
rights, but they should not insist on 
exercising them in a way likely to 
Involve us in war. When they sail 
in foreign ships into dangerous ter- 
ritory they should understand that 
they take the risk. Innocent people 
at home should not be embroiled in 
war on their account." 

Representative A. Mitchell Palmer, 
of Pennsylvania: "The Lusitania 
was flying the British flag, and car- 
rying munitions of war for the sup- 
port of a belligerent. Neutral pas- 
sengers, who, in the face of warn- 
ings, undertook this perilous voyage, 
certainly assumed some risk them- 
selves, for which the entire nation 
ought not to be asked to suffer. Of 
course, the destruction of a passenger 
boat is horrible. War is always hor- 
rible. This method of fighting is not 
humane — it is hardly civilized, but 
there is no such thing as humanity in 
civilized warfare." 

Representative Caleb Powers, of 
Kentucky: "This country is not the 
insurer of either the lives or the safe- 
ty of the citizens, especially aboard 
foreign vessels, who of their own 
volition subject themselves to the 
dangers and perils of the war zone, 
and, while this country does and 
should deeply deplore the sinking of 
the Lusitania, yet it should not be 
involved in war by reason thereof." 

Governor Simeon E. Baldwin, of 
Connecticut, and professor in the 
Yale Law School: "If I recollect 
correctly, the dispatch, of our Gov- 
ernment to Germany with reference 
to the previous incident of sinking a 
ship by a German submarine, as was 
supposed, in the war zone, referred 
to the matter as something occurring 
to a ship sailing under American col- 
ors. The phrase 'strict accountabil- 
ity' used in the dispatch did not, as 
I recollect it, refer to a foreign ves- 
sel sailing under her true colors. 
The responsibility now under the 
present circumstances of our declar- 
ing our policy. Is somewhat different 
in character." 

Governor Brewer, of Mississippi, 
in a statement. May 13, declared that 
as Americans had been warned not 
to take passage on the British steam- 
ship Lusitania he could not 'under- 
stand why the United States should 
quarrel with Germany because Amer- 
icans lost their lives as a result of 
the torpedoing of the vessel. 

"Americans were given fair warn- 
ing to stay off," he said. "The pas- 
sengers knew what to expect and 
took the risk." 



Prof. George W. Kirchwey: "My 
advice to the President would be: 
Don't be too fond or too stiff about 
the rights of neutrals. Don't take 
an attitude from which you can't 
withdraw without war. I would 
make the American people count un- 
til they get over this bellicose feel- 
ing. "There is no doubt that there is 
no right to sink living persons on 
ships, but I think there is need of a 
new law forbidding neutrals from 
sailing on enemy ships carrying con- 
traband. The need of this is caused 
by the new emergencies and new 
conditions found in present maritime 
warfare and the recklessness of all 
the nations at war." 

Oswald O. Villard: "A war now 
would be singularly unremunerative, 
and about as agreeable as a conflict 
between an elephant and an alligator. 
We would not get at them nor they 
at us. We should be pulling Eng- 
land's chestnuts out of the fire if we 
were to send troops to Europe, which 
latter action could be justified only 
on the wild ground that all our civ- 
ilization was in danger." — From The 
Fatherland. 



'GERMANY WARNED US" SAYS 
SENATOR VARDAMAN. 



(By International News Service.) 

Columbus, Miss., May 9. — When 
asked to give an opinion on the sink- 
ing of the Lusitania, Senator Varda- 
man of Mississippi said: 

"I see no reason why serious com- 
plications between the United States 
and the belligerent governments of 
Europe should grow out of it. 

"Admitting that Germany is re- 
sponsible, she is only guilty of re- 
taliation for the damage to her own 
commerce by England. Germany 
published advertisements in Amer- 
ican and British press warning neu- 
trals against use of the belligerent 
ships. They disregarded it at their 
peril. 

"President Wilson is on the job, 
and I have faith in his prudence and 
good judgment." — Irish Voice. 



CHIEF JUSTICE OliSON IS NOT 
YET READY FOR A JUDG- 
MENT ON THE LUSITANIA. 

That German rage against Amer- 
ican contractors and manufacturers 
who have been supplying the Allied 
armies with ammunition and other 
contraband of war lay at the bottom 
of the destruction of the LusitUnia, 
was the statement made today by 
Chief Justice Olson of the Municipal 
Court, who declared he had received 
his information from an attache of 
the War Department now in Chicago. 

"My informant told me that there 
were fifty-three American business 
men aboard the Lusitania who were 
on their way to England solely for 
the purpose of obtaining contracts to 
supply Great Britain with fighting 
material," said Judge Olson. 

Tried to Intimidate U. S. 

"It looks as if the Germans had 
got wind of this fact and had lain in 



wait for the special purpose of blow- 
ing the liner to atoms and intimidat- 
ing American firms from carrying on 
negotiations with the Allies. 

"If this is true, it is easy to see 
why the German submarines took 
particular care to see that the Lusi- 
tania did not escape them. 

"It is known that the vessel car- 
ried a large amount of ammunition 
consigned to the British government. 
For my part, I believe that any man 
who takes passage on a boat, know- 
ing this, and in the face of the adver- 
tisements sent out by the German 
Embassy in Washington, does so at 
his own risk. The fact that the Ger- 
mans sent out these advertisements 
is only another illustration of Ger- 
man efficiency; they were even pre- 
pared sufficiently to send a warning 
throughout our country of what was 
about to happen. 

Sees Both Sides. 

"The fact that the Lusitania car- 
ried ammunition which was to be 
used in the killing of German sol- 
diers appears to me to be the most 
important point in the controversy 
that is certain to come up over the 
sinking of the ship. Germany cannot 
afford to have her soldiers killed; 
she needs them. 

"On the other hand, it does not ap- 
pear right for them to blow up the 
liner, realizing that in so doing they 
were sending hundreds of non-com- 
batants to their death. 

"The German commander might 
have made known his intention to 
the commander of the Lusitania and 
permitted the passeiigers to debark 
before destroying the vessel. 

"However, it is not up to the or- 
dinary citizen to go into these ques- 
tion at length. My view is: Let Wil- 
son attend to it. He will find some 
way to maintain the honor of the 
United States in the international 
situation, I am sure." 



A3IERICANS WERE WARNED IS 
DERNBERG'S COJOIENT. 



Foi-mer German Colonial Secretary 
Upholds Action of His Govern- 
ment in Sinking Lusitania. 

New York, May 9. — Dr. Bernhard 
Dernberg, former colonial secretary 
of the German empire, tonight reiter- 
ated and emphasized statements he 
made in Cleveland yesterday, holding 
that the German government was jus- 
tified in its action of sinking the 
Cunard liner Lusitania. 

"I am sure," Dr. Dernberg said, 
"that Germany regrets the loss of life 
of Americans through the sinking of 
the Lusitania, but sufficient warning 
was given before the ship sailed. 

"In an incident such as the Lusi- 
tania affair, a submarine cannot give 
the necessary warning. The Lusi- 
tania is a fast boat. It could speed 
out of range of a submarine in a 
short time. 

"Every person seeking passage on 
a vessel crossing the Atlantic can 
obtain information whether that ves- 
sel is carrying munitions of war and 
stands the chance of meeting the fate 
the Lusitania met." — Irish Voice. 



PROGRESS AND MODERN NAVAL WARFARE 



291 



The Boast of the Cunard Company. 
Prom the Boston Journal. 

When the German Embassy had 
issued the following warning on 
April 22, nine days before the Lusi- 
tania sailed, and again on May 1,: 
"Travelers embarking on an Atlantic 
voyage are reminded that a state of 
war exists between Great Britain and 
Germany; that the zone of war in- 
cludes the waters adjacent to the 
British Isles; that, in accordance 
with formal notice given by the Im- 
perial German government, vessels 
flying the flag of Great Britain are 
liable to destruction in these waters, 
and that travelers sailing in the war 
zone on ships of Great Britain do so 
at their own risk — " 

The Cunard Company answered as 
follows: "The Germans have been 
trying for some time to put English 
lines out of commission. We antici- 
pate that from this time on every 
possible means will be used by the 
Germans to prevent people travel- 
ing on English lines. The fact is 
that the Lusitania is the safest boat 
afloat. She is too fast for German 
warships or submarines. She will 
reach Liverpool as per schedule, and 
arrive in New York on time as long 
as we care to run her." — From The 
Boston Patriot. 



WHY THE "LUSITANIA" WAS 
SUNK. 

Last week we predicted the fate 
that has overtaken the Lusitania. 
The Fatherland did not reach the 
news-stands till Saturday, but the 
editorial in question was written sev- 
eral days before publication. To-day 
we make another prediction. Every 
large passenger ship bound for Eng- 
land is practically a swimming ar- 
senal, carrying vast quantities of am- 
munition and explosives of every de- 
scription. An arsenal, whether on 
sea or land, is not a safe place for 
women and children. It is not a 
safe place for anyone. Every now 
and then we read of a warship blown 
up by an explosion caused by spon- 
taneous combustion, in spite of the 
rigid care exercised to prevent such 
an accident. Our passenger ships 
carrj' more explosives than the or- 
dinary man-of-war. No innocent pas- 
senger should be allowed to embark 
on a vessel carrying explosives. It 
stands to reason that a fate not un- 
like that of the Lusitania will meet 
before long a passenger ship by an 
explosion of vast stores of ammuni- 
tion within. While Germany is not 
bound to respect a flag of any ship 
carrying implements of murder, Ger- 
man submarines may discriminate In 
favor of a neutral flag. Spontaneous 
combustion recognizes no interna- 
tional convention. 

Much as we regret the staggering 
loss of life in the disaster that start- 
led the world, the facts in the case 
absolutely justify the action of the 
Germans. 

Legally and morally there is no 
basis for any protest on the part of 
the United States. The Lusitania was 
a British ship. British ships have 
been instructed by the Admiralty to 
ram submarines and to take active 



measures against the enemy. Hence 
every British ship must be consid- 
ered in the light of a warship. 

The Lusitania flew the ensign of 
the British Naval Reserves before 
the submarine warfare was initiated. 
Since that time she has hoisted many 
a flag, including the Stars and Stripes. 
According to a statement issued by 
the advertising manager of the Cun- 
ard Line, the Lusitania "when tor- 
pedoed was entirely out of the con- 
trol of the Cunard Company and op- 
erated under the command of the 
British Admiralty." 

The Lusitania carried contraband 
of war from this country to England. 
If this contraband had reached its 
destination it would undoubtedly 
have killed far more Germans than 
the total number of passengers lost 
on the Lusitania. As a matter of 
fact it did actually kill the passen- 
gers by precipitating the sinking of 
the ship. There can be no doubt that 
the ship would not have sunk for 
hours, if explosions from within had 
not hastened its end. Every passen- 
ger on a boat carrying contraband of 
war takes his life into his hands. The 
explosives in the hold of a ship, we 
repeat, constitute a graver peril to 
passengers than the shots of Ger- 
man torpedoes. 

It cannot be said that the Lusi- 
tania was torpedoed without warn- 
ing. Ordinarily a half hour's warn- 
ing is regarded sufficient. In this 
case the ship was warned of its fate 
four or five days in advance. We 
need only turn to the warning notice 
issued by the German Embassy on 
the day before the Lusitania left the 
Harbor of New York. 

Instead of urging the President to 
take steps against Germany, we 
should impeach the Secretary of 
State for his neglect of duty in not 
warning all Americans of the peril 
of ocean traffic in the war zone, es- 
pecially under the flag of a bellig- 
erent nation. If the Secretary of 
State, in accordance with the Mex- 
ican precedent had issued such a 
warning, not a single American life 
would have been forfeited. 

Germany, provoked by England 
which established a war zone as 
early as November and made the 
importation of foodstuffs into Ger- 
many practically Impossible, decided 
upon submarine warfare as a meas- 
ure of retaliation. She was forced 
to do so by the signal failure of the 
United States to protect the common 
rights of neutrals. When Germany 
determines upon a plan of action she 
means business. The Germans are 
not a nation of poker players. Ger- 
many does not bluff. 

The sinking of the Lusitania is a 
terrific lesson, but in order to drive 
home its force more fully and to 
safeguard this country from further 
losses and from the danger of com- 
plications with Germany, the State 
Department should issue at once a 
formal notice admonishing Ameri- 
can citizens to shun all ships flying 
the flag of a belligerent nation and 
all ships, irrespective of nationality, 
which carry across the sea the tools 
of destruction. 

But if we accuse the State Depart- 
ment of negligence, we should in- 



dict the officials of the Cunard Line 
for murder. They knew that the 
Lusitania was a floating fortress. 
Yet, for the sake of sordid gain, they 
jeopardized the lives of more than 
two thousand people. When the 
German Embassy issued its warning, 
the Cunard Line pooh-poohed the 
danger so as not to forfeit the shek- 
els paid for the passage. 

Did the Cunard Line tell its pros- 
pective passengers that its crew was 
short of eighty or ninety stokers? 

Did the Cunard Line inform its 
passengers that the Lusitania, as 
Marconi states in an interview, nar- 
rowly escaped an attack by a sub- 
marine on a previous voyage? 

Did they inform the passengers of 
the fact that one of its turbines was 
defective? 

How many of the passengers would 
have remained on the boat if the 
officials of the Cunard Line had not 
suppressed the truth? 

Those innocent victims believed in 
the protection of the British Admir- 
alty. The Captain of the Lusitania 
admits that the Admiralty "never 
seemed to bother" about the Lusi- 
tania. He knew that England, 
though she waives the rules, no 
longer rules the waves. He is a 
soldier under orders of the Admir- 
alty. He has a right to take chances 
with his own life. But what right 
has he to take chances with the lives 
of his crew and his two thousand 
passengers? 



VON BERNSTORFF REGRETS 
LOSS OP AMERICANS. 



(By the Associated Press.) 

Washington, May 10. 

Count Bernstorff, the German am- 
bassador, went to the state depart- 
ment today and was closeted with 
Secretary Bryan. 

After a half hour's conference be- 
tween the ambassador and Secretary 
Bryan the following statement was, 
by mutual agreement, given out by 
the secretary: 

"The German ambassador called 
at the state department and express- 
ed his deep regret that the events of 
the war had led to the loss of so 
many American lives." 

While neither the ambassador nor 
Secretary Bryan's statement men- 
tioned the Lusitania by name, it was 
known that the two officials talked 
of it specifically. It was the ambas- 
sador's first visit to the department 
since the; disaster. The secretary 
received him immediately and 
greeted him cordially. 

When Ambassador Bernstorff came 
from Secretary Bryan's office he par- 
ried all questions by saying he could 
not talk, being under a promise to 
Secretary Bryan that anything to be 
said should come from the secretary. 
His only real response was that he 
had made no appointment with Pres- 
ident Wilson. 

Both Secretary Bryan and Count 
Bernstorff steadfastly refused to 
comment upon or interpret the state 
department's announcement, but it 
was interpreted as meaning that the 
ambassador had, for his government, 
expressed deep regret not only for 



292 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



the loss of life on the Lusitania, but 
for the Americans lost in the tor- 
pedoing of the American steamer 
Gulflight and for the one American 
lost on the Falaba. — The Daily News, 
Chicago. 



THE GERMAN ANSWER. 

The German answer must be 
highly pleasing to all who honestly 
desire the historic friendship be- 
tween Germany and the United 
States to continue without interrup- 
tion. 

In spite of heavy provocation on 
the part of the United States, Ger- 
many has kept her temper. Not con- 
tent with furnishing implements of 
murder to Germany's enemies, we 
actually ask Germany to commit 
suicide. For a modification of suh- 
niarine warfare as suggested in Mr. 
Bryan's note would he tantamount 
to self-destruction on Germany's 
part. 

It may be said that we were actu- 
ated by no selfish motive, for our 
action was not in the interest of the 
United States: we were merely pull- 
ing England's chestnuts out of the 
fire. This may make us more noble 
in our own eyes, but it hardly makes 
our proposition more palatable to 
Germany. Nevertheless, instead of 
indignantly refusing to discuss so ab- 
surd a proposition, Germany's an- 
swer is sweetly reasonable. 

Germany is evidently perfectly 
willing to explain to us why she re- 
fuses to commit suicide. In fact, 
Germany is prepared to make many 
concessions. Evidently, Germany is 
willing to go to the limit in order 
to humor us. Germany desires no 
trouble Avlth the United States. If 
there is to be trouble, the word must 
come from President Wilson. 

We prattle about humanity, while 
we manufacture poisoned shrapnel 
and picric acid for profit. Ten thou- 
sand German widows, ten thousand 
orphans, ten thousand graves bear 
the legend "Made in America." The 
German Government makes no ref- 
erence to this. The German note is 
no exercise in rhetoric. It states the 
case simply and bluntly in German 
fashion. "The German Government 
believes it was acting in self-defense 
in seeking with all means of war- 
fare at its disposition to protect the 
lives of its soldiers by destroying 
ammunition intended for the enemy." 
We have reason to 'believe that the 
Lusitania carried both shrapnel and 
explosive acids. We knoto that she 
carried war material. We believe 
that the Liisitania carried concealed 
weapons. The fact that the Collector 
of the Port had not seen such weap- 
ons is no proof that they were not 
on board. His evidence is purely 
negative. There is much positive 
evidence to the contrary. 

It is admitted that the Liifiitania 
was an auxiliary cruiser and that 
she sailed on the high seas under 
the jurisdiction of the British Ad- 
miralty. The English are attempting 
to throw dust into our eyes. But 
we should remember that those who 
deny the warlike character of the 
Cunard liner are the same people 



that advised her to sneak wider false 
colors into an English port. The 
Cunard Line used American passen- 
gers as a shield, just as it fraudu- 
lently used the American flag as a 
shield for its own protection. 

Perhaps the Captain of the sub- 
marine that sank the Lusitania to 
the bottom had a vision of a thou- 
sand passengers drowned. But above 
that vision he must have seen an- 
other vision of German armies 
mowed down by the deadly cargo 
within her hold, and of ten times 
ten thousand widows and orphans 
pointing an accusing finger at him 
if he failed to destroy the ammuni- 
tion on its passage to England. The 
dictates of humanity demanded the 
destruction of the death-carrying 
vessel. 

However we may deplore the loss 
of innocent lives, the Lusitania de- 
served her doom. The Cunard Line 
deliberately inveigled American pas- 
sengers to imperil their lives, al- 
though one of its officials, according 
to Congressman Hobson, confiden- 
tially warned a friend not to entrust 
herself to the protection of what was 
to all intents and purposes an Eng- 
lish warship masquerading as a pas- 
senger vessel. 

Last week the White Star Liner 
Arabic sailed for Liverpool with 400 
cases of cartridges, 41 automobiles, 
795 barrels of lubricating oil, 565 
barrels of grease, 5,047 pigs of lead, 
3,370 bars of copper, 730 reels of 
barbed wire, 1,516 pieces of forg- 
ings for guns, 14,014 packages of 
steel and — ttco American passengers. 
What would the United States do in 
a similar predicament? From a 
German standpoint, the submarine 
commander who fails to blow up a 
ship carrying such a cargo if he can, 
deserves to be court-martialed. 

Germany is willing to give up her 
submarine campaign, if England will 
abide by international convention. 
Germany may be willing to meet us 
more than halfway if we stop the 
shipment of arms, which under the 
changed conditions of this unprece- 
dented war has ceased to be a neu- 
tral act. Until either result is ac- 
complished, we should prevent Amer- 
ican passengers from taking passage 
on any vessel carrying contraband of 
war. Germany, on her side, should 
promise not to torpedo any ships car- 
rying a certificate signed by the 
American authorities and the Ger- 
man Consul-General that she carries 
no implements of destruction. 

Germany and the United States 
have both, in the past, demanded the 
sanctity of private property on the 
sea. England refused this demand, 
and our representative, Mr. Choate, 
weakly surrendered to English pres- 
sure. If Mr. Choate had not be- 
trayed the interests of the United 
States and of humanity at that con- 
ference, the lives of civilians and 
private property would be as safe to- 
day on the high seas as they are on 
land. 

England makes international law 
to suit herself. In doing so she de- 
pends upon her dreadnoughts. The 
marine law of the past was .written 
by the battleship. The marine law 



of the future will be written by the 
submarine. At the same time, it 
must be clearly understood that the 
use of the submarine as employed at 
present by Germany, is permissible 
only as a measure of retaliation. As 
such the submarine is the emblem of 
humanity. It will free the world 
from the incubus of Navalism. The 
United States will benefit most from 
this transition. We need not, in the 
future, compete with England and 
Japan in the building of dread- 
noughts. All we need for our pro- 
tection is a large fleet of submarines. 
If we have mastered this lesson, even 
the loss of a hundred American lives 
is not too great a price. 

We have concluded thirty treaties 
making a year's discussion obliga- 
tory before the rupture of diplomatic 
relations. This is America's most 
substantial contribution to the civili- 
zation of the 20th Century. Ger- 
many has accepted this theory in 
principle. She now accepts it in prac- 
tice. We cannot refuse her proffered 
hand, without violating the spirit of 
every one of those thirty treaties. 
If we insist upon making an excep- 
tion to the noble tradition estab- 
lished by us solely in the case of Ger- 
many, we would furnish proof both 
to her and to our oivn citizens that 
we are intentionally discriminating 
against the Germans. 

If we lash ourselves into fury be- 
cause Germany is unwilling to sur- 
render her only chance for naval vic- 
tory, we prove to every fair-minded 
American that the "understanding" 
which, according to Professor Usher 
existed between England and the 
United States during the Spanish- 
American war has been renewed by 
the Wilson Administration. . W e 
should have no choice, then, but to 
believe that the United States is no 
longer a sovereign power and that 
whatever the immediate issue may 
be we need a third war of independ- 
ence to free ourselves finally from 
the shackles of England. 

GEORGE SYIiA^STER VIERECK. 
(From the Fatherland) 



BRITISH REPLY TO WILSON NOTE 
TO CITE MORE GERMAN FAULTS. 



From "Chicago Daily News," Feb., 
1915. 

London, March 11. — The British 
reply to the American note suggesting 
that Great Britain allow all foodstuffs 
to enter Germany in return for Ger- 
many's abandonment of its submarine 
warfare on merchant vessels and its 
policy of mining the high seas is ex- 
pected to be forthcoming at an early 
date. 

While the contents of the reply are 
not known, it is possible as the result 
of inquiries in authoritative quarters 
to indicate some points likely to carry 
weight with the British government 
and to emphasize Sir Edward Grey's 
answer. 

There is a strong feeling in Down- 
ing street that the "quid pro quo" 
put forward in the American note 
does not go far enough. 



COLONIAL CAMPAIGNS IN THE WAR 

Great Britain in Africa, Egypt, and at Home 



293 




THJt; WORLD AT WAR 

(From "The Literary Digest," New York, October 17, 1914) 
Germany and her colonies are black on this map, and her smaller island possessions are surrounded by a black line Her 
African colonies are (1) German Southwest Africa, (2) German East Africa, (3) Kamerun, (4) Togoland. The largest 
colonial territory outside of Africa is (5) Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, in New Guinea. All that portion of the world not involved 
in the European War is shown in white on the map. 



Officials of the foreign office point 
out that since the beginning of the 
war Great Britain only once has in- 
terfered with the supply of food des- 
tined for Germany, and then only 
after the German government, by as- 
suming control of all foodstuffs, had 
abolished the old distinction between 
the civil and the military population. 

High German authorities have re- 
peatedly denied the British claim to 
cut off supplies of food from civilians 
is a legitimate act of war. 

Great Britain, it is insisted, never 
adopted this view until the Germans 
by their own act made it impossible 
any longer to draw the line between 
noncombatants and armed forces. 
Furthermore, it is added, Great 
Britain is- now invited by the United 
States to forego a clear belligerent 
right on the understanding that Ger- 
many will abstain from committing 
two — but only two — of many crimes 
against both law and humanity. 



Authoritative spokesmen of the 
British view lay stress on the "inade- 
quacy" of this proposal from two 
standpoints. They ask, first, what 
guarantee is forthcoming that Ger- 
many will keep to its agreement. 

Secondly, they urge that the two 
offenses specified in the American 
note — submarine warfare on mer- 
chant vessels and the mining of the 
high seas — are far from being the 
only, or even the worst, offenses of 
which Germany has been guilty. 

The claim is set up that it has 
bombarded unfortified towns, 
dropped bombs on places inhabited 
solely by civilians, and sunk both 
British and neutral ships, as if that 
were the ordinary legal way of dis- 
posing of them. 

Great Britain, it is pointed out, has 
indulged in, none of these practices, 
and such mines as it has been com- 
pelled in self-defense to lay have been 



laid in strict accordance with The 
Hague conventions. 

The policy of the Germans, which 
arouses the most indignation among 
the directors of the British govern- 
ment is its continued alleged perse- 
cution of the Belgians, millions of 
whom, it is declared, "would be at 
this moment in a state of semi-starva- 
tion but for American generosity and 
assistance." 

The view, therefore, held in the 
most authoritative quarter of Great 
Britain is that if there is to be any 
question of Germany's conforming to 
the rules of civilized warfare with re- 
spect to all points, and not merely 
with respect to two of them which it 
has been accused of departing from, 
it must come up for discussion, and 
that Great Britain could enter into 
no agreement a subject which did not 
include a radical change in Germany's 
present proceedings in Belgium. 



FACTS AND FANCIES. 



From the "Boston Evening Tran- 
script," September 15, 1914:. 

HEARD AT THE BULLETINS 

Flippant Youth (reading aloud) — 



"Kaiser attacks Nancy." Shame on 
him to hit a woman! 

First Man (reading) — "Czar says 
he'll get to Berlin if it takes his last 
moujik." 

Second Man — That means his last 
cent. 



"Talking about them Belgians — 
say, did ja ever read that pome: 
"There was a sound of deviltry by 
night'?" 

Man — I tell you Germany's got a 
great war machine. 



294 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



ALIi SUDAN REPORTED HELD BY 

DERVISHES; 2,000 ENGLISH 

SLAIN. 



FIRST NEWS TO REACH PUBLIC. 



Gen. Hawley and Many Officers Killed 
Also When His Command Is At- 
tacked by 40,000 Along the 
White Nile. 



All Prisoners Are Decapitated, Rail- 
roads and Telegraph Lines Are 
Destroyed and the Conquest in 
Egypt Is Kept a Secret 
for Months. 



From "The Daily News," Thursday, 
March 18, 1915. 

Berlin, Germany (by wireless to Say- 
ville, L. I.), March 18. — A German mer- 
chant who has returned from Egypt is 
authority for the declaration that the 
whole of the Sudan, including Khartum 
and also parts of Nubia, is in posses- 
sion of the dervishes. The statements 
of this traveler are published in the 
Vossische Zeitung. He describes also 
an engagement near Fashoda last De- 
cember, in which Gen. Hawley of the 
British army and a number of other 
officers, with nearly 2,000 men, lost 
their lives. 

Battle Nears the Pyi-amids. 

The merchant relates a story of the 
alleged uprising of the Senussi tribes- 
men in November. He declares that 
they destroyed an Australian camp near 
the pyramids Nov. 19, killing 200 Aus- 
tralians and capturing guns and pro- 
visions. 

Later in large force, not fewer than 
80,000, they overflowed the entire 
province of Fayum and destroyed all 
railroads, including the Cairo-Assuan 
line. Dec. 1 they destroyed the Alex- 
andria-Cairo railroad near Damanhur. 

Decapitates All the Prisoners. 

Thousands of tribesmen responded to 
the appeal of the dervishes and Dec. 
13; 40,000 of them marched in the 
direction of Fashoda, on the White 
Nile, where Gen. Hawley opposed 
them with 6,000 troops. Of the men 
under Hawley all the native soldiers 
deserted to the dervishes, leaving 
him only 2,000 men. 

Most of this contingent was killed 
and Gen. Hawley and all his officers 
fell. Nabur-El-Asi, commanding the 
dervishes, had all his prisoners decapi- 
tated. 

Keep Sudan Conquest Secret. 

As a result of this victory all the na- 
tive chiefs joined the dervishes, who, 
Jan. 1, took possession of the important 
military post at Nasser, in the district 
of Sennaar. 

The merchant also declares that the 
dervishes destroyed all the telegraph 
lines in lower Egypt. No word of the 
conquest of the Sudan has been allowed 
to leak out. 



Last Reference to Sudan Conditions 
Was by Wireless Last December. 

Granted that the news given out by 
the German merchant from Egypt is 
true, it is the first definite statement 
of these serious conditions to reach the 
public. The only previous reference to 
any such state of aftairs came from 
Berlin the latter part of December, 
when a wireless message to Sayville 
said Constantinople reported an upris- 
ing of serious dimensions in the Sudan. 
Eighty thousand natives had started to 
attack the British province of El Kad 
and the Moslem population of certain 
districts was described as rising against 
the English. The Senussi tribesmen 
are members of a Moslem sect of North 
Africa. 



GERMANY AND ATROCITIES. 



From "The Day Book," Chicago, Oc- 
tober 26, 1914. 

Editor Day Book: — If not out of 
place, I wish to express myself 
among others and ask why it is that 
the American press and people in 
general criticize and condemn the 
German soldiery for alleged atroci- 
ties and depredations committed by 
them in this European war just as 
though other nations lived above 
criticism, especially during war. Eng- 
land, which is among the most 
warlike with a Bible in one hand 
and the sword in the other, has 
set us an example of her civilized 
state, when during the Sepoy mutiny 
in India she tied her prisoners to 
the mouth of cannon and sent them 
to eternity to meet the Prince of 
Peace.* Spain was no better in Cuba 
and other countries, and in our own 
so-called Civil war we had the Fort 
Pillow massacre, the draft riot in 
New York City, when the mob 
burned down the colored orphan asy- 
lum and hung negroes to the lamp- 
post. The burning of Atlanta, Aus- 
tin, Miss., and other cities, tearing 
up railroads, cutting off communica- 
tion from the outside world by de- 
stroying telegraphs, etc., for which 
we now condemn Germany, and the 
inhuman treatment of prisoners in 
Southern prison pens, Andersonville, 
Bell Tole, Libby, Castle of Thunder, 
in which I suffered almost nine 
months. Not even Japan, which was 
not among the so-called civilized na- 
tions, treated her prisoners so bad 
during her war with China and Rus- 
sia, the latter the massacre of Jews 
at Kishnef in time of peace. M'e 
should remember Germany has 
helped more than any other foreign 
country to make this country what 
it is today. Besides she has helped 
us put down the rebellion by furnish- 
ing 125,000 troops and some able 
generals to command. * * * 



A. S. What was the "Fashoda in- 
cident"? 

A dramatic recital of the events 
which took place in the Mudirieh of 
Fashoda in 1898, much of it from the 
pen of Kitchener Sirdar, will be 
found in the British "Parliamentary 
Publication"; Egypt, Nos. 2 and 3, 
of 1898, the important portions of 
which appear in Larned's "History 
for Ready Reference and Topical 
Reading," vol. VI, p. 199 et seq. 

In brief, the Fashoda incident may 
be described as a clash between 
French and British claims upon the 
Nile country. When, on Sept. 10, 
1898, Lord Kitchener arrived at Fa- 
shoda, after his success at Omdur- 
man, he found a small French force, 
under command of M. Marchand, en- 
trenched in the old government build- 
ings of the place. The Sirdar called 
upon M. Marchand to withdraw his 
men from the territory which they 
claimed to hold by right of occupa- 
tion, but was met by the rejoinder 
that as a soldier the French leader 
could not but obey his instructions. 
The Egyptian flag was thereupon 
promptly raised over Fashoda by the 
British commander and the position 
of M. Marchand relegated to diplo- 
matic settlement. Great Britain suc- 
cessfully maintained her claim to 
predominancy in the Nile valley and 
the French troops were withdrawn. 
The Incident drew France and Eng- 
land to the verge of war and was 
brought to a close only by the com- 
plete acceptance by France of the 
British demands. — From the "Ques- 
tions and Answers" column in the 
"New Yorker Staats-Zeitung," Octo- 
ber 30, 1914. 



IndU 



Pacata. — 



W. L. J. When was England's 
Opium War? Was it generally ap- 
proved of by the English people? 

The Opium War began in 1839 
and was concluded by the Treaty of 
Nanking, August 29, 1842. 

It was not approved of by the Eng- 
lish people generally. It was a war 
for the extension of the British 
opium trade in China and was pro- 
moted by a class in England which 
had arisen from the old East India 
Company monopoly. It had the sup- 
port of this class and of the rupee- 
mad Government of today, and of no 
one else. Gladstone, who on occa- 
sion could rise above the mercenary 
spirit of his age, said of it: "A war 
more unjust in its origin, a war more 
calculated to cover this country with 
permanent disgrace, I do not know 
and I have not read of. The British 
flag is hoisted to protect an infamous 
contraband traffic. If it were never 
hoisted except as it is now, on the 
coast of China, we should recoil from 
its sight with horror." — From the 
"Questions and Answers" column of 
the "New Yorker Staats-Zeitung," 
October 27, 1914. — The Publisher of 
"War Echoes." 



PRACTICAL AERIAL WARFARE 
ZEPPELINS, AEROPLANES, HYDRO-AEROPLANES 

The Use and Effectiveness of Modern Air-fighting Craft in the War 
International Law on the Use of Aerial Weapons in War, and Present Necessities 



Aerial Warfare 
Custom, International Law, and Progress 




COUNT FERDINAND ZEPPELIN 
(By Courtesy of the "Open Court") 



Read "Belgian Neutrality, Its 
Real Meaning," by Professer Bur- 
gess, reprinted on another page. — 
The Publisher of "War Echoes." 



Consult index for "Was Prussia's 
Treatment of Denmark in the Schles- 
wig-Holstein Matter Unfair?" — The 
Publisher of "War Echoes." 

295 



WAB IN THE AIR AND LAW OF 
NATIONS. 

The "Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zei- 
tung" writes under the heading: 
"The war in the air": 

The English press designates the 
attack of our marine airships upon 
the east coast of England, as entirely 
contrary to the Law of Nations, the 
same as it did at the time of our 
bombardment of the English coast 
towns by our cruisers. The re- 
proaches are also this time absolutely 
without foundation. 

In the present war the interna- 
tional agreements do not come into 
consideration with regard to our air 
forces, especially also regarding bom- 
bardments by same. The declaration 
at the Hague regarding the prohibi- 
tion of throwing bombs and other ex- 
plosives from airships, has expired in 
its original form, and in its new form 
it has been ratified neither by Ger- 
many nor by France nor by Russia, 
and is therefore not binding for us 
with respect to England. The Con- 
vention at the Hague regarding mili- 
tary matters and the bombardment 
by naval forces, regulates only the 
war on land and sea, but not the war 
in the air. These laws are therefore 
only in so far applicable here, as they 
correspond to the common interna- 
tional laws. However, there is no 
doubt whatever that such laws re- 
garding the bombardment by air 
forces, cannot be prohibited where a 
bombardment by military and naval 
forces is allowed. 

Accordingly all fortified places may 
be bombarded by air forces, as such, 
bombardment is permissible accord- 
ing to Article 25, as also according 
to Article 1 of the above mentioned 
Convention at the Hague. Further- 
more all military institutions in un- 
fortified places come under the same 
law, as is seen in Article 2 of the 
Hague agreement regarding naval 
forces. But at the same time the 
common martial law must also be ad- 
mitted with respect to the war in the 
air, that the military power of a na- 
tion at war may answer any hostile 
attack with a counter-attack. 

According to the reports at hand, 
the German airships strictly adhered 
to these principles. The aim of their 
operations was the harbor Great Yar- 
mouth: this place belongs, according 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



to the official British "Monthly Army 
List," to the "Defences" of the coast 
fortifications, which are occupied in 
time of peac6 as well as of war by 
British military forces, and are there- 
fore allowed to he bombarded by air- 
ships. The other English towns bom- 
barded by our airships on their 
journey there and back, have to 
ascribe their fate to their own ac- 
tions, as these towns first fired upon 
our Zeppelins, so that it must be left 
open, whether they ought not also be 
looked upon as fortified places. Be- 
sides, English air forces bombarded 
the unfortified town of Freiburg in 
Breisgau on December 9, 1914 and 
on December 25, 1914, the unforti- 
fied but inhabited Island Langeoog, 
although no attack whatever came 
from these quarters. As to a previous 
intimation of an intended bombard- 
ment, as laid down in the Hague 
martial laws. Article 2, paragraph 6, 
and in the Hague naval agreement, 
Article 6, there can be no question of 
this, according to the nature of an 
air combat and the practice followed 
by the airships of both parties in the 
present war. 

In the present case it must certain- 
ly be regretted that private persons 
were the victims of this attack. But 
such possibilities cannot hold back 
our German forces to defend them- 
selves with all reliable means within 
the bounds of international laws, 
against an enemy, whose warfare, 
with all methods contrary to interna- 
tional laws, is ruthlessly directed 
upon the destruction of our whole 
nation. 



IS LONDON TO BE CAIiliED 
EXEMPT? 



From the News of the War in Europe. 

Vienna, March 15. — "The Fremden- 
blatt" says: 

"When the Germans bombarded the 
east coast of Great Britain they were 
accused of having violated the rules of 
international law forbidding the bom- 
bardment of undefended places. These 
sinister accusations, proceeding from 
England as they have, are nothing but 
unsuccessful attempts at perverting the 
facts. Besides, it seems rather peculiar 
that England should presume to call at- 
tention to the rules of international 
law, while she it is who pays very little 
attention indeed to those rules, no mat- 
ter whether at sea or on laud, if her 
own safety is at stake. 

"No state has ever enforced the max- 
im that 'might makes right' with 
greater severity, or has acted so self- 
ishly in regard to the rights of others, 
than has England. And now that the 
English are in trouble themselves, they 
all at once point to international regu- 
lations on which at the same time they 
put their own strange interpretations. 

"It must be noted that the term 
'open places' is not used in opposition 
to the term 'fortresses,' but simply des- 
ignates such places as are beyond the 
theater of war operations and which 
are not capable of furnishing any aid 
to the warfare of the enemy. As soon 
as a place is used by the enemy for 
war purposes and thus becomes in a 
narrower or wider sense of the word an 



aid to warfare, such place cannot be 
regarded any longer as an open one, 
and is therefore liable to attack, to 
bombardment or destruction, just like 
any other means of warfare. 

"It is not necessary that the attack 
should be made from the land; it may 
just as well take place from the air. 
It makes no difference whatever, so 
far as the decision of the question is 
concerned, whether the bombardment 
is one by shells from howitzers, or 
takes place from airships dropping 
bombs. A case which under the pres- 
ent conditions deserves special atten- 
tion is that of London. 

"London in itself is no fortress; but 
for English warfare at sea and on land 
it possesses a military importance 
which under certain conditions may be- 
come even decisive. To understand this 
one has only to think of the national 
wealth collected here and of the vast 
economic values and means of warfare 
brought together on this limited area. 
Here are situated the royal and pri- 
vate shipyards, the extensive military 
stores, and the numerous warships and 
merchantmen are lying in the Thames. 

"In the immediate neighborhood of 
London are also to be found the great 
arsenals and armories. Also military 
barracks are within the city. Further- 
more, it is evident that the destruc- 
tion of the Thames bridges would have 
an extremely disturbing effect upon 
the entire traffic. The same is true 
with regard to railway stations and 
railroad lines, for It is well known 
that the reserve troops for coast de- 
fense which are kept ready at differ- 
ent points in the interior are to be 
brought by rail to those places which 
are threatened by a hostile invasion, 
the destruction of the railways would 
disturb the movements of these troops 
considerably. 

"From the military point of view it 
is perfectly proper that such places 
should be destroyed, as they are of de- 
cided military value to the enemy. 
This would be the case with London, 
-where all of the aforementioned mili- 
tary values are concentrated. It would, 
therefore, he expected that important 
results would be obtained from such a 
bombardment. Besides, the moral ef- 
fect must also be considered. 

"All these calculations go to show 
that London may rightly be regarded 
as a military object of the first order, 
against which all destructive means 
may be used, and to which belongs. 
above all, a bombardment by agrial 
craft." 



SCARBOROUGH — WHITBY — 
HARTLEPOOL. 

By the steep chalk cliffs on Eng- 
land's east coast, north of the Hum- 
ber, on a hammer-shaped peninsula, 
arises from the romantic, rifted strand, 
the city of Scarborough, lately bom- 
barded by the German fleet. The 
older portion of the city on the north 
is separated from the modern quar- 
ters on the south by a ravine 
spanned by two bridges. Each of 
the cities boasts its own harbor. In 
the midst of the ancient city, on 
a high rock surrounded by the sea, 
is situated an old Norman castle of 
the twelfth century. The fame of 



Scarborough spread far beyond the 
boundaries of England, when in 1620, 
in the southern part of the small pen- 
insula, mineral wells containing iron 
were discovered, which today spring 
up In the middle of the park, sur- 
rounded by promenades. The city was 
soon changed into a fashionable bath- 
ing resort, and although the springs 
are not valued as formerly, the fame 
of the resort still remains. Thousands 
of people enjoy its magnificent strand 
year after year, and the southern part 
of the city with its two theatres and 
a great aquarium, constitute a unique 
coast resort, in which great rows of 
hotels are to be seen and where the 
coal magnates of England have their 
beautiful summer villas. The south- 
ern harbor has in time become the 
more important of the two on account 
of the two great break waters which 
protect it from the fury of the waves. 

Some thirty kilometers north of this, 
also in Yorkshire County, on either 
side of the mouth of Esk River, lies 
Whitby, with its narrow streets and 
old-fashioned houses. The coast bears 
the same character as that of Scar- 
borough. The relation of the cities is 
somewhat the same as that of Blanken- 
berghe to Ostend. Both are modern 
baths, although Scarborough is the 
most popular, while those who wish 
to enjoy similar beauties of landscape 
without the turmoil of a world bath, 
take refuge in Whitby. 

Hartlepool, also bombarded by the 
German fieet, possesses very different 
characteristics. At the great funnel- 
shaped mouth of the Tee are situated a 
number of ports, of which the largest 
are Stockton and Middlesbrough, which 
has shot up in the last years in real 
American style, as well as Hartlepool, 
already in the twelfth century a fa- 
mous commercial city. Their prosper- 
ity is due to the working of the coal 
lands of Durham. The coast Is low 
and the open strand has an extent of 
many miles, so that the land must be 
protected by artificial means from the 
violence of the sea. 

Southwest of the older city is West 
Hartlepool, separated from her neigh- 
bor by wharves and docks. Behind 
its 1,200 meter long breakwater, coal, 
iron and machines are loaded on to 
the departing vessels, while the arriv- 
ing ships bring in wool, cotton and 
German sugar. Half finished ships of 
all sorts are to be seen on the docks, 
lofty storehouses stretch along the 
walls of the harbor under the protec- 
tion of the fortifications, while smok- 
ing chimneys speak of a wealthy in- 
dustry, whose chief productions are 
machines, paper, flour and soap. — 
"Hamburger Fremdenblatt," Hamburg, 
Germany. 



The Hague, Sept. 11. — I have just 
returned from Germany, and any- 
thing I may write cannot be in the 
least Influenced by fear of German 
censorship. British censorship, how- 
ever, is to be feared. All the Amer- 
ican correspondents in Berlin report 
that not only have vital facts of tjieir 
dispatches been cut out by British 
censors, but other wholly untrue dis- 
patches have been added. — Joseph 
MedlU Patterson, In "The Chicago 
Tribune," September 26, 1914. 



CUSTOM AND MODERN AERIAL WARFARE 



297 



GliOOMY OUTLOOK FOB liONDON. 



(The Irish World, March 13, 1915.) 

President of the Aeronautical Society 
of America Outlines the Impending 
Doom of the Modern Babylon — To 
Be Attacked Within a Few Weeks 
By a Fleet of Fifty Zeppelins — 
Germany's Trump Card — Death 
and Destruction to Rain Down 
From the Sky — Official England 
Aware of the Danger — The Man on 
the Street Pooh-Poohs It — The 
New Zeppelins Will Not Drop 
Bombs, But Wm Fight With Guns 
Firing Steel Capped Projectiles — 
It wm Be the First Great Raid 
Planned Since the Beginning of the 
War— Previous Raids Merely Try. 
outs — English High Angle Guns 
Will Afford No Protection. 

How often has it been said "the 
Zeppelins have not made good!" 
There is one man, whose experience 
and studies amply entitle him to a 
hearing, who declares that the an- 
swer to the Zeppelin question is still 
to come, and he believes it will come 
soon. Not only that, but he believes 
the Zeppelin will vindicate itself in 
a raid on England. This is the open- 
ing sentence in an article in last Sun- 
day's New York Sun which deals 
with a threatened Zeppelin raid on 
London. 

The man who advances these views 
is Thomas R. Macmechen, aeronauti- 
cal engineer and president of the 
Aeronautical Society of America. His 
British Company is now building for 
England five dirigibles of a new type 
— "Zeppelin destroyers," as it were — 
for defence against the larger craft. 
Briefly, Mr. Macmechen's thesis is 
this: 

1 — The flight, and weight carrying 
capabilities of the Zeppelins under all 
but abnormal weather conditions are 
proved and as certain and dependable 
as the navigation of a steamship. A 
hurricane will wreck the latter as 
quickly as the former. 

2 — The wrecks of Zeppelins are 
printed and known. There are less 
than a dozen all told. The actual 
flights under all sorts of conditions 
runs into thousands. These are not 
heard of. 

3 — The attacking Zeppelins will do 
their destroying with armor piercing 
guns rather than with bombs. 

4 — ^The raid will be not by three 
or four but by a great number, not 
less than fifty, possibly by a hundred 
accompanied by aeroplanes. 

5 — The high angle gun has been 
proved, even when used under day- 
light conditions, to be useless as a 
defence. Aeroplane defence is use- 
less by night, which is the Zeppelin's 
best time for operation. 

6 — Germany thus far has made 
only reconnoitering trips. She will 
make her real raid only when thor- 
oughly ready, and that time is not 
far away. 

"Cloud of Death" Gathering on the 
German Coast 

Mr. Macmechen said recently, with 
eai-nestness and apparent conviction: 
"A great cloud of death is gathering 
on the German coast. Week by week 



its potential power is increasing, yet 
the time to strike has not come. A 
white haired, hale old man — he is 78 
— is working quietly and waiting un- 
til the War Office shall say: 'Are you 
ready. Count Zeppelin?' 

"For answer, that night the mon- 
ster air fleet will rise high above the 
German coast and float out in the 
darkness over the sea. Germany 
will wait and pray. It is her trump 
card. If it fails — but Ferdinand von 
Zeppelin is not handling failures 
these days. Half a hundred new su- 
perdreadnoughts of the air, built 
since the war began, flanked by myri- 
ads of buzzing, swooping, circling 
aeroplanes, would strike England to 
the very heart. 

The Ijondoner's Incredulity. 

"And the Londoner, in smug com- 
placency, is still pooh poohing! 

"'The Zeppelins!' Bah! What 
have they done? Our high angle 
guns and our aeroplanes would drive 
them from the sky. What did the 
Yarmouth raid amount to? The 
Zeppelins will never attack London; 
that is German braggadocio. 

No Time to Prepare for the Air War. 

"But official England is not pooh 
poohing now. Official England knows 
all too well; but she got over the 
pooh poohing stage too late. She is 
grasping at every straw of promise, 
yet knowing that there is not time 
to prepare for war in the air and 
knowing, too, that one successful raid 
will mean another and still others 
that bid fair to leave England cow- 
ering and helpless. 

"Then, with Germany master of 
the air and with Germany master 
under the sea, how long will Eng- 
land maintain her supremacy atop 
the sea? The Admiralty will not ad- 
mit that this means the passing of 
the dreadnought, but they are begin- 
ning to fear just that." 

These ideas Mr. Macmechen gath- 
ered during his stay in England, 
where he came in almost daily con- 
tact with high government officials 
and experts in warfare of the water 
and the air. He is to return there 
soon. For ten years he has been a 
leading aeronautical authority in this 
country and is now building, near 
London, five "Zeppelin destroyers," 
something entirely new in the con- 
quest of the air. The first machine, 
which is really a Zeppelin in minia- 
ture, is nearly ready for its official 
tests. 

England's Utter Helplessness. 

Recently, at the Aeronautical Soci- 
ety's rooms, 29 West Thirty-ninth 
street, Mr. Macmechen spoke of the 
certainty of a Zeppelin raid on Lon- 
don and of England's almost utter 
helplessness. He spoke with an earn- 
estness and an intimate knowledge 
that carried conviction and he gave 
figures and facts and reasons for his 
every view. The Zeppelin raid on 
London is coming, Mr. Macmechen 
believes, and it will be a spectacular 
blow that will paralyze England and 
stagger the world. 

These new Zeppelins will not drop 
bombs, they will fight with guns fir- 
ing steel-capped projectiles. They 
will not come in pairs, but they will 
come by the score or by the two score. 



and hundreds of aeroplanes will come 
with them. 

Why Iiondon Was Not Raided Sooner. 

Mr. Macmechen classes the Yar- 
mouth raid as a mere reconnoitering 
party and he believes its purpose was 
accomplished. He said: 

"The first great raid, which the 
Germans have been planning since 
the war began and for the success of 
which they are depending on the 
aged Count Zeppelin will probably 
not come for some weeks. The time 
is not yet right. The first raid will 
be followed by blow upon blow aimed 
directly at the throne of England. 

"The reason there has been no 
great attack on London from the air," 
Mr. Macmechen added, "is because 
aerial tactics and strategy make such 
an attack folly until there are a cer- 
tain number of these airships, enough 
to leave a wide trail of destruction. 

To Strike England's Heart. 

"For instance, if Germany had 
fifty of these new Zeppelins they 
would strike England to the heart. 
They could hit London a body blow 
today and come back again tomor- 
row. Count Zeppelin will strike 
when he gets ready and not when 
England wants him to. 

"Suppose the British did bring 
down two of the fifty and a dozen of 
the aeroplanes; the rest would go 
back to their base and be ready to 
come again in a few hours. Whether 
they came or not they would be ready 
and with that knowledge there would 
be little rest in London. 

"The knowledge gained in the first 
attack would make the second attack 
more deadly. England has been pre- 
paring for these attacks, but she be- 
gan to prepare too late. England 
spent too much time laughing in the 
face of science. 

Concealing the Character of the 
Danger. 

"The British Admiralty knows all 
this now. The people of England 
are not afraid, because they don't 
know the danger and the Admiralty 
is not telling them, yet 9,000 con- 
stables have been mustered in with 
instructions to herd the people of 
London into the cellars at the first 
appearance of a Zeppelin. 

"The Intelligence Department of 
Great Britain knows the preparations 
that Germany is making. Further 
confirming details are coming in 
nearly every day. One report from 
Lake Constance, where the observer 
remained nineteen weeks, told of a 
complete Zeppelin being turned out 
from the factory every two weeks 
while he was there. 

"These are of the new superdread- 
nought type, a great improvement 
over the two airships that took part 
in the Yarmouth raid. Germany has 
just completed two of these super- 
dreadnought Zeppelins when the war 
began, but she has been building 
them ever since. I estimate that 
she has at least forty of them now, 
each with six guns, two on top and 
two at each side. 

Probable Date of the Intended Raid. 

"Perhaps Germany is ready to 
strike now, yet I should be surprised 



298 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



if she made the first raid this month. 
March is not the most favorable time 
on account of the winds. I do not 
look for the big air invasion until 
after the middle of April, but I be- 
lieve it will come soon after that. 

"And why isn't England ready? 
How is it that she has no defence 
worthy of the name against this at- 
tack? 

"If, five years ago, British military 
authorities had studied and could 
have foreseen what the development 
would be, we would have had thou- 
sands of aeroplanes and hundreds of 
huge dirigibles brought to a higher 
degree of efflciency. Then we would 
have had H. G. Wells' 'War in the 
Air' as a grim reality. 

Air Craft Has Knocked Military 
Strategy Into a Cocked Hat. 

"The trouble has been that mili- 
tary men have never had more than 
an intuitive and not a consciously 
reasoned conception of the powers 
and limitations of aircraft. This has 
led military men astray. They have 
said: 

" 'We recognize aircraft as a prob- 
able auxiliary to the cavalry, but that 
aircraft will knock out the strategy 
we have known for years, the strat- 
egy we learned at the military acad- 
emy, is absurd.' 

"But now it has been demonstrated 
beyond a doubt that aircraft has 
knocked war strategy into a cocked 
hat. Many of the old time war 
methods have gone forever and others 
are passing. It is time to write a 
new book on strategy. 

The Use of Dirigibles More Common 
Than Suspected. 

"Dirigibles have been used much 
more in this war than we have been 
able to judge from what we have seen 
in print. They have been used espe- 
cially at night, when the dirigible has 
a distinct advantage. When the his- 
tory of this war is written we will 
find that we have not begun to ap- 
proximate what the dirigibles have 



been doing. Of course, the aeroplane 
can go up in the darkness as well 
as the dirigible, but it is a question 
of landing. The aeroplane must land 
on a level place at high speed. It 
cannot see the wire fences, rocks and 
so on. But the dirigible can settle 
slowly to the ground. 

"The aeroplane has been the eyes 
of the battery and it has had to court 
considerable risk, flying as low as 
1,600 feet to see in detail. 

"Yet, the high angle gun has been 
adjudged inefficient even at that 
height. That gives military science 
another blow. The reasons are the 
difficulty of aim and the time it takes 
to lay a gun that has the reach. 
Aeroplanes have indeed been hit, but 
solely because of the recklessness of 
pilots who flew as low as 300 or 400 
feet. It has certainly been demon- 
strated that aeroplanes are almost 
immune from ground attack. 

Unreliable Defences. 

"Now, how about the high angle 
gun and the dirigible? 'Huge floating 
marks so easy to hit,' we've all heard 
that phrase. And then what was the 
sole lesson of the Cuxhaven raid? It 
has never appeared In print. 

"I talked with four men who saw 
that raid. Two of them were naval 
aviators and two were on the fleet. 
When the Zeppelins appeared — and 
this was in broad daylight — the en- 
tire fleet concentrated its high angle 
guns on the Zeppelins. And the an- 
swer is that the Zeppelins went home. 
These were the most efficient high 
angle guns England has, and, re- 
member, the fire was concentrated on 
the two Zeppelins at an altitude of 
only 2,500 feet. 

"And what about the great British 
air fleet that is to protect London? 
The two Zeppelins were preceded and 

flanked on each side by German aero- 
planes. When the British aviators 
went up they engaged the German 

aeroplanes and the dirigibles were 

left to themselves. 



Stupidity of EngUsh Military 
Authorities. 

"Still, for the defence of London, 
we have the high angle gun and the 
aeroplane. If a bright, ten-year-old 
American boy did what the military 
authorities of England are doing to- 
day, you would take him out and 
shingle him. 

"First, they darkened the city. 
Then, as if to attract as much atten- 
tion as possible, they installed pow- 
erful searchlights at vantage points 
all over the city. Nothing could have 
better guided a dirigible navigator 
approaching in the night. London 
has since seen the fallacy of the 
searchlights, and they are not used 
now. 

"Still the high angle guns are in 
position all over London on the tops 
of buildings and other carefully se- 
lected places. The authorities of the 
air department have also relied on 
big squadrons of aeroplanes to resist 
a Zeppelin attack on London. 

"They were to go up over London 
— this will be at night — and attack 
the Zeppelins directly over the city. 
Couldn't that bright American boy 
see what would happen? 

"London would bombard itself and 
shoot its own aviators out of the air. 
Shells from the high angle guns are 
incendiary. They would drop back 
on the city, set fire to their own 
buildings and kill their own private 
citizens. 

"In arranging this the military au- 
thorities showed conclusively that 
they did not know the first principles 
of air attack and defence. The folly 
of this preparation was pointed out 
to them, and now they have worked 
out a more sensible method of de- 
fence, yet they still have those high 
angle guns on the roofs of London. 
Now they propose to attack the air 
invaders on the coast before they get 
to London. That would be the logi- 
cal way, if England had anything to 
attack them with that was worthy of 
the name." 



NAVAIi STRENGTH OF WARRING 
NATIONS. 

Russia. 

— Navy — 
Built Bldg. 

Superdreadnoughts 4 

Dreadnoughts 7 

Other battleships 13 ... 

Armored cruisers 6 8 

Cruisers 8 6 

Destroyers 95 45 

Torpedo boats 42 ... 

Submarines 31 18 

Total 195 88 

France. 

Superdreadnoughts 8 

Dreadnoughts 2 2 

Other battleships 27 ... 

Armored cruisers 22 ... 

Cruisers 15 ... 

Destroyers 84 3 

Torpedo boats 324 ... 

Submarines 73 19 

Total 552 32 



Great Britain. 

— Navy — 

Built Bldg. 

Superdreadnoughts .... 13 17 

Dreadnoughts 16 ... 

Other battleships 48 ... 

Armored cruisers 34 20 

Cruisers 72 8 

Destroyers 215 36 

Torpedo boats 118 

Submarines 77 19 

Total 593 100 

Grand total 1,340 220 



Austria. 

Superdreadnoughts 

Dreadnoughts 2 2 

Other battleships 14 ... 

Armored cruisers 3 ... 

Cruisers 5 3 

Destroyers 18 ... 

Torpedo boats 63 27 

Submarines 8 3 

Total 119 35 



Germany. 

— Navy — 
Built Bldg. 

Superdreadnoughts 3 

Dreadnoughts 17 8 

Other battleships 30 ... 

Armored cruisers 9 ... 

Cruisers 37 6 

Destroyers 141 24 

Torpedo boats 47 ... 

Submarines 27 10 

Total 308 51 



Italy. 

Superdreadnoughts 

Dreadnoughts 4 

Other battleships 11 

Armored cruisers 10 

Cruisers 13 

Destroyers 32 

Torpedo boats 97 

Submarines 18 

Total 185 

Grand total 612 



10 



37 
123 



MODERN CAMPAIGNING 
PRESS ROOM CAMPAIGNS AT HOME AND ABROAD 

With Spectacular and Glorious First Line Forces and Plenty of Dum-Dums ! 
The Pen is Mightier than the Sword — In War Time ! 



Press Room Campaigns in England and France 
Plenty of Dum-Dums ! 



CAUGHT WITH THE GOODS. 



Editorial, Milwaukee Free Press, 
Robert Wild. 

THE SECRETS OP THE GERMAN WAR 
OFFICE. By Dr. Armgaard Karl 
Graves, Secret Agent. New York : Mc- 
Bride, Nast & Co. 

Here are thirteen chapters, pur- 
porting to be disclosures of the state 
secrets of the European chancelleries, 
by one who claims not only to have 
maintained intimate, personal rela- 
tions with the protagonists of the 
present world-drama, but to have 
been even an active participant in its 
preparatory stages, yet who is a most 
egregious blunderer if nothing worse. 
The suspicion is not absent that 
this author, or perhaps his collabo- 
rator, Edward Lyell Fox, has derived 
his literary inspiration from a recent 
perusal of Conan Doyle's "Scandal in 
Bohemia" and has based some of his 
historical studies on the novels of 
Louise Muehlbach. 

To attempt to sift out the truth 
from these 256 pages would be a task 
not worth the effort, for "Gratiano 
speaks an infinite deal of nothing, 
more than any man in all Venice; his 
reasons are as two grains of wheat 
hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall 
seek all day ere you find them and 
when you have them they are not 
worth the search." 

The first chapter opens with: 
"O jerum, jerum, jerum, quemo- 
tatio rerum." 

How one who had been "trained 
as a military cadet," who had been 
prepared for "three years at a fa- 
mous gymnasium which fitted him for 
one of the old classic universities of 
Europe," who "after spending six 
semesters there," took his "degree in 
philosophy and medicine" before 
reaching his 22nd birthday — how 
such a scholar could write "quemo- 
tatio" in place of "O quae mutatio," 
when these words occur in a well- 
known German student's song, is past 
comprehension. Such ignorance of 
Latin is inconceivable in a graduate 
of an "old, classic university of Eu- 
rope," and a doctor of philosophy at 
that. The only other alternative ex- 
planation is the possibility that the 
publisher was blessed with a Boeo- 
tian proofreader. 



Although the book is now in its 
"third printing," we are confronted 
with such a monstrosity as: "Wirk- 
licher Geheimrat and Vortragender 
Rab Botho Kaiser," translated as 
"Privy Councilor to the German Em- 
peror," — "royal concert" is printed 
in place of "royal consort," — "coup" 
appears instead of "coop" in the ex- 
pression "coop up diplomatically," — 
and a dozen times we are informed 
that the author had his headquarters 
at "Koenigergratzer strasse 70," in- 
stead of "Koeniggraetzer strasse." 

The abysmal ignorance shown by 
the repeated statements that Von 
Heeringen is the chief of the general 
staff is unpardonable, when every 
child knows that Von Moltke holds 
that office. In the chapter on "The 
German War Machine,"* as printed 
in Collier's for Aug. 15, 1914, Graves 
speaks of the "Chef des Grossen Gen- 
eral Stabs" as " at present Field Mar- 
shal Von Heeringen. The words "at 
present" are altered to "in my time," 
when this chapter appeared with the 
others in bookform. The change, 
prompted I know not by what, does 
not help the author out of his ridicu- 
lous predicament, it only emphasizes 
and magnifies a blunder which ex- 
poses him who has the audacity to 
assert that "I have enjoyed special fa- 
cilities, of which I have availed my- 
self of the full, to gain the inside 
knowledge which I here commit to 
paper," to peals of inextinguishable 
laughter! 

The description of Von Heeringen's 
"great similarity" to the older Molt- 
ke, is ludicrously negatived by the 
illustration from a photograph Insert- 
ed on page 204, which shows us a 
sturdy, bearded, burly figure, the 
very antithesis of "the aquiline fea- 
tures, the tall, thin, dried up body" 
of the old hero of 1870. The height 
of the ridiculous is however attained 
when Von Heeringen becomes a 
"gaunt, limping figure," who is made 
to assume thfe weird personality of 
the "Ghost of Metz," in a description 
which would have delighted Edgar 
Allen Poe. Nota bene: I have been 
told that General von Huelsen-Haese- 
ler was slightly lame. Graves had 
probably heard something about 
some general who limped, and there- 
upon imperturbably wrote a narrative 



of a prowling, limping general, "cov- 
ered by a gray army overcoat," start- 
ling the sentries on "stormy bitter 
cold winter nights," accompanied by 
orderlies carrying night glasses, "hid- 
den men taking down in writing the 
short, croaking sentences escaping 
between the thin compressed lips" 
and other similar rubbish, and then 
dubs this apparition Field Marshal 
Von Heeringen, chief of the general 
staff! "Si tacuisses, philosophus 
manisses." 

The reference to "General" Stein, 
in whom here is lost for the first 
time in the history the statesman, 
whose life was written by Prof. See- 
ley, is downright absurd. Has Dr. 
Graves never heard of Scharnhorst? 
And Napoleon permitted himself to 
be tricked by Queen Louise into 
granting Prussia the right to main- 
tain an army of 12,000! Is Dr. 
Graves actually ignorant of the fact 
that even in her darkest days Prus- 
sia's army never sank below 42,000 
regulars? By what authority does 
he change the queen's meeting with 
Napoleon, when in return for Madge- 
burg she tearfully offered the Corsi- 
can a rose, but was rudely repelled, 
into a silly school-girl's story of a 
bargain for a kiss on the queen's 
"classic arm?" He speaks of those 
who have passed an "Abiturienten- 
Examen, the equivalent of a B. A." as 
being enrolled as one-year volunteers. 
Does he not know the difference be- 
tween "Maturitas" and Abiturium?" 
He writes of a "little watch-tower" 
near Spandau. Does he not know 
that the Julius Thurm is a veritable 
citadel and happens to be in Span- 
dau? Is his story "inspired" when 
he tells us how Germany is going to 
wage war for "ten calendar months" 
with $120,000,000? 

And yet with all this pitiable mis- 
information before them, the editors 
of Collier's Weekly gravely assured 
their readers that they "made all the 
investigations possible about Dr. 
Graves' past and verified as many In- 
cidents as were humanly verifiable," 
and that their "experience with him 
has tended to give them confidence In 
his knowledge." 

It is of course impossible to dis- 
prove the so-called "disclosures" and 
"secrets" which Graves palms off 



300 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



upon our credulity, but he is vulner- 
able as a witness, for his credibility 
is impeached both by his blunders 
and by his exhibits. "Falsus in uno, 
falsus in omnibus?" 



As some people believe anything, 
it may be worth while to deny the 
rumor that a German battleship has 
been captured by British submarines 
in the mountains of Switzerland. — 
From the "Public Ledger," Phila- 
delphia, August 9, 1914. 



CALIBAN ENTHRONED. 



Editorial from the "Milwaukee Free 
Press," October 10, 1914. 

Robert Wild's interesting criticism 
of "The Secrets of the German War 
Office" reflected quite as much upon 
the publishers as upon the author. 
If any proof were needed that Amer- 
ican editors and publishers in the 
high places have vastly deteriorated 
In the past thirty years, the book in 
question would furnish it. 

Mr. Wild points out simple errors 
of fact that every American fairly 
read in European affairs ought to 
have recognized; still the editors of 
Collier's Weekly, who should possess 
something more than a high school 
education, passed them by, and edi- 
torially assured their readers that 
they had "verified all the incidents 
that were humanly verifiable!" 

Superficial as the knowlelge of 
these molders of public opinion is 
thus shown to be, what shall we 
think of the fitness of the book pub- 
lishers, McBride, Nast & Co., for 
their important business? 

The mistakes in Latin and German, 
yes, even in the English language, 
that punctuate the work show that 
the "readers" for this concern are 
either slovenly or ignorant. It 
Graves made the errors originally, it 
was for his publisters to correct 
them. 

As little as thirty years ago, a pub- 
lishing house of repute would have 
felt itself disgraced forever by an ex- 
hibition like the present. Men like 
Ticknor and Fields had their authori- 
ties on both the ancient and the mod- 
ern languages, and a slip was no 
more possible in Latin than in Eng- 
lish. But they had definite cultural 
standards. 

Today, the Caliban of journalism 
and commerce sits enthroned in the 
sanctums of most of our magazines 
and publishing houses. The waste 
basket is becoming the last retreat 
of culture. 



WONDERFUL HISTORIANS! 

The Saturday Evening Post, which 
claims to be "fair," perpetrates the 
following atrocity in a recent issue: 

"As a result of the Franco-Prus- 
sian war, Germany took from France 
the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. 
From that moment Prance has been 
nursing her wrath, and this war is 
a direct result of the forced ceding of 
French territory. If as a result of 
this war Germany takes more French 
territory, of if Prance takes terri- 
tory that is really German, the venge- 
ful hatred thus begotten will some 
day find issue in another war." 



If the Post were inclined to be fair, 
it would have said that Germany re- 
covered her provinces of Alsace and 
Lorraine, which Louis XIV stole from 
her when she was too weak to defend 
herself. Alsace and Lorraine were 
not "French territory" except by 
theft; their population was German 
and It is still German. 

Yet the Post tries to create the im- 
pression that Germany's recovery of 
what was her own was an encroach- 
ment on the soil of France, insinuat- 
ing by the use of "really German" 
that these provinces might be taken 
back without violating the German 
nation. 

Among the many falsehoods that 
have been systematically circulated 
in America is that of the Gallic trans- 
formation of Alsace and the love in 
which the French have held it. Let 
us quote from a forthcoming book* 
of Prof. Hugo Muensterberg, whose 
wife hails from this beautiful prov- 
ince: 

"Alsace is a German province with 
German traditions and German life- 
blood. For a while French rule was 
forced on it, but it never became 
French. In the beautiful little old 
garden of my wife's parents. Monk 
Otfried lived, who wrote one thou- 
sand years ago the first German epic 
poem in rhyme. This German tradi- 
tion remained unbroken until Louis 
XIV, after he had laid in ruins the 
castle of Heidelberg, snatched Alsace 
from the German people. Then a 
long period of oppression began. 
This French rule was much more 
rigorous and intolerant than any Ger- 
man rule after 1870. 

"Moreover, the Alsatians were 
never really accepted as Frenchmen. 
In the eyes of Paris they always re- 
mained only half French; their 
French dialect appeared ridiculous. 
They disliked France and were dis- 
liked in France. It was no wonder 
that the resources remained unde- 
veloped. Even the proudest city of 
Alsace, Strassburg, when it came into 
German possession in 1870, was after 
all only an overgrown village. To 
day it is a wonderful, proud city with 
beautiful palaces, with one of the 
best equipped universities of the 
world, with noble avenues and parks, 
enriched by German's good will as 
much as it was held down by France's 
indifference in the past. 

"Alsace would be today perfectly 
happy in its natural German frame, 
if Prance longing for political re- 
venge had not artificially kept alive 
agitation for jointure with France." 
But if the Post's misrepresenta- 
tion of the status of these provinces 
is deceptive, its statement that their 
"forced ceding" to Germany is the 
direct cause of this war is the veriest 
joke, albeit a sorry one for a pre- 
sumably responsible journal to per- 
petrate. Evidently it has no high 
opinion of the intelligence of its 
readers. . 



*"The War and America," by 
Hugo Muensterberg, 210 pages, pub- 
lished by D. Appleton Co., New York. 
— Editor. 



We'd better begin praying for the 
Austrians now. There may not be any 
of them left by October 4. ^ 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE PRESS 
ROOM. 

The "inexhaustible resources of the 
British Empire" is, in one way at 
least, apparently no idle boast. The 
ranks of the British Army may be 
thinned; it is conceivable that they 
might be annihilated; but by what 
stretch of the imagination can we 
conceive of England ever running dry 
of those valiant defenders who stay 
at home and write, while the "colo- 
nials" and Allies go forward to do 
battle in the trenches? 

It is peculiarity of this war of the 
world that, so far as America is con- 
cerned, the British pen proved it- 
self mightier than the sword. It is 
not peculiarly English to readily 
adapt instrument to opportunity — or 
to necessity; but at last England 
seems to have learned the trick and 
thoroughly. While Germany has 
been fighting, for hearth and home, 
England has been writing. She was 
compelled to write so much for the 
enlightenment of the recalcitrant "re- 
cruits" that one might have imagined 
her supply of ink and paper threat- 
ened with exhaustion. But England 
is no common country. She has had 
enough to spare us a share — and a 
very large one. 

There have been casualties among 
her pen-men, but the reserves appear 
truly inexhaustible. Some of them 
have fallen from mental exhaustion, 
others have been stilled by the 
enemy, still others have run away. 
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle opened the 
battle. His ammunition was Bern- 
hardi, and he soon ran out of it. H. 
G. Wells disappeared at about the 
same time. He was armed with a 
novel weapon designed to reduce 
"the moral support of the American 
people" — the "sleeping-partnership" 
of Great Britain in the Monroe Doc- 
trine. It was an invention of his 
own which did not work well in 
action. Israel Zangwill cracked his 
knout once or twice and ran away. 
Viscount Bryce was hurried forward 
with his 42 cm. "Small Nations," 
which exploded at the first discharge. 

The battle was not going well for 
England. The glittering steel of 
British bayonets must find its coun- 
terpart in the battle of pens. Cor- 
poral Bennett was called upon. He 
advanced with a rush, into "The Sat- 
urday Evening Post." The brilliancy 
of his illogic and the tremendous 
power of the venom which he spurted 
about dazzled and asphyxiated the 
enemy as some deadly gas — but only 
for a moment. The strength of the 
dose had been regulated for chil- 
dren, and he had adults to deal with. 
Sir Gilbert Parker was called into 
consultation, and prescribed a larger 
dose. It was overlarge, and as in the 
case of most poisons, too much was 
as bad as none at all. Sir Gilbert 
served only to nauseate us. 

There was a lull In the conflict. 
England buried her dead ; and then 
in a last effort to carry the day sent 
for Mr. Gilbert Chesterton to lead 
the "forlorn hope." With character- 
istic recklessness he answered the 
call of England and is hammering us 
with his paper pellets through the 
smooth-bore columns of "The New 
York Times." 



PRESS ROOM CAMPAIGNS— BRITISH-FRENCH 



The most violent assaults have 
been made upon Port Militarism and 
Fort Culture. The attempts against 
the former were led by Surgeon 
Doyle, wearing the ribbon which he 
won at the wiping out of. the Boers; 
but, as previously reported, he soon 
found himself without ammunition. 
He failed to establish General Bern- 
hardi in a position from which to 
command the batteries of the enemy. 
The approaches were mined by Ger- 
man art and science and philosophy, 
German industry, and German love of 
peace. These mines had been laid, 
year after year, for centuries, and to 
have overlooked their existence was, 
to say the least, culpable in a com- 
mander or Sir Arthur's past achieve- 
ments. When they were exploded 
retreat with the remnants of his 
annihilated argument was all that 
was left to him. 

The investment of Fort Culture is 
still under way, but is being prose- 
cuted with waning force. The world 
has long recognized the impregnable 
nature of this stronghold. It is a 
Gibraltar of the mind and soul; for 
it is the soul and mind of a nation. 
And England pelts it with pellets 
and expects to reduce it! Large cali- 
bre minds were discarded from Eng- 
land two generations ago. Her fac- 
tories have turned out more since. 
She took Gibraltar with heavy guns, 
and she will not take German Cul- 
ture with "stink-pots." The charges 
led by Major Chesterton have not 
come near it. It stands today as 
strong and intact, as beautifully mag- 
nificent as it has through all the 
years when England sought her own 
light from its lamps and was willing 
to pay for it by a chant of praise. 

The dogs of war should be called 
off. They are wasting their strength 
in the vain effort to reduce the ir- 
reducible. The defenders are too 
many for them, and shorn of defend- 
ers, German Culture would still 
stand impressively unassailable on 
the rock of its own inherent glory 
and greatness. The l-pounder Intel- 
lects of the England of today can 
make no more impression on its walls 
than can her 1-pounders on the for- 
tress of Helgoland. 

And so the battle goes. The inno- 
cent bystander is made to suffer the 
brunt of it. It is being fought on 
our own soil, and against the wishes 
of the American people. Our neu- 
trality has been violated as actually 
and more menacingly than that of 
Belgium and China. Because we 
would not surrender our "moral sup- 
port" upon the enemy's first call for 
it, we have had to defend It. Our 
right to think for ourselves and to 
continue to cherish what generations 
have taught us to admire and respect, 
has been denied, and we are overrun 
by every penny-a-liner England can 
call to her colors. Our fondest recol- 
lections and our deepest and sanest 
feelings are outraged and trampled 
upon as if they were no more than 
the Kaffir fields of South Africa. We 
cannot go abroad without breathing 
their poisonous fumes. They enter 
into our homes, glare at us from the 
columns of our papers, and follow us 
to church on Sunday. We are never 
free from them, sleeping or waking. 



They are dragooning the American 
people into mental and moral submis- 
sion, but they will not succeed. We 
are willing to counsel the surrender 
of Fort Militarism when England 
razes Fort Navalism, but German 
Culture will never be surrendered 
from the American heart. 

No American newspaper, as far as we 
know, has protested against the amaz- 
ing indictment of German character by 
G. K. Chesterton, the English essayist, 
which appears in a current magazine. 
Let us quote: 

But though the word "barbarian" Is the 
key of the situation, it is very liable to be 
misunderstood. The Prussians themselves 
cannot form a notion of what we mean 
when we call them barbarians ; and that, 
as I shall show in a moment, is precisely 
because they are barbarians. They are 
perfectly and even pathetically sincere 
when they say they are the people of 
culture ; and even when they practically 
deny that there is any culture at all In 
the land of Turgenev and the land of 
Chopin. And the Prussians really are 
cultured in the sense that they read a 
great many books. But the spirit of civ- 
ilization is not to be found in books. 

The psychology of the barbarian Is 
this : that, like the lower animals, he 
does not understand reciprocity. He has 
not that little mirror in the mind in 
which we see the mind of the other man. 
If I scatter crumbs for the birds in win- 
ter, that will not prevent the birds from 
eating my fruit in summer ; because birds, 
like Prussians, are barbarians. If I leave 
the bee his honey, he may still leave me 
his sting. And he has not broken any 
contract, because bees, like Prussians, are 
barbarians. 

Now this fundamental unreason and 
inequality, as of men ruled by beasts, can 
be tested by taking any civilized institu- 
tion in Prussia. 

The New York newspapers — most of 
them — are deriving considerable amuse- 
ment from the efforts of German uni- 
versity professors to explain their coun- 
try's cause to the American people. The 
articles prepared by scholars like Har- 
nack, Haeckel, Eucken, Roentgen, 
Wundt and many others of like caliber 
strike these journalistic critics as un- 
dignified and even ridiculous. "So far 
as has been observed," says the Globe, 
"the oracular declarations of the emin- 
ent professors have singularly failed to 
affect American public opinion." 

We have long since given up hope 
that fact and argument could reach the 
Teutophobe press. Having no desire to 
be fair, its representatives are not 
open to conviction. And this confirmed 
unfairness is eloquently demonstrated 
In the cheap and provincial baiting of 
the German scholars, while the outpour- 
ings of English professors and men of 
letters are welcomed with open minds 
no less than with open columns. 

We were patient too long. In Eu- 
rope and in our colonies. Every lub- 
ber thought he was justified in imi- 
tating England's impertinence. We 
shall exterminate this impression 
with a rake of steel. Our body is 
as clean as that of any Anglo-Saxon. 
We have worked harder than he, but 
we bathe as often. He owns his 
island, also perhaps a couple of col- 
onies, and insists on everybody 
speaking his language and giving up 
his place to him. Not we. We know 
and accomplish more with less brag, 
and won't be forced to bend our 
backs. To recall a sentence of 
Blucher: "The whole world knows 
that Prussia and Germany are al- 
ways cheated of their rights in spite 
of every effort." That was in the 



past. It won't happen again. Mod- 
ern Germany knows that it is strong 
and does not have to beg for rights 
to which it is justly entitled. Eng- 
land is allied with yellow stink-apes, 
and glories in the assassination of 
German men, and the rape of Ger- 
man women by drunken Cossacks, 
Englishmen, Belgians, Frenchmen, 
North and South Slavs, and Japanese 
glorify each other as the bearers and 
protectors of the highest mission of 
civilization, and call us barbarians. 
We should be dolts to make denials. 
The intelligent German, who has long 
taken Chesterton's measure as a labored 
and uninspired competitor of the bril- 
liant Shaw, will laugh at this naively 
vicious psychology; at this vicious 
Brobdingnagian psychology. Accus- 
tom yourself rapidly to the idea that 
German soil is the home of bar- 
barians and fighters. They have no 
time now for slander and small talk. 
Their task is to whip your armies, to 
capture the members of your general 
staff, to scatter your swimming 
hordes beyond Antwerp and Calais, 
until they are prostrate under the 
heel of the barbarian. 



DECEIVING THE WHOIiE WOBIiD. 



American Newspaper Men Arrested 

in London for Telling the Truth 

About Germany — A Personal 

Letter. 



By James O'Donnell Bennett. 

From the "Chicago Tribune", Octo- 
ber 6, 1914: — The following personal 
letter from Mr. Bennett to the editor of 
"The Tribune" is so remarkable that 
it is presented in full. 

Before there was mention of our war 
Mr. Bennett was sent to London to 
be "The Tribune's" correspondent In 
England. At the outbreak of the war 
he, the only "Tribune" man near the 
seat of action, was cabled to proceed 
to the firing line. Since the German 
occupation of Brussels he has been en- 
tirely in German surroundings. 

"The Tribune" does not support or 
decry his views. They are startling 
and the American people are entitled 
to read them. 

Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, September 
12. — Tomorrow John McCutcheon and 
I shall have been in Alx just two weeks. 
In that time we have sent off many 
thousands of words to "The Tribune" — 
John about 20,000 ; I about 14,000. My 
first letter was 6,000 on our inability 
to verify stories of German atrocities; 
my second over 6,000 on the state of 
feeling, illustrated by numerous inci- 
dents, in North Germany. John said 
my letter on non-atrocities probably 
would create a sensation in America. 

I have a big batch of descriptive mat- 
ter under way for next Saturday's boat 
from Rotterdam to America. 

In addition to the two long articles 
which I mailed I have also sent a 1,000 
word cable by post to the Commercial 
Cable office In London to be put on the 
wire there to you. 

Whether the English censor will let 
it pass I much doubt, because, judging 
by the London papers we have seen 
and by the extracts which I inclose 
from a letter from Mrs. Bennett, Eng- 



302 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



land is wild with apprehension and 
stuffed with lies. 

Germans Feel Confident. 

The best of writers could hardly con- 
vey to you the sense of order, confi- 
dence and satisfaction existing in Ger- 
many. And, in view of what we have 
seen and heard in Germany, it would 
be difficult to exaggerate the madness 
of English newspapers in their policy 
of trying to .iolly the English public 
into a belief that the Germans are be- 
ing thrown back. 

In the face of these "German re- 
verses" Germany is constantly sending 
more men (thousands upon thousands 
of them) by train through Aix to the 
front. 

Aix is absolutely serene. Manufac- 
urers are even about to launch new 
building operations in this vicinity the 
day after tomorrow. 

Meanwhile we are not allowed to go 
into France in the wake of German 
columns, because, say the military au- 
thorities, vast plans are making which 
must in no way be imperiled by the 
presence of outsiders. 

Those plans may culminate at the 
end of next week, and then, accord- 
ing to assurances we have received, we 
may be allowed to go forward. 

This chance seems to us worth wait- 
ing for. If it does not materialize at 
the end of the week there is nothing 
for us to do but return to England. 

As to the kind of reception that 
may await me in England, you may 
judge from these extracts from Mrs. 
Bennett's letter received by me today 
from London. It is dated Monday, Sep- 
tember 7, and has been a week, lack- 
ing two days, in reaching me : 

"My greatest anxiety lately has been 
that you would write something pro- 
German. That, as I understand the 
situation here, would get you into trou- 
ble with the English authorities upon 
your return. They simply will not have 
it, no matter how true it may be. 

"I wrote you a long letter last week 
telling yon of Mr. Heitkamp's arrest. 
Mr. Heitkamp is manager of the Curtis 
Brown bureau, which serves "The Trib- 
une" from London at the instigation of 
the war office. He was arrested on 
Thursday night and not released until 
Saturday afternoon. 

"He was handled very roughly and 
allowed to communicate with no one — 
not even his wife. He just escaped 
penal servitude for life, and he still 
does not know what they so much ob- 
jected to in what he had written. 

English Detectives Search Mail. 

"When I went down for your mail 
at the Curtis Brown offices I "found the 
room which you and Mr. Heitcamp 
occupy full of Scotland Yard men. 

"They were going through Mr. Heit- 
kamp's papers and they went through 
all his papers and letters at his home. 
And this happened to an American 
whose people have lived in America 
since the seventeenth century and 
whose daily work connects him with 
the American press. 

"So you see, my dear, how useless 
it is to try to say anything for the 
Germans. The English simp'.v won't 
allow it to be used, and one takes the 
risk of penal servitude. 



"All this has terrified me for you. 
You have absolutely no chance. I felt 
so sorry for Mrs. Heitkamp. She was 
not allowed to see her husband. 

"As I said, I wrote you all about 
this, but could not get the letter 
through, and have been nearly frantic 
over the possibility of their arrestiug 
you when you return to an English 
port if you have sent pro-German copy 
to 'The Tribune' while you were in 
Germany. 

"My never knowing for so many days 
where you were and what had hap- 
pened to you made it worse. 

"Please realize how serious this is 
and be very careful as to what you 
write. It would gain you nothing if 
you tried to be fair, and the penalty is 
too great. You will be careful? 

"This fear has been with me con- 
stantly since Mr. Heitkamp's arrest. 
Of course, I think his foreign name 
and his Italian wife may have made 
a difference. 

"The Scotland Yard men asked me 
all about you and put it all down ; so 
you are on the records. It was unfor- 
tunate I went for the mail that morn- 
ing. I can't tell you how this terri- 
fies me. . . . 

"Mr. Brown, by the way, was so 
frightened over Mr. Heitkamp's arrest 
and the possibility of his being in- 
volved himself that he stayed away 
from the office (he was down in Corn- 
wall) and quite repudiated Mr. H. 
It was really very serious, evidently, 
and, as I say, Mr. H. cannot see what 
he said to bring it on himself. 

"Do listen to what I say about writ- 
ing anything pro-German. It will only 
react on you and do no good." 

IJondon Buoyed TJp by IJies. 

Mrs. Bennett's little sidelight ou the 
state of feeling in London will interest 
you. It follows : 

"I don't read the papers much, for 
I find them too disturbing, but I hear 
a good deal. The people believe what 
they want to believe, though I think 
that down in their hearts they know 
they are not getting the real state of 
affairs. 

"Just the same, the other kind of 
thing buoys them up, and that is why 
it is done. 

"You. I suppose, are seeing only the 
other side, aren't you? So be careful 
and unbiassed. Loving England and 
the English as you do, it must be pain- 
ful for you to have to think of its 
future as you do think. I hope you 
are wrong, and I know you must hope 
so. too." 

Thus I have given you the essen- 
tials of the young lady's letter. Of 
course she may have gained an over- 
wrought impression of the state of 
affairs, but she is not an ill-poised or 
excitable woman — quite the contrary. 

In any case, even if I were so dis- 
loyal to the truth as to wish to act ou 
her warning, that warning comes too 
late. By this time, in a 6,000-word 
article headed "The Solemn Truth," 
which should reach you in Chicago to- 
morrow (Sunday) night, and in a 7,000- 
word article headed "The System at 
Work," which went by the boat from 
Rotterdam this morning — in both those 
articles I have committed myself up 
to the neck. 



May Be Deported. 

If reports on those articles are sent 
back to the English authorities after 
the articles appear iu "The Tribune" 
I may be ditched in England. They 
may deport me if I try to land there. 

But a man who failed to write what 
I have seen and heard iu Germany 
would be a dog. 

I came to Germany anti-German. So 
did John. But London lies and German 
dignity and solidity have about brought 
me over to the German side. 

If America thinks Germany is in 
the least frightened, or if America 
thinks Germany has gone mad with 
blood lust, then America has only sur- 
rendered to the most stupendous cam- 
paign of lies that has been launched 
from Europe since Napoleon made 
"false as a bulletin" a proverb. 

If what we have seen means any- 
thing, the world is going to wake up 
soon to find a gigantic new world 
power in the saddle. 

Last Sunday night I had the pleasure 
of seeing Joseph Medill Patterson in 
Aix. He came up from Berlin under 
military escort with five other Ameri- 
can correspondents and was permitted 
to view the forts at Li6ge. 

He was much discouraged about the 
war correspondents game, and says the 
jig is up and that no armies will longer 
tolerate them. 

He was so kind as to say, however, 
that if my anti-atrocities story, which 
should, as I said, reach you tomorrow 
evening, did get through to Chicago it 
would be worth the trip I made from 
London. 

The government did not ask us to 
make this statement. We made it 
partly for its news value and partly 
from a sense of outraged decency. 

Certainly the Germans are getting a 
rotten deal from the rest of the world 
in the press reports of this war. I hope 
America will not be inflamed by those 
reports with the idea that it ought 
"in the name of humanity" to mix up 
in the trouble. 

Reshaping of Europe. 

All the men in the group of xVmeri- 
cans here have been convinced by a 
fortnight's observations with the troops 
ou the countryside and with the citi- 
zens in this town that the situation in- 
volves nothing less than the reshaping 
of Europe by Teutonic hands. It is 
a new European empire swinging into 
being, and if Europe doesn't like it 
Europe will have to fight over the 
matter for the next five and twenty 
years. 

To us the German ascendancy seems 
as inevitable as sunrise tomorrow. 
God save us. but the system and the 
power behind the system are just in- 
crerlible, and the spirit of the people 
is overpowering. 

What Joe Patterson had seen had 
him talking last Sunday night in pre- 
cisely the same strain I am writing to- 
night — a strain that may seem to you 
hysterical, but that is in truth very, 
very grave. 

We are not sending any of our ar- 
ticles on the state of affairs in Ger- 
many by mail to the Commercial Cable 
in London, to be relayed to you by 
cable in London, because we think that, 
even if we stuck to the bare facts, the 



PRESS ROOM CAMPAIGNS— BRITISH-FRENCH 



English censor would not let them 
through. 

We can keep busy, and are keeping 
busy writing our observations and 
sending them off by the weekly Rot- 
terdam mail. 

Does this seem to you advisable? 
This letter will reach you In two 
weeks. Suppose I stay here until it 
does reach you, and that upon arrival 
of the letter in Chicago you cable me 
(care of the consul) what you think 
as to my returning to London and fac- 
ing a row with the English authorities? 

As to that prospect I am not fright- 
ened, but if I were jugged it might take 
a lot of fussing and cabling to get me 
out. That would waste both time and 
money. 



AN OPEN IiETTEB TO H. G. 
WEIiLS. 



In Appreciation of His Kind Mes- 
sage to the United States. 

My Dear Sir : 

You are considered one of the fore- 
most English novelists, but you have 
never before proved your taleut for 
fiction as you have done in your recent 
work, "The Last War," published in 
the October number of the "Metropoli- 
tan J\Iagazine." We are a^^'est^uck 
with the "multum in parvo" of it, and 
with its unrivalled quality. Thank 
God for our American sense of humor 
which enables us to see through the 
mock seriousness with which you write 
and to appreciate the sardonic humor 
which fills nearly every paragraph, cer- 
tainly the message as a whole. 

For instance, when you contend that 
the violation of Belgium's neutrality 
was the i-eason for England's going to 
war, you know, and we know, and 
everybody knows tjiat you don't mean 
it, that England would have broken 
Belgium's neutrality as quick as that 
if it had suited her, and I am sure you 
chuckled to yourself when you wrote 
it and wondered if those "blawsted" 
Americans would understand it. As one 
of the reasons of my writing this re- 
ply is, to show you that we do under- 
stand the British humor on this side 
of the ocean, I wish to state specifically, 
that we fully understand that the Eng- 
land who violated the neutrality of 
Denmark in 1S07, and that of Chile 
at Valpariso in 1S14 (the spirit of our 
Captain Porter, of the brave Essex, 
must have enjoyed your caustic joke) 
could not seriously assert that she 
went to war because Germany violated 
the neutrality of Belgium. And I want 
you to know, that we see the deeper 
joke in this, that England, if that liad 
been really her reason, should have 
lifted her mailed fist (or boot) against 
France, as the Sansculottes were the 
first to violate Belgium's neutrality. 
Yes, yes, my dear Sir,, we know, that 
Belgium did not object to being rav- 
ished by fair Prance, but that ha.A 
better remain unmentioned. 

"We have done our utmost to avoid 
this war," you say. Of course, we 
know that, far from trying to avoid 
this war, England has been waiting 
and working for it for years, and if 
she quickly found out that the job of 
crushing Germany was not as easy as 
it looked, and in her unpleasant sur- 
prise called on her Eastern ally for 



help — help, well she got it — didn't she? 
And how could she know that Prance 
was so weakened by absinthe and 
women that, by herself, she would not 
be able, to stand up to Germany for 
one month? How could she know that, 
I ask? Of the English diplomatic serv- 
ice every man, as is expected, did his 
duty, and months before the war be- 
gan, England, Prance, Russia and Bel- 
gium had arrived at understandings as 
to the part each was to play in case 
an oiiportunity should offer or be pro- 
vided. Russia in Asia was to mobilize 
without calling undue attention to the 
fact and to egg on Servia in her cam- 
paign of seduction and murder against 
Austria-Hungary ; Prance was to mako 
a loan to Russia for the purchase of 
cannon, strengthen her army and pre- 
pare for instant mobilization. Belgium 
was to have her army trained by 
French officers, her fortresses strength- 
ened by French engineers, and was to 
let the French army pass unhindered 
through her territory, of course, after 
a gentle protest, and England was to 
continue her campaign of vilification 
against Germany. 

You see, my dear Sir, we are pretty 
well informed, and therefore in a posi- 
tion to laugh with you up your sleeve, 
if you'll let us. 

When all the world comes to recog- 
nize the amount of work ("dirty work" 
envious Germany would call it, but 
never mind her) England has done in 
her wonderful campaign to isolate Ger- 
many, they will be forced to acknowl- 
edge that England is the only nation 
fit to rule the waves and the colonies, 
and that she must — simply must have 
a navy strong enough to whip any other 
two nations. No use talking about that, 
for this is the right and might of Brit- 
annia, guaranteed in her Constitution 
and acknowledged by every weaker na- 
tion on earth. 

Did your utmost to avoid the war ; 
did j'ou, really? My, but it's rich! 
Well we know that one word from you 
into the Czar's ear would have caused 
instant demobilization, one telegram to 
Poincarg have turned Prance's defiance 
of Germany into courteous protestations 
of peace in Prance and good will to- 
wards Germany ; but, of course, that 
could not be, for then Belgium's neu- 
trality would not have been violated 
and England would not have had to 
draw her unsullied sword to uphold 
her honor. By the way, old man, a 
sword that came unsullied out of the 
Chinese Opium War must be a good 
one. 

The best joke of all is your disarma- 
ment proposition — it took me an hour 
to recover from my laughing fit ! It is 
so nice and vague. It seems to say so 
much, and says so absolutely nothing. 
My wife asked me, who was to be dis- 
armed, but I laughed, so she never 
asked me again. And I couldn't have 
answered her to save my life. If she 
had asked me now, who was not to be 
disarmed, the answer would have been 
easy, for whoever was expected to dis- 
arm, England would most certainly not! 
What? Dismantle her fleet, that made 
her the ruler of the waves? Only a 
lunatic could propose such a thing ! 
England's navy is her bulwark against 
her enemies and she would be in a nice 
fix without an army and without a 
navy if ever she should be attacked. 
What, England disarm — proud England, 



peaceful England, the England of a 
thousand battles on land and on the 
sea? The idea is too absurd to be dis- 
cussed. 

Germany on the other hand — yes, sir, 
she ought to be disarmed. Quite right, 
my dear Sir, what does she want with 
an army, anyhow? In the East the 
Russians can protect her against an 
invasion from Japan, and in the West, 
France will see that no harm come to 
her from Cuba or Iceland. So I can't 
see any reason for her not disarming, 
and then she could send 800,000 men 
into her factories instead of into war. 
By the way, hadn't you better repeal 
the law requiring that all manufactured 
goods entering England or her colonies 
must show plainly the land of origin? 
Why should you want your customers 
to know that most of your fine British 
goods were made in Germany? 

Yes, I see, the German army had 
better go, and the German navy, too; 
if you left Germany her navy and she 
could save the cost of her army, she 
would build dreadnoughts by the hun- 
dred and might try to wrest the sceptre 
of the waves from your hands. Yes, 
sir, the German navy will have to go, 
also. That's two armaments gone and 
that's enough to begin with, I reckon. 
Disarm the British navy — no, a thou- 
sand times : no ! We are willing to 
sacrifice the German navy, if you make 
a point of it, but the British navy — the 
greatest civilizing influence in the world 
— never, as long as the British ocean 
prefers to bear an English name. 

But look here, my dear Sir, are you 
not going to step too far when you call 
the Krupp concern an organised scound- 
relisiH and say that the German guns 
and shells are notoriously poor? I 
viewed the statement with a good deal 
of concern because it differs too widely 
from the facts and those facts are too 
universally known. The unsurpassable 
quality and modernity of the Krupp 
fleld guns and especially the new Krupp 
siege mortars, which pulverize a mod- 
ern fort in one or two hits (and they 
are all hits) have been too widely ad- 
vertised to be successfully contradicted 
at this late day, and I fear very much 
that this mistaken ( ! ) statement will 
make a good many readers shake their 
heads and doubt if you know what you 
are talking about. Mr. Krupp, with 
an armful of rejected siege guns sit- 
ting on the steps of the throne, would 
surely make a fine cartoon, but as a 
statement of facts it's a fizzle and I 
do wish you had not written it. 

On the other hand, here is a para- 
graph that is great, because it seems 
to be written in such highly moral in- 
dignation and therefore has such tre- 
mendous force for jpersuasion behind 
it. I mean this one : "We are fighting 
Germany. But we are fighting with- 
out any hatred of the German people. 
We do not intend to destroy either their 
freedom or their unity. But we have 
to destroy an evil system of govern- 
ment and mental and rnaterial corrup- 
tion that has got hold of the German 
imagination and taken possession of 
German life." There, doesn't that sound 
fine — fine? If that does not excite the 
Americans to indignation and wrath, 
nothing will, and you might just as 
well give it up. 

And the sardonic humor of it ! On 
the face of it — virtuous indignation and 
a statement of incontrovertible fact. 



304 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



wbile in reality there is not a word of 
truth in it, not one! Mr. Wells, you 
are great, I salute you, and I seem to 
hear the echo of the homeric laughter 
that went up from the hearts of oak 
when they read your now famous mes- 
sage to the United States. I seem to 
see Asquith and Grey wipe the tears of 
mirth out of their eyes on reading that 
neither the freedom iwr the unity of 
Germany is to he (lestroyed (Germany 
is only to be dismembered, crushed and 
wiped off the face of the map), but 
that only an evil system of Govern- 
ment is to he done away with, for none 
know better than Asquith and Grey 
that under the circumstances no other 
Government is at all possible for Ger- 
many, and that it would be just as 
absurd to ask England to get rid of 
her navy as to ask Germany to disband 
her army. They know with absolute 
certainty that England, if placed like 
Germany between two implacable foes, 
would most undoubtedly have a strong 
standing army to protect her frontiers, 
even as she has now a standing navy 
to protect her sea coast. And the joke 
of it is, that England's navy is as large 
as any other two, while Germany's 
army is not even as large as one other 
— the Russian. Germany relies on 
quality, while England, relying on 
quantity, would have under like cir- 
cumstances an army as large as Rus- 
sia's and Prance's together, and I guess 
both put their reliance correctly. 

"We have to smash the Prussian im- 
perialism." To speak of Prussian im- 
perialism when England's imperialism 
Is the most notorious and most strongly 
resented fact In history, takes an 
amount of courage not everybody pos- 
sesses, and to make it palatable re- 
quires the supreme effort of even a 
great writer of fiction. But I think you 
have succeeded, my dear Sir, for you 
have bellowed your assertion with the 
strength of ten bulls and the quiet 
voice of reason has no chance to be 
heard as long as you keep it up. But 
you have to keep it up, for in the quiet 
after the storm the low voice of rea- 
son and truth would be heard and 
might do untold harm to peaceful. In- 
nocent England. 

But, of course, we know what you 
mean by German imperialism and what 
you really want to smash. In Eng- 
land's place we, too, would view with 
the utmost disfavor the steady growth 
of Germany's oversea commerce and 
fleet, a growth which shows no sign 
of stopping and is developing into a 
very serious menace to your own for- 
eign trade and carrier business ; we, 
too, would stand aghast at the incred- 
ible cheek of Hamburg of wresting the 
laurel from London and becoming — in 
tonnage — the largest seaport on earth ; 
and we, too, would try to smash such 
"imperialism," such an "evil system," 
such "mental and material corruption" 
by any means that came to hand, good 
or bad. or even worse. The end justi- 
fies the means, they say, and what 
more moral, more unselfish, more glor- 
ious end could there be than England's 
trade, say e. g., with the West Coast 
of Africa, where she ships Bibles, rum 
and guns to lighten the black man's 
burden. My dear Sir, I am becoming 
quite enthusiastic, and first thing you 
know, I'll write some fiction myself. 



I just noticed another little slip you 
made, Mr. Wells. Really, you ought 
to have been more careful ! 

"Physical and moral brutality has 
indeed become a cant in the German 
mind and spread from Germany 
throughout the world." Thus you 
wrote and thus it is printed! I am 
sorry I did not see this in manuscript, 
for as a friend I would have advised 
you to cut it out. That kind of thing 
may go in England, but here in the 
good, old U. S. A. I am sorry to say, 
such piffle must fall flat. You for- 
got, that Germans are everywhere in 
the States, and by underhanded and 
most contemptible means, by intention- 
ally good citizenship, truthfulness and 
pure lives they have sneaked into the 
good graces of their American born fel- 
low citizens. It's pitiful, but true that 
you can't convince the average Ameri- 
can of the well established fact that 
Germans, without exception, are phys- 
ically and morally brutal, and that their 
bestiality is brutalizing the world — ay, 
has even affected gentle England. 

And it would have been such a 
joke if it could have been worked. 
With England's past history in mind. 
It would simply have been a scream ! 
We know something of England's his- 
tory, and we remember how she in- 
cited, with the kindliest motives, of 
course, during the Revolutionary War, 
the Indians against the American set- 
tlers, spreading rape, arson and red 
murder among white people of her own 
race; we have read of the Chinese war, 
when England for moral reasons of 
pecuniary profit forced opium on an un- 
enlightened government; we still re- 
member with a shudder that England's 
gentle civilization bound Hindoos be- 
fore the mouths of cannon to send them 
to heaven on the double quick ; we find 
that cock-fighting, bear-baiting, boxing 
matches and football (in its brutal 
form) originated In moral England, 
and we appreciate to the full that you, 
my dear Sir, expected to score enor- 
mously with the paragraph last quoted. 
The pity of it Is, that it won't work 
here, but I am sure in England it 
will add further laurels to your crown 
of shame — I mean — fame. 

Here is still another little slip you 
made, Mr. Wells, "Monopoly," you say, 
"means rascality." Had you forgotten 
that France has a tobacco monopoly 
and that you thus accuse France of 
rascality? Or is this intentional and 
did you' mean to tell Prance not to 
imagine that she was as good as Eng- 
land, although she is her ally? Of 
course, we know you think so, but I 
did not imagine that you wanted the 
world to know about it. 

But worse than that, you say, that 
imperialism means rascality, too. For 
the love of us all, Mr. Wells, that cer- 
tainly must be a slip of the pen, for 
if England does not stand for imperial- 
Ism, what does? Has not little 2x4 
England swallowed India, Australia, 
most of Africa, Canada, British Colum- 
bia, the Pacific, the Atlantic, both Arctic 
oceans, Scotland, Ireland, West Indian 
Isles, etc.? If that is not imperialism, 
what more does she want? But, what 
is rascally about that, my dear Sir? 
You know, her methods have been al- 
ways those of gentle persuasion, and 
with a sigh, but also with a willing 
heart, because it paid, she has taken 



upon her shoulders one brown man's 
burden after another, until she now 
nearly sinks under the weight, but also 
has become the richest country on 
earth. 

One of the cleverest things I find In 
your second last paragraph. "England, 
France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, and all 
the little countries of Europe are 
heartily sick of war," you say, and 
then continue: "The Czar has ex- 
pressed a passionate hatred of war!" 
There it is: The Czar — not Russia, 
for everybody knows that the Czar Is 
afraid of his own shadow and that 
Russia with Its ten million soldiers Is 
passionately devoted to war. So you 
leave Russia alone and only mention 
the poor Czar's passion for peace, as 
It gently suggests Russia's dislike for 
war instead of crudely asserting it. 

My dear Sir, you are a genius of 
the highest rank, and I'd give two bits, 
If I could turn like you the facts in- 
side out, and were able to paint the 
lily black with the same brush you 
use to cover dark treason with a coat 
of dazzling white. 

Mr. Wells, I salute you ! 
Very respectfully, 

A TORT ADMIRER. 
—The Crucible. 



THE FRENCH "DIME NOVEL" 
LITERATURE. 

The detailed report of the Com- 
mission of Inquiry as to the supposed 
German atrocities, several hundred 
thousand copies of which were 
printed and are soon to be sent all 
over the world In various transla- 
tions, at the expense of France, Is 
now before us. We have gone to 
the trouble of giving it a careful 
perusal, just as we did with the 
seven Belgian reports which were 
drawn up in the same miserable 
fashion. 

The four men who have done this 
work are only to be pitied; they are: 
Georges Payelle, First President of 
the Court of Accounts, Armand Mol- 
lard, late Master of Ceremonies at 
the Blysee and Charge d'Affaires in 
Luxembourg, Georges Maringer, 
Privy Councillor, and Edmond Pall- 
lot, Legal Adviser at the Court of 
Cassation. Such names are to stand 
as a guarantee to the French and to 
the neutral countries, that the In- 
vestigation has been carried out con- 
scientiously, and that the German 
soldiers really are the barbarians, 
murderers, thieves and rapists, such 
as they have heen depicted ever 
since the beginning of the campaign. 

Most of the American papers have 
stopped printing the latest Belgian 
reports, because the crazy excess of 
these accusations showed, even to the 
most patient and credible readers, 
that they were but fiction defama- 
tion. The opinion of the future will 
not loathe the German soldier. Nay, 
it will simply turn its back on those 
Don Basilios who wished to stamp 
each and every one of them as crim- 
inals. The Triple Entente may no- 
longer hope for the victory of lies, 
any more than for that of weapons. 
No matter how diflicult or how loath- 
some the work may be, Germany will 
continue to fight down this whole- 



PRESS ROOM CAMPAIGNS— BRITISH-FRENCH 



305 



sale libel. In the end we shall see 
which was able to fight its way 
through the horrors of this terrible 
war better and more nobly, the de- 
rided German culture or that "civili- 
zation" which allows Prance to 
march proudly at the head of Sen- 
egalese, Kirghiz and Britons. 

"The collection of proofs is al- 
ready in print and will fill a volume 
of about a hundred pages." This is 
what we read in the "Matin" of Jan- 
uary 15, as "reply" to the note of the 
German government, who, in an an- 
gry protest, declared it beneath their 
dignity to have anything to do with 
this ignominious report which lacked 
all foundation. So much the better, 
then, when these gentlemen now 
come forward with their "proofs." 
According to previous experience it 
will be an easy matter to fix their 
value. Even the report itself, which 
rattles off the several hundred 
"atrocities" as fluently as if it in- 
volved indisputable, carefully proved 
and pronounced facts, abounds in un- 
truths which are olivious even to 
those who know least about German 
military conditions, not to mention 
the innumerable absurd exactions 
laid on the logical reader. This 
Babylonian tower of lies will soon 
crumble with a crash over the heads 
of Messrs. Payelle, MoUard, Paillot 
and Maringer, and bury them for- 
ever under its ruins. It is true that 
they only deal with the Departments 
which were occupied in September, 
viz.: Seine-et-Marne, Marne, Meuse, 
Meurthe-et-Moselle, Oise and Aisne, 
in so far as they are now free from 
German troops. It w^ll therefore be 
possible to judge from the endless 
mistakes, as regards names, dates 
and regiments, as to the "exactitude" 
and "thoroughness" of the examina- 
tion of "each individual case." The 
German military authorities will 
know how to put even this chaos in 
order. 

In order to understand how it is 
possible for anyone to dare to put 
such mad and atrocious reports be- 
fore the French, we must remember 
their favorite reading matter which 
recurred to our mind involuntarily 
whilst reading this clumsy report; to 
the "dime novel" in serial form, with 
murder and manslaughter, incendi- 
arism and rape in every column, 
which all those widely circulated pa- 
pers, "Matin," "Journal," "Petit Pa- 
risien," "Petit Journal," etc., favor 



without exception and which has by 
no means tended to raise the general 
standard of intelligence during the 
past decade. The newspapers vie 
with each other in the production of 
bloody placards announcing their 
new novels with the most thrilling 
titles. In these miserable stories vir- 
tue does not need to win the day as 
in other cheap novels; the more op- 
pression there is and the more de- 
tailed its description the better. 
Thus were those hysterical women 
brought up who figure in each crim- 
inal case and give the French judges 
so much trouble. It is for the tastes 
of such people that the "report" has 
been written. Mollard, the Master 
of Ceremonies, found a dozen nine- 
ty-two-year-old witches on whom the 
"Huns" are said to have laid violent 
hands, who were not sparing in their 
detailed, naturalistic descriptions. 
Every bullet that happened to hit a 
may-be harmless peasant in a village 
street or behind his window, gives 
rise to an assassination for which 
an endless variety of witnesses are 
to be found, giving an equally end- 
less variety of evidence. Each 
farmstead that took fire because it 
was hit by a bombshell, or because 
it had to be removed out of the fire 
line, is a proof of wilful arson. The 
investigation will not admit in one 
single instance that a tribunal was 
warranted, because German troops 
had been fired upon. No German 
oflScer, they say, ever punished sol- 
diers for robbery or even for com- 
mitting worse crimes. "C'est la 
guerre" (It is war-time) is the an- 
swer they gave to such as com- 
plained. 

Anyone who knows how severely 
the German officers punish each 
breach of discipline that comes to 
their knowledge cannot but laugh 
pitifully at this misrepresentation. 
In 1870 only timepieces were stolen; 
for 1915 that is not ridiculous 
enough; whole wagon-loads and 
even special trains full of sewing- 
machines and toys are carried off 
(Sulppes-Marne). Baccarat was rav- 
aged wholesale. The inhabitants 
were shut up in the station and then 
th,e furniture, including timepieces, 
was carried off under the supervision 
of the officers and the town set on 
fire with dynamite "pastilles" and 
torches; in the famous "cristallerie" 
however, "our enemy showed a rel- 
ative degree of honesty, for they 



purchased the goods, forcing a re- 
duction of 50% to 70%, playing 
with their revolvers the while." But 
why should we go on bothering about 
this miserable and disgusting rub- 
bish here? It will shortly be taken 
up again, case for case, officially 
with the proper rectification for the 
benefit of the neutral countries. 

Last year a murder occupied all 
the French papers for months. In 
Brittany the director of a powder- 
works disappeared. An engineer 
named Pi6rre was suspected of the 
murder and taken in charge. A 
thousand miles away a clairvoyant 
of Nancy described the place where 
the corpse of the director was actu- 
ally found. During the post-mortem 
examination, a bullet was found 
which exactly fitted PiSrre's revolver. 
A hundred witnesses appeared who 
all declared they had last seen Pi- 
erre with his victim; anonymous let- 
ters simply poured in. Then it 
suddenly turned out that the bullet 
did not fit the revolver after all, that 
the witnesses had all allowed them- 
selves to be infiuenced by the famous 
self-suggestion and that Pierre was 
innocent. The newspapers unani- 
mously accused the public prosecutor, 
who had conducted the case, of hav- 
ing had a party feeling against Pi- 
erre and of having committed a crime 
himself, by letting the engineer 
languish so long in a prison cell. The 
whole of the tremendous judicial ap- 
paratus had broken down, except the 
fortune-teller of Nancy . . . There 
were volumes of evidence, experts' 
opinions and documents all for this 
one case. And the murderer is at 
liberty to this very day! 

The above incident, which is typi- 
cal French justice, occurred in times 
of peace. How can we, then, in 
times of war, in the heat of battles 
and amid the maddest anxiety, place 
the slightest confidence in the recol- 
lections and statements of these 
peasants and villagers? 

For the only person who could 
have flabbergasted us in this report 
of the examining magistrates Pay- 
elle, Mollard, Maringer and Paillot 
on the "German atrocities," the for- 
tune-teller of Nancy is missing. Un- 
til she has found the proofs of all 
the German atrocities in the dregs 
of her coffee-cup the "terrible and 
painful accusation" would be incom- 
plete, even if another "hundred 
pages" were to be added! 



The Press Room Campaign in the United States 
With Now and Then a Dum-Dum ! 



DEBNBUKG CUTS WEB OF LIES. 



From "The Fatherland," New York, 
September 30, 1914: 

The article by Dr. Bernhard Dern- 
burg, formerly Germany's Colonial 
Secretary, in which he explains to 
American readers in the "Sun" the 
constitutional limitations of the Kai- 
ser, cuts clean through the web of 



lies spun by the New York "Times" 
and "Herald's" henchmen around the 
person of the German Emperor. 
Vainly the "Times" with waning 
logic, attempts to confuse the issue 
by declaring that the German Reich- 
stag is not truly representative of 
the people because the apportion- 
ment of votes is not entirely just. 
"The Fatherland" believes that, after 
the war, radical reforms in the elec- 



tive machinery of the German Em- 
pire will be made. Meanwhile we 
prefer the German system, even with 
its limitations, to an apportionment 
of districts, by American politicians, 
gerrymandering the country over the 
poker table of a political club, or 
to the Russian system, where the 
knout of the Cossack or the bomb 
of the Nihilist decides all political 
issues. 



306 



EVOLUTION BV THE LAW OF WAR 



HOW THE BOSTON TRANSCRIPT 
DOES IT. 



The Fatherland, New York. 

Hugo Muensterberg. 

Since the beginning of the war the 
American newspapers have divided 
Into rather distinct classes. A very 
small group favors Germany, a con- 
siderable group stands squarely on 
the neutrality proclamation of Presi- 
dent Wilson, giving really equal 
chance to both sides of the war. 
Then there is a much larger group 
which professes fairness but from in- 
born or nurtured prejudice leans 
strongly toward the allies and is un- 
fair to Germany. Then follows a 
group which is not only unfair, buf 
malicious, and finally a group by 
itself, the Boston "Transcript." On 
the whole the Boston newspapers try 
to be fair. The Boston "Traveller," 
the Boston "Journal," the Boston 
"Post," the Boston "American," and 
the most influential paper of the city, 
the Boston "Herald," have shown an 
earnest desire to understand both 
sides in the war. The "Transcript" 
has not been concerned with such 
minor considerations as justice and 
fairness, but has from the start piled 
up in its columns heaps of distorted 
news and venomous vituperations. 
Those who tried to plead for fair play 
and thus to protect Germany against 
these hateful attacks have been sys- 
tematically treated like the German 
nation itself; and as I was nearest, I 
was the most convenient target for 
ruthless denunciations. Needless to 
say that the "Transcript" opened its 
columns to the kind request that Pro- 
fessor Francke and I be dismissed 
from Harvard University because we 
dared to defend the German cause. 
This campaign against me does not 
disturb me. It is not the first time In 
my life that in the service of truth 
I have stood for an unpopular cause, 
and I am accustomed to bear the 
brunt of the battle. But I do be- 
come disturbed when the malicious 
fight against my person is used as a 
means to harm the German cause 
itself. In such a case it is my duty 
to call public attention to the 
schemes applied. I use as an illustra- 
tion the Boston "Transcript's" bril- 
liant action against my recent book, 

Last winter, when nobody thought 
of war, the editor of the Boston 
"Transcript" begged me to allow him 
to see my new books a few days be- 
fore their appearance. He had heard 
that a New York paper had asked for 
the same right, and as he appreciated 
the news value of printing short ab- 
stracts from a book before its pub- 
lication, he asked this favor for the 
Boston "Transcript." I did not hesi- 
tate to fulfil this request in the case 
of my war book, as I know such 
quotations would at last bring the 
voice of fairness into the wilderness 
of the "Transcript" pages. The 
sheets of the book were accordingly 
sent to the "Transcript" four days 
before publication with a letter say- 
ing that the editor might publish any 
six to seven pages from the book be- 
forehand. The publisher saw in this 
a fair bargain; it would give to the 
newspaper the requested and much 



sought advantage of publishing a 
fragment of a new book before its ap- 
pearance, and it would give to the 
book the advantage of being brought 
in a friendly way to the notice of the 
public, which would feel inclined to 
seek the book and to read it as soon 
as it came out. Exactly the same 
thing was done with three other 
papers, the Brooklyn "Eagle," the 
New York "Sun" and the Boston 
"Herald"; and all of these did, of 
course, the decent thing; they pub- 
lished some pages, thus gladly ac- 
knowledging the publisher's courtesy. 
What did the "Transcript" do? It 
was quickly recognized in the edi- 
torial rooms that this book with its 
insistent claim for fair play might 
make dangerous breaches in the wall 
of anti-Germanism behind which the 
"Transcript" is sheltered. The safest 
scheme was therefore to use the few 
days before the appearance of the 
book to discredit the author and to 
create indignation which could pre- 
vent the public from reading it. Only 
one way was open. The public must 
be made to believe that I had insulted 
the Americans, and therefore deserve 
to be punished by their ignoring my 
book. The pages of the book itself 
did not contain such insults. Hence 
they had to be invented. Two days 
before the book came out the "Tran- 
script" published in a most conspicu- 
ous place an article the heading of 
which says that my new book is "sin- 
gularly unfair to Americans." It be- 
gins with the absurd statement that 
I have expanded into a book my 
earlier papers in support of the Ger- 
man cause. This neat introductory 
effort is to give the impression that 
those who read my articles in the 
newspapers have no reason to look 
into my book. After this clever trick 
the book itself is characterized by 
quotations like "American penchant 
for lynching," "popular ignorance," 
"prone to act like sheep," and so on. 
Now there is not a single word about 
the penchant for lynching or of the 
thinking like sheep or any other in- 
sulting phrase in my whole book. I 
make this affirmation in spite of the 
fact that the "Transcript" sometimes 
even adds the words "he says" after 
phrases which I have never said in 
my life. For instance, when the 
sheep come for the second time: 
"Our opinions have all been formed 
with the unanimity of sheep, he 
says." Everyone who knows me 
knows that such a zoological com- 
parison would be entirely impossible 
in any writing of mine. Yet such 
inventions are very well chosen to 
awaken disgust with the forthcoming 
book and to kill its effects on public 
opinion beforehand. 

This seems exaggerated, as every- 
one knows that the "Transcript" has 
an extremely small circulation and 
has very small political influence, as 
its editorial page stands so far below 
that of the Boston "Herald." Yet it 
is read in the residential districts of 
Boston and suburbs on account of its 
good literary essays, and thus even 
its political articles do indeed have a 
chance to poison the atmosphere. 
But the far more important factor is 
that just on account of its being un- 
known in the outer world, corre- 
spondents of other and more read 



papers can comfortably draw from its 
columns for their dispatches. Here 
was a fine opportunity for it. The 
correspondents, no one of whom had 
seen the book, wired to their papers 
that a book by me on the war was to 
appear, which was extremely unfair 
to the Americans and which insulted 
them by comparing them with sheep 
and by speaking of their ignorance 
and of their penchant for lynching. 

"Indeed, Professor Miinsterberg is 
not careful of his facts and frequently 
exposes himself to the charge of mis- 
representation, and either disregard 
for truth or ignorance of it. His un- 
fair treatment of ex-President Eliot is 
a case in point. With easy dexterity 
he turns Dr. Eliot's felicitous phrase 
of advice, 'to seize every opportunity 
that may present itself to further the 
cause of human freedom and of peace 
at last,' into the astonishing phrase, 
'to seize every opportunity for attack- 
ing Germany.' (The bold face is 
ours.)" 

Now, as I read this article without 
having read the book, my impression 
was what I believe most readers will 
get, namely, that Professor Miinster- 
berg had misquoted Dr. Eliot either 
accidentally as a mere lapsus calumi, 
or purposely. The purpose of the 
reviewer, in my opinion, was un- 
doubtedly to inculcate the latter be- 
lief into the minds of the vast ma- 
jority of its limited circle of readers, 
who will undoubtedly not take the 
trouble to really inform themselves 
on the matter. When, however, one 
reads the passage in the "War and 
America" and discovers that Profes- 
sor Munsterberg, while treating the 
shallow, ignorant and prejudiced ut- 
terances of e.x-President Eliot much 
more considerately than they can pos- 
sibly deserve, quotes him exactly; 
when one realizes that the second 
passage quoted in the "Independent" 
is not a quotation from ex-President 
Eliot at all, but a quotation from the 
book, in which Professor Miinster- 
berg merely draws the inevitable con- 
clusion contained in ex-President 
Eliot's declaration ; then one gets a 
quite different impression of the 
meaning of the charge in the "Inde- 
pendent." Underhanded attempts 
such as this, and many others that 
might be chronicled, serve to show 
the desperate situation in which the 
Allies find themselves in any attempt 
to justify their course before the 
thinking public. 

It is to this portion of the Ameri- 
can public, not to the rabble, that 
"The War and America" is addressed, 
to those not yet certain that "the 
Kaiser did it," "the Crown Prince 
did it," "militarism did it," in short, 
to the most of the American people 
who do not read Elbert Hubbard's 
drivel and live upon his plane of 
life. Most other people will find this 
book impartial almost to a fault, par- 
ticularly in its treatment of the Brit- 
ish point of view. Many a time, as I 
have read certain passages, I have 
had the conviction that the English 
point of view on certain questions 
was deserving really of much less 
consideration than was given it, that 
an evaluation of conflicting aims 
might well have been made, instead 
of merely presenting statements of 



PRESS ROOM CAMPAIGN— UNITED STATES 



307 



facts. The reason is to be sought, 
in my opinion, in the fact that a na- 
tive German, in attempting to pre- 
sent a strictly neutral statement of 
the situation, has undoubtedly sup- 
pressed a great deal that he would 
be thoroughly justified in saying "in 
words hard as cannon balls." To ac- 
cuse such a book of impartiality is 
merely to descend to the plane of 
mean insinuation. 

"The War and America" discusses 
the essential factors and issues in the 
war and their meaning for America 
under the chapter heads: "The Ag- 
gressors," "The Anti-German Senti- 
ment," "The German-Americans," 
"The Threatened Provinces," "The 
English Philosophers," i"The Rus- 
sians," "The German Policy," "The 
Kaiser," "The Silent Voices," "The 
Americans," and "The Morals of the 
War." Its main purpose is to make 
clear the facts on both sides, from 
which alone a just decision can be 
reached; and that such statements as 
have appeared in the press contin- 
ually are based, not upon facts, but 
upon guesses and purely a prior 
theorizing, will become only too clear 
to anybody reading this book in an 
unprejudiced frame of mind. 

Many of the absurd statements 
about the power of the German Em- 
peror, German militarism and the 
domination of a military clique, au- 
tocracy versus democracy, immediate 
responsibility for the war, and the 
like would have been spared us, if the 
host of closet-historians produced by 
the present crisis had only been in 
possession of a small part of the facts 
of this book at the outbreak of the 
war. 

Those like ex-President Eliot, for 
whom republicanism is the alpha and 
omega of government for all nations, 
irrespective of their historical tra- 
ditions and stage of development, 
will find in the chapter on the 
"Kaiser" the German point of view 
explained in a matter of fact way, 
with which the most enthusiastic re- 
publican can find no fault, even 
though he may prefer his own point 
of view for his own country. The 
price of the book should place it in 
the reach of every one; and the in- 
formation is first hand and so valu- 
able that nobody desiring to be com- 
pletely in touch with the present sit- 
uation can afford to do without it. — 
Herbert Sanborn (Vanderbilt Univer- 
sity) . 

Before receiving my copy of Pro- 
Professor Mlinsterberg's book on the 
present war I had read a review of 
it in the "Independent," which had 
astonished me. Under the date of 
October 5, a writer in that maga- 
zine criticizes this book as being un- 
fair, and charges Professor Miinster- 
berg flatly with either ignorance or 
knavery. When one sees, however, 
the way in which the "Independent" 
attempts to establish this allegation 
one gains a bit more insight into the 
method which Germany's adversaries 
find themselves forced to adopt. The 
author of that review shows not 
merely that he has not understood 
the book, but that he has tried ener- 
getically to misinterpret it, and the 
following is a case in point: 



These good men had no idea that the 
"Transcript" had led them into a trap 
and that not one word of it was 
really in my book. But their dis- 
patches worked havoc. To give an 
illustration, such a dispatch was sent 
to the Washington "Star." From 
there it spread all over Washington. 
The next day the Washington "Post" 
brought out its first editorial, a wild 
attack on me, under the title "The 
Public an Ass." The editorial says 
that the German Emperor himself 
has appealed to the intelligence and 
fairmindedness of the American peo- 
ple, but "Professor Munsterberg 
rushes in with the suggestion that 
the judges are a lot of sheep and 
asses." No one who knows the Bos- 
ton "Transcript" can have been sur- 
prised that even this editorial of the 
Washington "Post," based on the 
falsehood spread by the Boston 
"Transcript" itself, was then re- 
printed by the "Transcript" like an 
independent confirmation. I tried to 
set myself right before the readers of 
the "Transcript" and asked the editor 
to print a letter in which I insisted 
that none of those insulting phrases 
appeared in my book. It was only 
consistent that while the "Tran- 
script" has ample room for the most 
trivial letters from any crank, the 
editors refused to print my letter. 
Their readers must be hermetically 
protected against the truth. I must 
remain to them the man who is un- 
fair to the American people. And 
this is the same "Transcript" which 
some years ago when my book on 
"The Americans" appeared wrote 
that it was by far the best and the 
fairest book on the Americans ever 
written, claimed even its superiority 
to Bryce and insisted that I had done 
a lasting service to the American na- 
tion by writing that book for the 
European public For twenty years 
I was in the eyes of the "Transcript" 
the fair and faithful interpreter of 
the American mind. All is suddenly 
forgotten, because my book which 
stands for fairness must be crushed 
by any possible means. 

(Reprinted from "The Father- 
land," New York, November 4, 1914.) 



AN AMAZING CONFESSION. 



(Editorial from the "Milwaukee 
Free Press," September 3, 1914.) 

The letter of J. Rankin Towse, 
London correspondent of The Na- 
tion, in the current issue of that 
weekly, throws a sinister light upon 
England's part in the precipitation 
of the European war. Bearing in 
mind that this letter was dated Au- 
gust 11, and that war between Great 
Britain and Germany was declared 
August 4, we invite the careful peru- 
sal of this paragraph from Mr. 
Towse's letter: 

"The promptitude, the secrecy, and 
the order with which the (British) 
government acted were extraordinary. 
It is only now leaking out that pre- 
parations for war began three months 
ago. I know that some naval reserve 
officers were then assigned to their 
respective ships, and I am assured, 
on what I believe to be responsible 



authority, that Lord Kitchener went 
secretly to Belgium a few weeks ago 
to arrange with the Belgian head- 
quarters staff about the disposition 
of our expeditionary force. A large 
part of that force was in Dover a 
week or so ago. The old place was 
thick with soldiers one night; the 
next morning they had vanished. 
During the night they were all en- 
trained for Folkstone, where they 
were put on transports and dis- 
patched. At the same time a fleet of 
great steamers, loaded to bulwarks 
with khaki clad soldiers, sailed out 
of Southampton. I heard yesterday, 
from a good source, that 100,000 
British soldiers were in Belgium last 
Tuesday (August 4)." 

Since Mr. Towse, like The Nation, 
is strongly Anglophile, this state- 
ment comes from a friendly observer 
on the ground. 

If true, what does it reveal with 
regard to England's claims of pacific 
and neutral purpose toward this war? 
It reveals that they are hypocritical 
humbug. 

Sir Edward Grey has tried to con- 
vince the world through the British 
White Book that he sought peace up 
to the last moment; yet here is the 
statement of a pro-Britain that the 
government began to prepare for this 
war months ago; that "the mobiliza- 
tion of the British fleet was accom- 
plished then, secretly, under the pre- 
tense of a review before the king," 
that many days prior to Germany's 
declaration of war upon Russia "Lord 
Kitchener went secretly to Belgium" 
to arrange for the disposition of the 
British. 

No wonder, in that event, that 
Great Britain refused to meet Ger- 
many's proposal that she guarantee 
the neutrality of Belgium! 

More than that, Mr. Towse deposes 
that while John Bull was protesting 
his desire to remain neutral and dis- 
cussing the conditions with Germany, 
he was quietly engaged in landing 
soldiers in Belgium and already had 
100,000 on Belgian soil prior to 
August 4 when war was declared. 

We will not ask our readers to be- 
lieve all this, although Mr. Towse 
is said to be exceptionally careful in 
the report of alleged facts. What 
we wish to emphasize is that this 
Anglophile correspondent, like the 
British public, admires this British 
forehandedness — the very thing con- 
demned in the Germans — and finds 
no inconsistency between it and Eng- 
land's professions. 



No matter what additional evi- 
dence continually comes to light, dis- 
proving all that has been said against 
the Kaiser and Germany, "The Out- 
look" continues to believe all ab- 
surdities emanating from the Lon- 
don-Paris Co., Unlimited, as long as 
they say something despicable about 
Germany and her "barbarian' inhab- 
itants, it is accepted as gospel truth. 

For the Rev. Dr. Abbott to listen 
to and weigh reasonable argument of 
the other side, which possibly might 
change his mind and make him ac- 
knowledge his mistake, would be too 
much to expect. 



308 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



POWER OF THE PRESS. 



Associated Press Unchecked, Not 

Verified — Newspapers Are Only 

Mental Food for Many — 

Doctored, Distorted, 

Colored. 



Enormous Influence of British Press 
on Every Free-Born American. 



Accept News and Opinions of Daily 
Papers with Reserve. 



The Origin of News. 

There has been an immense 
amount of discussion and a great 
deal of writing on the subject of 
the responsibility for the Great Eu- 
ropean War. It is only natural that 
this important matter should be dis- 
cussed, but it is most remarkable 
that newspaper editorials have been 
distinctly one-sided. That there 
should be some bias in the case of 
American newspapers is easily ex- 
plained, if we investigate the proc- 
ess by which news is gathered, if we 
investigate its origin. Sometimes it 
may happen that this is gathered by 
someone who unconsciously distorts 
it with this point of view. Sometimes 
it is unconsciously manufactured. In 
this case — quick as a flash, many of 
our prominent English newspapers 
have put the whole blame of this 
Great European War on Germany. 
They have made no examination of 
the situation, have made no search 
for deeper causes. American papers 
blamed Germany and the German 
Kaiser, just because some British 
newspapers blamed the Germans and 
the German Kaiser. Now is this 
fair? Let us see. 

So that this subject might be fully 
understood let us investigate how 
the "news" is gathered. Newspapers 
have to buy "news," just as a gro- 
cer will have to buy his flour and 
his supplies, in order to sell them 
to you. The grocer is naturally in- 
terested in buying his product at the 
lowest price possible, and in selling 
to you at the highest price possible. 
The difference between the two is 
his profit. The same thing applies 
to "news." There are four large 
sources of expense connected with 
the production of a newspaper: 

1st — "News;" its gathering, writ- 
ing, and producing. 

2nd — Paper; cost of material, etc. 

3rd — Machinery; presses, mainte- 
nance, interest, etc. 

4th — Delivery; of the finished 
newspaper. 

A very large percentage of total 
expenses is eaten up by the "news" 
in its gathering, and its reproduction. 
When compared with a grocer the 
newspaper is even worse off, because 
the grocer can advance his price, 
whereas a newspaper Is sold at a 
fi.ved price. 

Consequently, newspapers are con- 
stantly looking for ttie cheapest way 
of getting "news." A distinct proof 
of this cheapening process is the 
"Associated Press." 



The Associated Press — Its Purpose. 

The "Associated Press" is an or- 
ganization which gathers news for all 
the newspapers. It is a mutual or- 
ganization to save money and avoid 
extra work. This idea is good, but 
it has great dangers. Formerly every 
newspaper gathered its own news. 
The proprietors of papers knew that 
they were spending a great amount 
of extra money in buying their "ma- 
terial." Therefore, they organized 
the Associated Press, which is now 
almost alone prevalent at least in 
gathering the "news" for most of 
the large city papers. As a result, 
the newspaper owners save untold 
thousands of dollars every year. All 
of the papers belonging to this as- 
sociation get the same material, and 
you may have noticed by comparing 
various papers that every one of them 
has the same article, word for word, 
and letter for letter. Some of our 
papers have a small independent 
news-service of their own, but, gen- 
erally speaking, the above statement 
is correct. 

The Associated Press a Monopoly. 

The Associated Press has some- 
times been called one of the strong- 
est "trusts" of monopolies in the 
United States. Various newspapers 
(such as the N. Y. "Sun") have been 
trying to break this monopoly, but 
so far have not been successful. 
Only a technicality has until now 
saved the Associated Press from be- 
ing declared an unlawful monopoly. 
This technicality is that the Asso- 
ciated Press is a mutual association 
without the purpose of profit. They 
have contended that a monopoly can 
only be unlawful if it makes exces- 
sive profits. In other words, they 
have called the attention of the 
courts to the so-called "good trusts," 
and the so-called "bad trusts," about 
which you have heard so much dur- 
ing the last few years; and I sup- 
pose that they style themselves a 
very good trust, because they do not 
make any profit at all! Is this really 
so? From more than one point of 
view, it is merely a subterfuge, be- 
cause it is a fact that each of the 
newspapers belonging to the Associa- 
tion have two great advantages: 1st, 
They are receiving their news quick- 
ly. 2nd, They are receiving it cheap- 
ly. Now, you know Time is money, 
and money saved is money earned. 
In other words, while the Association 
itself does not make any profit, the 
proprietors do make a great amount 
of profit. 

Power of the Press. 

Now, If the Associated Press or 
the Press should desire to Influence 
its news in one direction or another, 
it could easily do it, and it iviU be 
read by millions of people each daj. 
Many people believe more or less of 
what they read. It may issue \vrong 
news, because of lack of investiga- 
tion at the main office. It may issue 
erroneous news, because of lack of 
full knowledge on a particular sub- 
ject. News is often printed which 
any man, well versed in the subject 
will at once discover to be wrong. 

When I make these remarks, I 
do not mean to imply that the Press 



issues knowingly or maliciously any 

wrong statement; I merely wish to 
call your attention to their careless- 
ness and to certain worse possibili- 
ties. For instance, can it not be 
propable that there is a slight color- 
ing, a slight partiality, a slight lean- 
ing on the part of the makers of 
THIS news; a subtle influence 
stamped upon it because of its pe- 
culiar origin? 

Briefly, then, the Associated Press 
is a money-maker for the newspapers. 
It is a great central monopoly or 
"trust" for news. And the Press is 
an institution where a few men have 
the power to influence you in the 
right or in the vrrong direction, by 
possibly giving you slightly "colored" 
news, or information. * * * 



WILL THE NEW YORK WORLD 
EXPLAIN? 



The Vital Issue, New York. 

Numerous complaints have been 
received from correspondents that 
letters addressed -to newspapers were 
either not printed or mutilated. It 
is pretty hard to give actual and posi- 
tive proof of this, because usually 
the newspapers cover up their tracks. 
But we have at least one case which 
we will prove, and in the following 
we are going to entertain our read- 
ers with a remarkable instance. 

A certain gentleman wrote a letter 
to the "New York World," as per 
Exhibit "A," and the "New York 
World" printed the letter as per Ex- 
hibit "B." The writer of the letter 
was highly indignant that his corre- 
spondence should be mutilated, and 
below we publish his statement un- 
der oath: 

The undersigned hereby deposes 
and says: 

First. On September 5th, 1914, I 
wrote a letter to the Editor of the 
New York "World," New York City, 
as per Exhibit "A." 

Second. On September 7th I 
bought a copy of the "World" from 
a news stand, in which only part of 
my letter appeared, as sent to the 
"World" as per Exhibit "B." 

Third. I noticed immediately that 
the Editor of the New York "World" 
omitted the most essential part of my 
letter, thereby giving my letter a 
color entirely different from my orig- 
inal statements and intentions. 
(Signed) MAX VIEWEGER. 

(Witness) MARY W. WALLACE. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me 
this 15th day of September, 1914. 

(Seal) MARY W. WALLACE, 
Notary Public, New York County, No. 

4211; Register No. 5250. 

Exhibit "A." 

September 5th, 1914. 
The Editor, The World, New York 

City. 

Dear Sir: — Your paper is to be con- 
gratulated on the lucky coincidence 
of its president, Mr. Ralph Pulitzer, 
being in Germany at the present 
time. The accounts written by him 
of conditions in that country at the 
outbreak of the war bear the ear- 
marks of intelligent understanding 



PRESS ROOM CAMPAIGN— UNITED STATES 



309 



or at least an earnest effort to get at 
the truth. It must be hoped that this 
will have the proper effect on the edi- 
torial attitude of your paper, which 
up till now has been hopelessly un- 
fair, not to say hostile to the Ger- 
man side. Today's contribution of 
Mr. Ralph Pulitzer, for instance, 
seems to me to knock out completely 
your editorial, "Autocracy or Democ- 
racy," and similar efforts of the same 
tenor. 

I, for one, hope that "The World" 
will take editorial cognizance of its 
egregious misconception of the war 
and make amends for it as far as pos- 
sible. Sincerely yours, 

(Signed) MAX VIEWEGER. 

Exhibit "B." 
Mr. Pulitzer's lietter From Germany. 

To the Editor of the World: 

Your paper is to be congratulated 
on the lucky coincidence of its pres- 
ident, Mr. Ralph Pulitzer, being in 
Germany at the present time. The 
accounts written by him of condi- 
tions in that country at the outbreak 
of the war bear the earmarks of in- 
telligent understanding and earnest 
effort to get at the truth. 

MAX VIEWEGER. 
New York, Sept. 5. 



THE POLICY OF A DOMINEERING 
PRESS. 



SERVING XHE NEWS. 



(From "The Fatherland," New York, 
October 7, 1914.) 

Mr. Joseph Medill Patterson, the 
correspondent of "The Chicago Trib- 
une," writing to that paper from 
The Hague under date of Septem- 
ber 11, defends the Germans from 
charges of wanton cruelty in Bel- 
gium and France, and incidentally 
casts an illuminatiag side-light on 
the manner in which the war news is 
served to American readers. He says: 

"I have just returned from Ger- 
many, and anything I may write can- 
not be in the least influenced by the 
fear of German censorship. 

"British censorship, however, is to 
be feared. All the American corre- 
spondents in Berlin report that not 
only have vital facts of their dis- 
patches been cut out by British cen- 
sors, but other wholly untrue dis- 
patches have been added." 

Does any intelligent, thinking 
American believe one-half of the col- 
ored news dispatches which are 
cabled over about German cruelty 
and pnglish heroism? 

An illustration: On September 23 
news came that the Germans had de- 
stroyed three British cruisers in the 
North Sea with a loss of 1,200 men. 
The next morning there appeared in 
the New York papers a column cable 
dispatch of an interview with the 
chief gunner of the ill-fated "Cressy." 
He related circumstantially an amaz- 
ing achievement of his gunners in 
sinking two out of five German sub- 
marines. Yet only one German sub- 
marine was engaged, the U-9. 

The American public is allowed to 
hear but one side of the war, the side 
England desires it to hear. No faith 
can be attached to any dispatches 
save only those which come by the 
SayviUe wireless station. 



The New Yorker Staatz-Zeitung, 
Chicago. 

Herman Bidder. 

In considering the beginning of 
the present war it is well to have in 
mind that there is a sharp difference 
between causes and pretexts, be- 
tween origins and occasions. The 
aggression of Russia was the chief 
cause of the war; her defense of 
Slavic freedom but a pretext. The 
desire of Russia for a greater Slavic 
empire was the origin, the Austrian 
ultimatum to Servia but the occa- 
sion. 

I have read nearly everything on 
the war that has appeared in our 
daily press during the last month 
and over, and I have yet to see any 
mention of the fact that Russia en- 
tered upon the mobilization of her 
forces a year before the assassin's 
shot was fired at Serajevo. How, 
by the way, do those who charge 
the German Emperor with having 
brought on the war, explain away 
this fact? How, too, do they ac- 
count for the joint activities and 
preparations of Prance and Russia 
during 1912 and 1913? What in- 
terpretati»n do they place upon the 
visits of General Joffre and the ar- 
rangements of M. Delcasse? 

I know how public opinion is cre- 
ated. I have too often seen it dom- 
inated by the press. I know, too, 
that for many years a section of 
our daily press was subsidized by 
the Trusts and its "news" made to 
order. I can discern the work still 
going on, but under a new paymas- 
ter. Inflammatory headlines, a care- 
ful selection of reports from Paris 
and London, and, finally, bitter edi- 
torial denunciation of the German 
Emperor. 

The daily papers forget that the 
origin of the war dates further back 
than the so-called British "White 
Paper," and ask us to close our eyes 
to the years of Russian preparation 
which preceded the appearance of 
that very much overestimated docu- 
ment. In its leading editorial of the 
7th instant, entitled, "The Truth 
About Germany," the "Times" care- 
fully avoids all reference to Russia. 
Why does it not give its American 
readers "The Truth About Russia" 
as well? Can the "truth" about any 
one of the powers involved in the 
present struggle be told without at 
the same time telling the truth 
about all? 

The fact is that neither editori- 
ally nor in their columns are the 
great majority of the American news- 
papers giving their readers at the 
present time material upon which to 
construct an unbiased opinion either 
of the causes which led up to the 
war or of the progress of the war it- 
self. It is utterly impossible from a 
reading of the New York English 
newspapers to arrive at any just con- 
ception of the German point of view. 
That side of the shield is not pre- 
sented to the reading public. The 
"New York Herald" has frankly 
stated that it will not print reports 
received from Germany by wireless. 



Why does such a situation exist? 
Is it because Germany has not one 
ounce of right on her side? Is It 
because the German Emperor is held 
to be entirely responsible for the 
war? I know, as a matter of fact, 
that Germany was forced into hos- 
tilities by Russia. I know, too, as a 
matter of fact, that the German Em- 
peror tried by every honorable means 
within his power to avoid them. And 
I am confident that the judgment of 
history will be quite clear on both of 
these points. 

Every trick of journalism, and I 
know the game from the pistol to 
the tape, has been tried to win the 
American public to the side of the 
Allies. England, especially, has gone 
to the limit in courting the "moral 
support" of the American people. 
Her best writers and not a few of 
our own have been commissioned to 
fill the American newspapers with 
the English side of the controversy. 
The pen of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 
which loaned itself for the same pur- 
pose against the cause of Boer lib- 
erty in South Africa, and the sensa- 
tional quill of the Novelist Wells, 
are busy picturing for American eyes 
the horrors of a German triumph. 
Others have other fields to cover. It 
would be impossible to conceive of 
one way in which during these first 
six weeks of the war the story of 
England's friendship for the United 
States and of her righteous entrance 
into the European struggle could 
have been presented in a more fa- 
vorable light to the American reader 
or the truth about Germany and 
Austria more grotesquely, and, con- 
sequently, more criminally distorted. 

In the face of these facts the New 
York "Times" seizes upon the pub- 
lication of a book by some of the 
leading minds of Germany, de- 
signed to set forth the German point 
of view, as an opportunity to re- 
mark: "A case that enlists pleaders 
of this high distinction must in truth 
need buttressing." It is needless 
to point out the way in which the 
"Times" would like its remark to 
be taken. The unbiased American 
is very likely, however, to take it 
in an opposite sense. The case of 
Germany does need "buttressing" — 
buttressing against the avalanche of 
English, French, Russian and Ser- 
vian misstatements, distortions and 
subtle prevarications which have been 
sent down upon it. Left to itself, 
the case of Germany would have 
required no support, no defense. 
Threatened with submergence by the 
mere weight of the numbers, bribed 
or bullied against it, the best pens of 
Germany must not raise a voice in 
the defense of all they respect and 
hold dear in their national life! A 
million reams for the allies of Eng- 
land, but not a stick for Germany 
or Austria! Is that, I ask, the Amer- 
ican people's earnest desire? Or Is 
it the policy of a domineering press? 
"We prize above the approval of 
all other mutual nations that of our 
kinsmen (sic!) who share our ideals 
(sic!) and speak our tongue," says 
the "Times of London." Undoubt- 
edly. Outside of Germany, there is 
no people on the face of the earth 
whom the British hate more or fear 



310 



EVOLUTION BY THE LAW OF WAR 



more tlian they do these same "kins- 
tnen," and it was only to be expected 
that in a contingency in which the 
disapproval of the American people 
might have seriously inconvenienced 
British policy, every nerve and every 
pen should have been strained to 
secure their approval. 

"We always counted on the sup- 
port of American opinion in the war 
that has been forced on us. We 
counted upon it so securely that we 
at first neglected means which, per- 
haps in prudence, we should have 
taken to secure it." 

This also from the "Times" of 
London. 

All embracing as is the British 
press agency, it still needs a bit of 
polishing up, co-ordinating, and the 
like. Otherwise small kittens like 
this are liable to slip out of the bag. 

The first shot in the British cam- 
paign to subjugate American opin- 
ion and capture its approval was not 
fired after the inception of "the war 
that has been forced upon us," but 
as far back as the beginning of 1913. 
Writing in "The Philadelphia Press" 
of August 26th, Sir Arthur Conan 
Doyle says: "But early last year 
my views underwent a complete 
change," and therein alludes to the 
articles which we all recall having 
read in a string of American news- 
papers in the spring of last year. 
That article, which dealt with the 
same work of Bernhardi and sup- 
plies the text for the more recent 
writings of the historian alike of the 
Boer War and of Sherlock Holmes, 
was the first move to mould Ameri- 
can opinion in connection with the 
present war. In was coincident with 
the increased military preparations 
of France and Russia and may be 
served now as part and parcel of 
those general activities of the Allies 
for the destruction of Germany, 
which the pro-English press find it 
so convenient to overlook In discuss- 
ing "The Truth About Germany." 

Just at present the pen is fooling 
most of the people all the time, but 
this cannot continue very long. The 
American people want to know the 
facts, and in the end they are going 
to get them. When the truth is pub- 
lished, they will judge the matter for 
themselves. 

I am quite confident of the out- 
come of this war. Germany has a 
tremendous task before her, but the 
German people are not unequal to it. 
It takes a strong heart and desper- 
ate courage to win against such 
odds, but I know the temper of the 
Germans. They are as great in ad- 
versity as in triumph. German his- 
tory is full of disappointments and 
reverses, but it is also full of heroic 
successes. No matter how one feels 
today, tomorrow he will feel a thrill 
of admiration for the two nations 
who are standing alone and against 
whom the world is battling. 

I have met many Germans during 
the past month and I cannot but ad- 
mire the note of hope and confidence 
in their voices and bearing. As 
Germany is surrounded by her en- 
emies, so are her sympathizers sur- 
rounded by an adverse public opin- 
ion. But such a condition can be 
only temporary. In defeat or In vic- 
tory, Germany will win the admira- 



tion of the world by her courage and 
forbearance. 

It is not an unmixed evil to be 
in the ministry. To preach the gos- 
pel of Germany today requires a cer- 
tain order of courage. Let no well- 
wisher of Germany fail in his duty 
to his sympathies. Russia cannot 
avoid the responsibility. I have 
talked to many men and I have in- 
variably received the answer, "You 
are right in what you say, but I have 
never heard it put that way before." 
Unfortunately, my pen is weak. I 
cannot write as I feel. Expression 
escapes me. I feel the truth and 
yet cannot proclaim it, as I would 
wish. My mind has a thousand aims, 
yet my heart but one. If I could 
but speak individually to each and 
every American, I know that I should 
leave with him a seed of kindness 
toward Germany, a little understand- 
ing of her perils and a little sym- 
pathy for her position. 



A DIPERENCE OF POSITIONS. 



Xew Yorker Staatz-Zeitung, New 
York. 

Herman Ridder. 

Throughout the length and breadth 
of this great land the name'of "Marse 
Henry" is a familiar one to newspa- 
per readers. Dean of American edi- 
torial writers, and among the most 
brilliant as well as picturesque char- 
acters which our journalism has to 
offer. Colonel Watterson's place in 
our national life is unique. So it is, 
that when I regard the "Courier- 
Journal" in its connection with Henry 
Watterson, I always think of the 
lesser as geared to the greater. Per- 
sonality will rise above enterprise no 
less in journalism than in other 
fields. 

I know the Colonel well. I have 
the most distinct recollections of that 
charming Southern personality of 
his. As a prince of entertainers he 
is without an equal. As a conversa- 
tionalist he is without a peer among 
present-day Americans. The charm 
of his liquid Southern accent is still 
in my ears. His voice is like the 
music of yesterday. Even his spaces 
of silence are swept with song. It 
is not, however, that we admire 
"Marse Henry," or that we consider 
him a great editor. The fact that 
counts and will count is that we love 
him. 

I cannot, however, always agree 
with the torrents that flow from his 
circumambient pen. Indirect as is 
the challenge offered by the "Cou- 
rier-Journal," I must accept it. I 
cannot pass over without remark a 
great many of the assertions which 
its talented editor has permitted him- 
self to make. 

The great misconception under 
which so many of my well-meaning 
friends are apparently laboring is 
that we, German sympathizers, love 
our own United States the less be- 
cause In this cataclysmal hour we 
long for a German victory. By not 
one single emotion of patriotism, by 
not one sacrifice of loyalty, do we 
waver in our attachment to the Stars 
and Stripes. This is not a contest be- 



tween the United States and Ger- 
many. There is no confiict of inter- 
ests by which we can suffer or lose 
because of a German triumph. 

I do not wish to appear as a de- 
fender of monarchy against democ- 
racy, or as pleading the cause of 
Kaiser versus President. I do not 
hold up the German government as 
a pattern for us to follow. By no 
measure of interpretation can my 
meaning be so construed. I have 
taken up the cudgels which my pro- 
fession has placed in my hands solely 
in a discussion of the quarrel which 
Is going on between Germany and her 
enemies, of which latter the United 
States emphatically is not one. 

The difference between the posi- 
tions of Henry Watterson and my- 
self is that Colonel Watterson con- 
siders it best for the interests of the 
United States that the Allies should 
win — I, that American interests will 
suffer less from a German triumph. 

If I were to plunge into an editor- 
ial analysis of what, for example, the 
Russian Government stands for, I 
could not do better than choose my 
words from the opening sentences of 
his arraignment of the German gov- 
ernment. The only changes that 
would be necessary would be the 
substitution of "Russia" for "Ger- 
many," and "Czar" for "Kaiser." The 
Colonel would then say: 

"It may be harder for a Russian 
than an American to differentiate the 
Russian Czar and the Russian people. 
To the Slavic mind the Czar stands 
as the symbol of all that is loyal in 
the Russian heart. 

"To the average American who 
considers the institutions of his own 
country as distinguished from the in- 
stitutions of Russia, the Czar appears 
as, though a brilliant personality, an 
odious despot. His government Is to 
our seeing the sum of all iniquity. 
Who believes in it cannot believe In 
the government of the United States. 

"That a wise and good despot may 
for the time being insure wise and 
good government may be true 
enough. That the government of the 
mob may be supremely bad — even 
tyrannous — is likewise true. But, as 
between the one-man power and the 
many-men power, the mass and body 
of human-kind will in the long run 
fare best with the many-men power. 
Hence, we Americans are republi- 
cans." 

How much truer would have rung 
the words of Watterson had they 
been applied, in the first instance, to 
Russia, where they belong? 

"Why, indeed, should Herman 
Ridder himself, whoop things up by 
quoting the war songs of Germany 
and talking of the 'Vaterland' as if 
he were writing In Berlin instead of 
New York?" 

Why, may I be permitted to ask, 
does Colonel Watterson "whoop 
things up" for the savagery that Is 
being hurled against German civiliza- 
tion, as if he were writing in St. 
Petersburg or Tokyo or Simla in- 
stead of Louisville, Ky? Is one Amer- 
ican to be muzzled when he seeks 
conscientiously to give the American 
people the truth that the goose-quill 
of another may have the field undis- 
puted? I leave It not to my good 
friend "Massah Henry," but to the 



PRESS ROOM CAMPAIGN— UNITED STATES 



311 



great body of my countrymen: — Do 
they wish both sides of the shield, 
or but one? 

And therein lies the angle of dis- 
tortion that we, German sympathi- 
zers, object to. Why should upon us 
be placed the defense of that element 
in the German government that all 
upbuilders of democracy object to? 
If it comes to a question of German 
rule or Russian misrule can there be 
the slightest choice? If you maintain 
that it is a choice of evils then I an- 
swer, for God's sake choose the 
lesser. Let me quote, in this con- 
nection, from Professor John W. Bur- 
gess, of Columbia University: 

"The 'rattle of the sabre' would 
then be music to our ears in compari- 
son with the cracli of the Cossack's 
knout and the clanking of Siberian 
chains, while the burden of taxation 
which we would be obliged to suffer 
to create and maintain the vast navy 
and army necessary for the defense 
of our territory and commerce 
throughout the world against these 
giant powers with their Oriental ally, 
Japan, would sap our wealth, en- 
danger our prosperity and threaten 
the very existence of Republican in- 
stitutions."* 

If you must differ in opinion from 
us, if you cannot see the questions in- 
volved as we see them, do not beg 
the question by attacking our Amer- 
icanism, our loyalty to democratic 
ideals, or our love for the American 
flag. I venture to state that there 
is not an American of German paren- 
tage in all this land that does not 
agree with me when I say, " My coun- 
try, right or wrong, first, last and al- 
ways! " But, to this, we prefer to 
add with Karl Schuerz: "... 
right, to keep her right; wrong, to 
get her right." 



PLANNED WAR MONTHS AHEAD. FROM A GERMAN SYMPATHIZER. 



*The complete article, "Why I 
Champion Germany," by Professor 
John W. Burgess, from which the 
above is quoted, is reprinted on an- 
other page. — Editor. 



THE NEWSPAPERS AND THE 
EUROPEAN WAR. 



Origin of News — ^How it is Gathered. 

A Technical Article Well Worth 

Your Attention and Serious 

Consideration. 



The Vital Issue. 

Editor's Note: This article was 
written by Mr. F. C. Gramercy, who 
is well known as a student and keen 
observer on the trend of literature 
in this country. His papers are even 
more appreciated in Europe than on 
this side of the Atlantic. He is well 
versed in all international affairs. 
His residence and study in various 
parts of the world have given him an 
intimate acquaintance with the lan- 
guages and customs and with the 
trend of thought of several countries. 
His criticism does not merely scratch 
the surface, but goes to the bottom 
of things. His remarks are to the 
point, but always thoughtful and 
fair. 



From "The Fatherland," New York, 
October 7, 1914. 

The Paris "Gil Bias" of February 
25, 1913, printed the following: 

"A paper in the East of France 
publishes an interesting news item. 
It is common talk in military circles 
that for weeks past large supplies of 
British munitions of war have been 
shipped to Maubeuge, on the north- 
eastern French frontier, via the 
Paris-Cologne Railway. "The city of 
Maubeuge is of great military impor- 
tance. In the French plan of cam- 
paign it is designated as the point of 
concentration of the allied troops, 
who are to be commanded in case of 
war by the English Field Marshal, 
Sir John French, as commander-in- 
chief under General Joffre. It is well 
known that the projectiles for the 
British guns are different from those 
of the French. However, the two 
governments have formed an ar- 
rangement by which the necessary 
supplies for the English artillery may 
be landed in France in time of 
peace." 



A PSALM OP PEACE. 

Let us not be up and doing. 
With a heart for any fate. 

But, the path of peace pursuing, 
Learn to watch and learn to wait. 

While the bonehead Democratic 
Party gums affairs of state. 

Let us, with a mien ecstatic. 

Contemplate our shins — and wait. 

Minor thief and major grafter 
Pilfer, plunder, peculate. 

While they grab what they are after 
We will hold our breath — and 
wait. 

Let us sit around lamenting 

That the world is hot with hate; 

We will pray for its repenting — 
Meantime, brothers, let us wait. 

We will issue proclamations, 
Warring powers to placate. 

It may interest the nations; 
If it doesn't, we can wait. 

"Safety first," our motto; let us 
Mind our step and watch the gate, 

For the Bogey Man will get us 

If we don't watch out, and wait. 

Friends, sit tight and take no 
chances; 

We might rue it when too late. 
Whatso'er the circumstances. 

Venture nothing. Watch and wait. 

Lives of great men may remind us 
'Twas their deeds that made them 
great. 

These examples need not bind us — 
Safer far it is to wait. 

So we'll glorify inaction. 

Leave to Providence our fate. 

And, in smug self-satisfaction. 

Wait — and wait — and wait — and 
wait. 

— From "The Chicago Tribune," 
September 12, 1914. 



(From "The Times-Picayune," New 
Orleans, August 16, 1914.) 

To the Editor of The Times-Pic- 
ayune: 

It is supposed that Germany will 
soon be on her knees begging for 
peace. Wonder it is that the Kaiser 
has not "fallen all over Itimself" to 
accept President Wilson's mediation 
proposal. 

While Germany's full strength is 
5,000,000 men, from the battles (?) 
fought during the past week, accord- 
ing to newspaper account, anywhere 
from 1 to 25,000 Germans have been 
killed, etc., in each battle, so that, 
by now, 10,000,000 must be out of 
the fight already. 

Not only that, they must fight like 
amateurs or else they have awful 
bad luck. For to date, they seem to 
be beat every time, no matter what 
odds are in their favor. If two 
German ships meet one English or 
French ship, the German ships are 
sunk. If 100,000 Germans meet 
25,000 Belgians or French, the Ger- 
mans are losers by 25,000 or more. 
In fighting the French, the Germans 
lose 30,000, the French 15,000. All 
this is certainly not according to the 
proverbial "Dutch luck!" 

The only trouble with all these 
victories (?) over the Germans is 
that the news all comes from hostile 
countries, for what matters it to 
them if they throw a few thousand 
extra dead or captured Germans into 
every battle? 

The news also comes that Italy's 
King refuses to sell his country's 
honor. How Italy detests the Ger- 
mans and Austrians now there is a 
fight on hand! During peace, it is 
presumed, Italy made good use of 
the Triple Alliance. Truly, a friend 
in need is a friend indeed. 

PRO-GERMAN. 



When the German-American lays 
down a penny for one of these papers 
at a news stand — and this happens 
above five hundred thousand times 
here in Chicago — he is really being 
the rod that is continually applied 
to his nationality. He keeps open 
the turbid source from which slander 
and hatred of the German flows. The 
"impartial" American papers have 
united with the biased English publi- 
cations to deceive this country by 
presenting a highly colored picture 
of war events favoring England. 
They fill their columns with the 
original text contained in London 
and invent the exasperating head- 
lines by which they endeavor to 
humiliate the Germans. Self-respect 
should prevent every German from 
further supporting such doings and 
keep him from spending his good 
money for reports misrepresented to 
favor the British. If American 
papers show their hatred for Ger- 
many to such an extent that they 
print all reports from St. Petersburg, 
London, Paris and Nisch on the first 
page of the paper under broad head- 
lines, while the trustworthy Berlin 
and Vienna reports are given some 
small space on the third or fourth 
page it is time the German would 
refuse to ever again take hold of 
these formidable weapons. 



FIFTH CHAPTER 

ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 

HOW MUCH CAN WE HELP BY DISCUSSING THE USE OF FORCE? 



PEACE AND WAR 

Interesting and Helpful Thoughts and Suggestions on the Philosophy of War 

Moral or Immoral 
Depends on the Righteousness of the Cause 



REFLECTIONS ON THE SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 

How we can Prevent some Wars — On bringing Philosophy to the People 
Ethics and Humanity and War 



THE DUTY OF PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR 
THE SIN OF UNPREPAREDNESS 

But like^Religion without the State, Love without the Home, and Patriotism without the Army 

Undisturbed, Perpetual Peace is an Ideal for Heaven and not this Earth 

But, Peace or War, always on Condition of Righteousness 



PHILOSOPHIZING ON THE WAR 
SOME INTERESTING REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 

A Variation of Scripture: 
It may be necessary that wars come — but woe to those through whom they come 



LESSONS OF THE WAR 

We may be obliged to employ Force to Protect Virtue and Progress of the Human Family 
But Woe to the Nation that would stay these Virtues by Force! 

INTRODUCTION 



liESSONS OF THE WAR. 



By the Editor "Open Court." 
Dr. Paul Carus. 

So suddenly has war fallen upon Eu- 
Tope that we can scarcely realize it as 
jet, and are at a loss to know what to 
think of it. Many among us believe in 
the establishment of universal peace 
on earth, and are inclined to condemn 
-armaments and readiness for war, 
which they call "militarism," and these 
■people are least prepared to form a cor- 
rect and sound judgment of the situa- 
tion. Considering the difficulty of 
understanding the nature of war and 
the iiart it plays in the history of man- 
Tiiud we will here briefly outline the 
lessons which the war teaches us. 

According to the theory of evolution 
the one main factor that determines 
the survival of the fittest is the struggle 
for life ; and in commerce this struggle 
for life shows itself as competition, and 
in the rivalry of the nations, as war. 
Life is not a mere frolic ; it is a com- 
bat, and our first duty is to maintain 
■ourselves. The fit survive, the unfit go 
to the wall. War is the natural state 
of things ; peace is introduced by civil- 
ization as an artificial means to allevi- 
ate the sufferings of war and to elimi- 
nate them more and more. 

Civilization should not be regarded 
as unnatural because it is higher than 
the more primitive condition of a war 
of all against all. Civilization Is higher 
nature ; it is, and should be, nature re- 
fined and ennobled. So we will under- 
stand that peace is not the abolition of 
struggle, but simply a higher kind. 
Peace abolishes slaughter but leaves 
competition, and competition often 
proves to be more severe than war. The 
struggle for life in the time of peace 
in mercantile and industrial competi- 
tion is frequently as keen as a battle, 
sometimes it is worse ; it demands cour- 
age, quickness of decision, keen fore- 
sight and strong endurance as much as 
the conflict of war. 



DOCTOR PAUL CARUS 

The first lesson then is this : We 
shall never he able to do away with 
struggle altogether, for struggle is the 
nature of life. But we shall be able to 
avoid unnecessary sufferings, and this 
is slowly being accomplished by means 
of civilization. 

A universal and lasting peace is an 
ideal which is not Impossible, but we 
are sure that it can be realized only 
upon the basis of force. Peace on earth 
will come about as a matter of course 
only when the men of goodwill hold 
the balance of power. So long as the 
unjust, the brutishly greedy, the nar- 
row-minded and stupid have anything 
to say in international affairs peace 
will remain impossible, and therefore it 
will be the duty of every civilized na- 
tion to be prepared for self-defense. 
This is the second lesson we have to 
learn. 

Germany was pretty well prepared 
for war. She suffered so much in for- 
mer centuries from being unprepared 
that at last she has learned the lesson. 
If other nations should fall upon the 
United States as the allies fell upon 
Germany, we should be unable to resist 
and would have either to make an ig- 
noble peace or suffer great reverses be- 
fore we could assert ourselves. And 
how few of us know that it is our duty 
to be prepared for war ! In this rough 
world of ours we must unlearn that 
goody-goody morality which praises the 
ideal of peace at any price and de- 
nounces the lion as an evil doer be- 
cause he lives on a flesh diet. Its em- 
blem of goodness is the sheep, or the 
lamb innocently butchered. We do not 
glorify the wolf, the representative of 
lower nature, but we do not mean to 
worship the lamb with its passive vir- 
tue, so the third lesson of the war may 
be formulated thus : "Ovine morality 
is wrong." We must cease to admire 
and imitate the sheep because it Is so 
good, so very good that it would rather 
be devoured than fight. 

The ovine ideal was greatly admired 
in Germany till it brought on a dissolu- 

319 



tion of the empire and allowed the na- 
tion to go to wrack and ruin and be 
wiped off from the face of the earth. 
The Hohenzollerus with their people, 
the little state of Brandenburg-Prussia, 
learned the lesson of war and the 
duties of self-assertion ; and from them 
came the salvation of Germany. 

We do not mean to say that either 
the Hohenzollerns or the Prussians 
were faultless, or that Prussianism did 
not exhibit much onesidedness. The 
Prussians went too far in emphasizing 
militarism ; they have often enough 
neglected the culture of art and science 
and have been eclipsed by smaller 
states in literature, iu art, and other 
branches of intellectual progress. Cer- 
tainly they can be criticized and have 
been'held up to ridicule frequently and 
not without justice. But when the 
time of danger came and the very ex- 
istence of Germany was threatened, 
Prussia came to the rescue and saved 
Germany from extinction ; and the les- 
son which the recent events teaches us 
is this: "Go ye. United States and do 
likewise," which means, "Be prepared 
for self-defense." 

Let us not only educate our boys in 
Sunday schools, but let us make men 
of them. The desire for self-defense is 
natural. If we were to become impli- 
cated in a war on a large scale and if 
hostile armies were to invade our 
country, there is danger that our citi- 
zens might turn into snipers instead of 
warriors. It is to be feared that this 
will be the case with England if the 
country is invaded, and the result 
would be terrible. 

In former articles' I have advocated 
the principle that our young men 
should be drilled in military service, 
and it seems to me that it ought to 
be done somewhat in the style of the 
Swiss army. I am firmly convinced 
that it would be beneficial to our 
youth. The boys need it, and a criti- 



' See, for instance, "Duplicate the Naval 
Academy," "Oijen Court," XV, 495. 



316 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



cal niomeut might come when such an 
institution would preserve peace, or, If 
that should prove impossible, would 
serve to protect our country efficiently. 

The fifth lesson therefore is this : A 
military training will do good to every 
one of our boys, and militarism, the 
right kind of militarism, is a necessity 
which ought to be introduced in our 
own country. Its introduction into 
England in a system of compulsory 
military training has already been an- 
nounced. The English propose to crush 
militarism in Germany where it has 
reached a certain perfection, but they 
do not and never did object to the bar- 
barous militarism of Russia nor to 
their own navalism, and now are 
going to establish an English mili- 
tarism. 

My Critics. 

I may be excused for taking space 
to characterize my critics by citing 
quotations, but these specimens exhibit 
the violent nature of the great masses 
of the supporters of the English cause. 
They scold, they calumniate, they jump 
at unjustifiable conclusions ; mere sus- 
picions, absolutely wrong, are uttered 
as undeniable facts, and even if their 
errors are refuted they cling to their 
beliefs. 

The letters of protest which have 
come to me in response to the October 
number of "The Open Court" are rare, 
only ten so far, while whole-hearted 
endorsements are numerous, among 
them a telegraphic greeting from the 
New York society of former German 
university students in appreciation of 
the view I have taken.' The language 
of my critics is bitter, and three of 
the ten come from Canada. A 
Canadian friend of mine assures me 
that Canadians, including German 
Canadians, have no opportunity to be- 
come acguaihted with the German side 
of the question. 

One letter from Toronto, signed 
"Jones," without street address, con- 
tains a long newspaper clipping relat- 
ing to the establishment of a German 
secret service to Influence public opin- 
ion abroad, but it Is peculiar that 
this secret service Is reported to have 
been founded in a public meeting. The 
letter reads: "Are you one of the 
Secret Service agents of Germany in 
America? From October issue would 
think so. The paper that sells its con- 
science, if its Editor has any, is con- 
temptible." 

Another letter of the same character 

reads: " From the beginning to the 

end of the magazine. you have shown 
that you are clearly a subsidized agent 
of the German government. For gold 
you have got together a lot of quota- 
tions and other material to belittle 
the British empire in the eyes of the 
world at the present time. . .'.You were 
not thinking of the cruelties that were 



' Men who have attended German uni- 
versities are very numerous all over the 
United States and all belong to the most 
intellectual class ot our citizens. Some 
of them have founded a society under the 
name "Terein alter deutschen Studenten," 
which is flourishing in many of our larger 
cities, especially New York and Chicago, 
but also in many smaller towns. Most of 
the members are Americans or German- 
Americans, and I have reason to believe 
that the sympathies o£ most of them are 
pro-German in this crisis. 



being practised by the soldiers of 'Cul- 
tured Germany' In Belgium...." 

The same Toronto critic writes in a 
second letter : 

"You are to me a 'snake in the 
grass,' and you are playing a double 
game which will finally reflect Itself 
against you. The twaddle you have 
been publishing for the edification of 
your readers, could be, however, easily 
scattered to the four winds of heaven 
so far as its correctness is concerned. 
However, a man who apparently has 
been bribed with German gold or else 
become imbued or obsessed with the 
mental capacity of the mad professors 
of Germany, would not listen to any 
wisdom coming from a person who 
has traveled extensively throughout 
the world, and knows the feeling that 
is predominant among the intelligent 
portion of the world. Germany will be 
'smashed' with all its 7Had professors." 

A third letter, coming from the 
United States and anonymous, is on 
the same level. Its arguments are not 
rational nor logical, but delightfully 
vigorous in invectives : "Never again 
shall any publication bearing your 
name enter my house, nor any decent 
American household that I can keep 
it out of. Never again will I vote for 
any man who calls himself 'a German- 
American.' He lies. Moreover, he Is 
a fool. I know that I cannot insult 
you by calling you a liar. You are a 
German. I call you a fool. You can 
feel that. To you and all other ex- 
ponents of die Kultur, as illustrated at 
Louvain, my undying contempt. You 
remind me of the gorilla whose ego 
was too large for his cosmos." 

A fourth letter from a Canadian 
resident in the United States, "saying 
a definite farewell" to "The Open 
Court," because "in ethical sense it 
has fallen upon evil days," encloses 
an argument against the German side 
and claims that it "mirrors the senti- 
ment of nine-tenths of my native-born 
American friends." He mentions 
"General von Edelsheim's plan to In- 
vade our shores," published In "that 
now classic monograph entitled Op- 
erations upon the Sea," and also the 
violation of Belgium's neutrality as 
well as "the deliberate destruction of 
the Louvain library and the Rhelms 
cathedral." 

It ought to be generally known by 
this time that the Belgian neutrality 
treaty was Indeed a mere scrap of 
paper. Even Gladstone In his time 
considered it as such and made a new 
treaty for the time of the war 1870-71 
to last one year after the war — a fact 
pointed out by Professor Burgess — and 
it is acknowledged that in cases of 
necessity such obligations are broken, 
and statesmen admit that it is per- 
fectly justifiable to break them. I will 
quote Sir Edward Grey In his speech 
in the House of Commons on August 
3 where he cites English authorities. 
Gladstone and others, for the view 
that such guarantees are not always 
binding. Sir Edward Grey cannot very 
well uphold the absolute sanctity of 
Belgian neutrality, for the documents 
discovered in Brussels and Antwerp 
prove that Belgium, England and 
France had broken Belgian neutrality 
treaties long before a German soldier 



set foot on Belgian grouud.3 Sir Ed- 
ward Grey said: "There is, I admit 

the obligation of the treaty but I 

am not able to subscribe to the doe- 
trine. .. .that the simple fact of the 
existence of a guarantee is binding on 
every party to it irrespective alto- 
gether of the particular position in 
which it may find itself at the time 
when the occasion for acting on the 
guarantee arises. The great author- 
ities upon foreign policy as Lord 

Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston, never 
to my knowledge took that rigid, and 
if I may venture to say so, that Im- 
practicable view of the guarantee The 
circumstance that there is already an 
existing guarantee in force is, of neces- 
sity, an important fact, and a weighty 
element in the case." 

So the breach of neutrality is un- 
essential, the reason for war lies deep- 
^^u ^"' ^<^ward Grey continues: 
ihere is also this further considera- 
tion, the force of which we must all 
feel most deeply, and that Is, the com- 
mon Interest against the unmeasured 
aggrandizement of any power what- 
ever." 

The true reason for the war, accord- 
ing to Sir Edward Grey and others 
was the maintenance of the balance of 
power, and thus there is no use for 
arguments, no use for logic, no question 
of right or wrong. Since Germany 
has become united she has distributed 
the balance of power and must be 
crushed before she grows too power- 
ful for England. Her "unmeasured ag- 
grandizement" is the reason why the 
British entered into the war. It is 
this they call German aggressiveness 
and never tire of denouncing German 
Imperialism, Prussianlsm and mili- 
tarism. These words mean that Ger- 
many should no longer be a union, 
should no longer be strong and war- 
like, should not be able to defend her- 
self. Rational arguments are not needed ; 
defenders of the British cause simply 
scold and show contempt for Imperial- 
ism and militarism; at the same time 
they propose to Introduce these hein- 
ous institutions in Great Britlan. The 
colonies must be federated and the 
government must be allowed to raise 
big armies by drafting. 

There Is one more pro-British letter 
which I regret has been misplaced. It 
is quite similar to the others, only it 
adds, "You are a cur." These vigor- 
ous expressions of a difference of 
opinion are Interesting, for invectives 
prove that people who use them are 
without a convincing argument. Other- 
wise they would produce the argument 
instead of scolding. It is the man 
without reason that turns rude. And 
the easiest way to dispose of an op- 
ponent is to denounce him as immoral, 
as a liar, a man without conscience, 
low in an ethical sense. 

The sixth of my critics has an argu- 
ment. He is a scholar of keen discri- 
mination in his own field, but some- 
times a stickler for points which others 
consider as unmeaning. He is a native 
Britisher but pretty bold and impar- 
tial. He writes : 



' See the report from the German gen- 
eral headquarters as quoted on pages 66S 
and 664 in the editorial article, 'toor Bel- 
gium," in the November "Open Court." 



SOME VALUABLE LESSONS OF THE WAR 



317 



"lu your reprint of the "Satiirciay 
Review"* article of 1S97 you omit the 
iQost damning words of all : viz., the 
last sentence : 'Germaiiiam esse delen- 
dam.' On February 1, 1896, the same 
review, in an article 'by a biologist,' 
says : 'The biological view of foreign 
policy is plain. First, federate our 
colonies and prevent geographical iso- 
lation turning the Anglo-Saxon race 
against itself. Second, be ready to 
fight Germany, as Oermania est de- 
lenda; third, be ready to fight America 
when the time comes. Lastly, engage 
in no wasting wars against peoples 
from whom we have nothing to fear.' 
These are the last words. 

"Herman Ridder quotes the Catonlc 
speech as of 1S79 instead of 1897, and 
I controverted him in the Philadelphia 
'Evening Bulletin.' By this misprint it 
is made to appear that English jingoism 
was five years earlier than Prussian, 
for it was on November 1SS4, that 
Treitschke said this : 'Mit Oesterreich, 
mit Frankreich, mit Russland haben 
wir bereits abgerechnet ; die letzte 
Abrechnung mit England wird vor- 
aussichtlich die langwierigste und die 
schwierlgste sein."t 

This proposition to place the guilt 
where we find priority in an authori- 
tative statement of jingoism, does not 
seem to me applicable. The question 
is not who threatened first, but who 
has done right and who has done 
wrong. The breach of neutrality in 
Germany would have been wrong if it 
had not been contemplated first by the 
French, and it is justified by the Eng- 
lish plans to take it in their schemes 
of 1906. 

I will quote one more critic who is 
a Britisher living in the United States, 
a man distinguished by scientific erudi- 
tion. He writes : "Your article in the 
October 'Open Court' was extremely 
interesting to me, rabid Britisher I am, 
in that it was the only exposition of 
the German side of the question which 
I have seen that was not made in the 
heat of anger. I do not agree with 
you, however." 

A very unexpected letter reached me 
from England from quarters which do 
not have any influence on the govern- 
ment but represent die Stillen im Lande 
who may form a nucleus for a future 
reform. Our correspondent states that 
one of his nearest friends, a profes- 
sional thinker with a strong leaning 
towards politics, is "of opinion that 
Grey is a very unscrupulous person ; 
in fact he describes him . as a 'devil.' 
Indeed, Grey's whole policy, especially 
about the Morocco crisis, is very bad. 
With regard to the violation of Bel- 
gium's neutrality, my friend is sure 
that Germany violated it first and with 
no provocation on the part of Prance, 
but that if France had violated it 
England would not have interfered. It 
is Interesting that Asquith made a 
great point of Belgium to appeal to 
the British public, while Grey, to do 
him justice, did not pretend that Bel- 
glum was the cause of the war. The 



• The first article of the October "Open 
Court." The copy of the "Saturday Re- 
view" from which our article was taken 
■ did not conclude with the words : "Ger- 
inaniam esse delendam.^' 

t From "Die er.=!ten Versuehe deutscher 
Kolonialpolitik" ; November 25, 1884, in 
Treitschlce's "Deutsche Kampfe," "Neue 
Folge," "Schritten zur Tagespolitik." Leip- 
sic, 1896, p. 349. 



fault of British diplomacy is that at 
the beginning England did not say def- 
initely what she would do or would 
not do. The English people are often 
unconscious hypocrites because, though 
the ideals they think they pursue are 
noble ones, they will not acknowledge 
that their policy is, like the policy of 
other nations, governed entirely by self- 
interest. The German policy Is almost 
brutally frank, but the English policy 
has never been frank. What the Eng- 
lish were afraid of about Belgium was 
that Germany should annex Belgium 
and establish seaports which would 
threaten England. When Germany had 
no navy to speak of, in 1887 I think, 
England did not propose to interfere 
on behalf of Belgium when Germany 
proposed to advance against France 
through Belgium. Also there was at 
one time a precisely analogous case In 
the Russian invasion of Persia; Per- 
sia's neutrality had been guaranteed 
by England, and England did not in- 
terfere, but salved her conscience by 
the reflection that the Persians were 
a bad lot. England's behavior to other 
nations Is simply guided by the fact as 
to whether they have a navy or not; 
if they have a navy England's con- 
science awakes." 

A man who approves the defense of 
Germany In "The Open Court," says: 

"At the beginning of the war. . . . 
I received the impression that the 
Kaiser was to blame for his rapid and 
quick action and that he could have 
prevented war. But it Is evident that 
it would have been folly for Germany 
to wait longer after war was unavoid- 
able. By her rapid mobilization and 
quick action Germany secured great ad- 
vantage and located the destruction of 
property which accompanies warfare, 
outside of German territory. 

"Our conscience and our moral sup- 
port should not be neutral. To be neu- 
tral in "this would he morally wrong. 
President Wilson's appeal for Impartial- 
ity and neutrality has served its good 
cause by restraining people from tak- 
ing sides on sentimental grounds. It 
is well if the American people remain 
neutral In action to guard against be- 
ing drawn into the conflict, as, prob- 
ably, more harm than good would be 
done if the tlnlted States would enter 
the war. It Is commendable to remain 
neutral in arguments based on senti- 
ments. But in arguments based on rea- 
son and moral principles It is a sacred 
duty not to remain neutral. This is the 
duty In particular of moral teachers. 
The evils in this world must be fought 
and great effort made to overcome 
them, otherwise the evils will overcome 
the good. 

"After considering calmly with rea- 
son both sides of the question, we ought 
to give our moral support to whichever 
nations deserve It, as determined by 
our sense of justice, leaving out our 
commercial and possible pecuniary in- 
terests. . . . The pocket-book is 
most people's guide in an argument. To 
make this clear it is necessary to state 
that there Is only one other guide and 
that is the general welfare of the peo- 
ple. 

"Particularly 'The Open Court,' — as 
seeking for truth and ethical ideals — 
should give moral support to whichever 
nations deserve it. We can hardly 



arouse the enmity of a nation to a 
sutEcieut extent to be drawn Into the 
conflict, by condemning it on sound 
moral principles ; but this should cause 
its humiliation and shame. 

"American neutrality has actually 
gone so far as to give active assistance 
to the Allies by selling war material to 
them. It is necessary to counteract 
this, as Germany appears to be the 
most innocent of the nations engaged in 
the war." 

In reply to my critics I wish to state 
that I am not anti-British, but I blame 
the British government for making the 
war and deceiving the British citizens 
so as to make them hate Germany and 
fear its prospei-ity and increase of 
power. I protest against the war as 
much In the Interest of Great Britain 
as of France, Germany and the Belgians 
who are victims of the bad policy of 
their government. 

I have investigated the origin of the 
present European war, and have come 
to the conclusion that it was forced 
upon Germany, that Germany tried as 
far as possible to preserve peace. Con- 
sidering the fact that Germany has 
been growing and expanding until the 
other nations of Europe became alarmed 
lest she surpass them in industry and 
power, the war was perhaps unavoid- 
able. It was rather hard on Germany 
that the three biggest powers of Europe 
fell upon her simultaneously, but this 
concerted action was part of their 
agreement. It was the plan of the 
Triple Entente, and constituted their 
hope of victory. The war will be a 
test of Germany's strength and effi- 
ciency, and the test Is great, very great. 

The cause of Germany has been much 
misrepresented In the English speaking 
world but she has more friends than 
would appear from the opinions pub- 
lished in the newspapers. This Is cer- 
tainly true of the United States of 
America. I grant that many Anglo- 
Americans side with the Triple En- 
tente, and most of England's friends 
are noisy in their denunciations of Ger- 
man militarism and of the tyranny of 
the Kaiser; they are untiring in their 
accusations of the German breach of 
neutrality, of the atrocities committed 
in Belgium, of the burning of Louvain 
and the destruction of the Rhelms 
cathedral. The friends of Germany 
are quiet, but most of them are intense 
In their convictions and among them 
are the German-Americans. 

The German-Americans. 

The German-Americans stand by 
Germany because they feel that Ger- 
many and all that Germany represents 
In the history of the world, das 
Deutsclitum or Germandom, the spirit 
of Germany Itself, is at stake in the 
present crisis. The Germans in Amer- 
ica are by no means blind in their judg- 
ment. They have not always stood by 
the fatherland, nor do they now with- 
out due consideration of the facts. 
They do not take sides simply because 
Germany has been their home and Ger- 
many is on one side while the rest of 
Europe is ranged on the other. They 
stand by their fatherland because they 
are fully and firmly convinced that 
their fatherland is in the right and 
that the others, especially the English, 
are in the wrong. The German-Cana- 
dians do not know the actual facts, 



318 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



they know only the British side of the 
war. so they appear to stand by Eng- 
land. 

No better evidence of the objectivity 
of thought' of the German-Americans 
can be furnished than their position 
during our war with Spain. After Ad- 
miral Dewey had taken Manila, the 
German navy under Admiral Dietrich 
entered Manila Harbor with a force 
superior to the American fleet and be- 
haved in such a way that they practi- 
cally challenged the American fleet to 
battle. Their attitude almost brought 
about a war lietween Germany and the 
t'nited States, but in this dangerous 
crisis the German-Americans stood 
faithfully by their nevt^ home, the 
United States. They openly denounced 
the attitude of Dietrich, and the Ger- 
man government, noticing that it had 
made a serious mistake, made up for 
its blunder as well as It could. The 
Kaiser sent Prince Henry to the United 
States to show his good will and Prince 
Henry was well received here. 

The story goes that once in the 
Kaiser's younger years when a visitor 
was announced to him as a German- 
American, he remarked that he knew 
Germans and he knew Americans, but 
German-Americans he knew not. The 
remark reflected the spirit of a certain 
portion of German oflicialdom, and 
alienated many German-Americans 
from the German government. They 
felt that the German government was 
too narrow to understand that we have 
a very strong representation of German 
nationality in the United States, just 
as we have traditions of all nations. 
We have Irish-Americans, Anglo-Amer- 
icans, Franco-Americans, etc.. and the 
German-Americans are certainly not 
the least among them. The Kaiser's 
hasty comment cost him a great deal 
of sympathy in the United States, for 
if the German-Americans feel that 
their Germandom is no longer recog- 
nized in Germany, they will naturally 
drop it and become purely American. 
To be sure, the German-Americans are 
Americans, but the patriotism of this 
country is not so narrow as to demand 
an absolute cutting off of former tra- 
ditions. Every one in this country is 
welcome to become an American, and 
American patriotism is broad enough 
to cherish all the old traditions of 
other nationalities. Every one who 
comes to this country is expected to 
bring with him the best he has ac- 
quired in his old home and there is 
no need to lose his love of that home. 
We do not hate any nationality and 
every stranger can find a home here 
without abjuring his former fatherland. 
It is well recognized that the Germans 
make very good American citizens, 
while English-Americans are rare. 
English people who live in this coun- 
try mostly retain their allegiance to 
the British crown. 

Upon the whole. English people think 
quite disparagingly about America. I 
feel justified in calling it a prejudice, 
for it is in most cases a prejudice with- 
out reasonable foundation. They judge 
Americans after the type of the loud 
and uncultured specimens who force 
their presence into conspicuous evi- 
dence wherever they are. mostly so 
alH'oad, and they disregard the better 
classes. They forget that England, too, 



has specimens of whom the better Eng- 
lishmen have no reason to be proud. 
All nationalities are pretty much alike 
in this respect, but it may be a good 
symptom of strength that the English 
are more English, and therefore more 
vigorous in national self-consciousness 
than any other nation. This impressed 
me particularly when the first English- 
man I met here answered my assump- 
tion that he was naturalized since he 
had become a permanet resident of 
America. He said : "I have never fore- 
sworn ■ my allegiance to Her Majesty, 
the Queen !" To become naturalized 
here necessarily includes that allegi- 
ance to a sovereign should be fore- 
sworn, but it does not mean a break 
with one's ancestral traditions. On the 
contrary, here in America we want 
every foreigner who comes to preserve 
everything of his old country that is 
good and introduce it into the American 
commonwealth we are building. 

It is a requirement of the Greek 
church that any convert who enters its 
fold must curse his former faith in 
pretty vile terms, and from this rule 
not even a Czarina Is excepted ; for, 
as the story goes, it was quite hard on 
the wife of the present ruler of Russia, 
a German princess, to curse her old 
faith when joining the church of her 
husband, since she could not be ex- 
empted from this awful obligation. In 
court circles it is secretly asserted 
that the poor empress feels pangs of 
conscience whenever new misfortunes 
visit the empire, as if they came as a 
just punishment for her apostacy from 
the evangelical church. This demand 
of the Greek church is in line with 
old traditions and is deemed right in 
Russia ; but everything is quite differ- 
ent in American patriotism, for here 
we are in the habit of cultivating all 
that is good and noble in other nations. 
Yea, our own patriotism is to be based 
on cosmopolitan grounds. We cherish 
the idea that universal love of all man- 
kind should be compatible with the 
love of our own country, and so we 
believe that German-Americans may 
just as well live harmoniously in this 
country together with Irish-Americans 
or Anglo-Americans, with Franco-Amer- 
icans or with emigrants from any coun- 
try of the world. 

Our American ideal has not been 
fully realized, for we must confess that 
we welcome only the European nation- 
alities. Theoretically we draw no lines, 
but practically objections have been 
raised against the Asiatic races ; and 
even in this case we feel the incon- 
gruity of measures against the immi- 
gration of special races for reasons 
which we must grant, but we need not 
enter into a discussion of them here. 
Here we are followed by Canada which 
discriminates against the Hindus. This 
is more illogical since they belong to 
the British empire as well as the Cana- 
dians themselves. 

Germany is not without faults, and 
nobody is more critical than the Ger- 
mans themselves unless it be the Ger- 
man-Americans. The wrong kind of 
militarism has sometimes made itself 
felt in Germany, and nobody has criti- 
cized its obnoxious traits more than 
the Germans. The German people 
themselves objected to the Zabern af- 
fair most severely, while in the Drey- 



fus case the French were drunk with 
militarism in favor of Esterhazy, the 
Russian spy, and no other nation has 
reacted against military supercilious- 
ness more strongly than the Germans. 

The officialdom of Germany, the pride 
of men in high position, has proved of- 
fensive in many respects, but whenever 
it occurred publicly it has been more 
emphatically and effectively criticized 
by Germans than any similar attitude 
of other governments by their own peo- 
ple. On the contrary, most of the objec- 
tionable deeds of other governments 
have passed by unnoticed. In Russia 
all objections to the tyranny of the 
government are suppressed with iron 
severity. Nor are the French and Eng- 
lish governments without blame in this 
regard. 

What people in the common walks 
of life call "bureaucracy" in lower Ger- 
man olEcialdom, Is often represented 
in our country by a tyranny of petty 
officials, and strange to say, Germany 
has often been denounced on account 
of its "intolerable bureaucracy." We 
have reasons to envy Germany's bureau- 
cratic institutions, , for Germany has 
attained the best and the most efficient 
service at the lowest cost by granting 
her lower officials positions for life 
on condition of unflinching honesty and 
good behavior. German officials are 
strict in enforcing rules, and punctual 
in their duties, but they have little or 
no opportunity to tyrannize any one. 
Reformers have often endeavored ap- 
proximately to introduce one or an- 
other feature of German bureaucracy 
here, but upon the whole our political 
bosses oppose reforms of this kind. It 
is precisely in the distribution of bu- 
reaucratic positions that the power lies 
by which political leaders are able to 
pay their supporters for campaign as- 
sistance. 

The lack of religious liberty in Ger- 
many is still to be lamented, and I 
can tell instances from my own experi- 
ence; but I have discovered that condi- 
tions are worse In England and even to 
some extent here in America. 

There is no need of entering into 
further details. The Kaiser's speeches 
were criticized, and not least severely 
by the Germans themselves, until he 
mended his ways. We may incident- 
ally add that what he really meant 
was by no means as terrible as his 
words sounded, and it is sure that 
if his successor were to rule in the 
spirit in which the imperial speeches 
have been interpreted. Germany would 
soon change into a republic. However, 
as long as the coming Hohenzollerns 
will fill their high ofllce in the sense of 
Frederick the Great, as the first serv- 
ants of the state, they will never be a 
danger to liberty nor need they fear a 
revolution. 

Other faults noticeable in modern 
Germany are perhaps common to man- 
kind in other portions of the world, 
including England. These are the snob- 
bishness of some rich, the increasing 
indulgence of pleasure-seekers, a de- 
teriorated taste in literature, a prefer- 
ence for Bismarck's kind of Rcalpolitilc. 
the loud swagger of false militarism 
and the insolence of officialdom. But 
wherever these unpleasant features ap- 
pear in Germany they are not a whit 
worse than in other countries. Great 



SOME VALUABLE LESSONS OF THE WAR 



319 



Britain not excepted. Certainly all 
these faults are no reason to make war 
on a country. Any enumeration of 
them can only be — • and indeed, as I 
understand the situation, is meant to 
be — a mere excuse of English people 
for endorsing the government's action 
in making war. 

English Views. 

The English periodical "The Nation"' 
notes the striking resemblance between 
the German mind as shown in German 
papers and the English mind as exhib- 
ited in the English press. In both 
countries there prevails "the unanimous 
confidence in the justice of the war, 
the conviction that it was forced upon 
them by the base and treacherous de- 
signs of their enemies, and the confident 
assurance that their cause will be tri- 
umphant in the end." After quoting 
some German verses and characteriz- 
ing some German opinions, the un- 
signed article continues : "What a far- 
rago of hypocrisy ! English readers will 
be disposed to say. Yet it is impossible 
to read such writing without recog- 
nizing that the writers are saying what 
they believe." After noting the views 
of Romain Kolland and Gerhardt 
Hauptmann (the latter a severe critic 
of German officialdom and militarism) 
we read on : "How can such men be 
blind to what appears to us the hard 
facts regarding German aggressiveness 
and German atrocities and lawless- 
ness?" And again further down: 
"However preposterous it sounds to us, 
for the German people this is a de- 
fensive war, primarily against the long- 
laid designs of France and Russia, 
. though the bitterest feelings are di- 
rected against England for our 'treach- 
ery.' It simply enrages English readers 
to read expressions of pity for Belgium 
from Germans, for the people they have 
so foully and brutally maltreated." 

Has the author of this article in "The 
Nation" never seen the vindication of 
the Germans by the American reporters, 
Messrs, Bennett, McCutcheon, Irvin S. 
Cobb, Harry Hansen, and Roger Lewis? 
No one who knows them doubts their 
honesty and impartiality. English peo- 
ple do not seem to have seen the state- 
ment signed by them in common," nor 
any of their descriptions of the war. 
So our author continues : 

"But how is the ordinai-y German to 
know the crimes he has committed? 
The iBerliner Tageblatt' is quite a re- 
spectable paper. It devotes some space 
to atrocities. But they are assigned 
to Russians in East Prussia, to Belgian 
peasants and occasionally to French- 
men. German soldiers are so well disci- 
plined that they do not commit atro- 
cities ! It is the enemy that uses 
dumdum bullets, fires on white flags, 
and abuses the Red Cross, mutilates 
or assassinates wounded soldiers, shells 
ambulances, assaults women and chil- 
dren, sets villages on fire for sheer 
wantonness, and brutalizes in every 
way the art of war! So far as mate- 
rial destruction is concerned, we have 
the evidence of the photographer and 
the admission of the German com- 
manders that these things have been 



•October 17, 1914, p. 59. 

» For their statement see "The European 
War," in the October "Open Court," p. 
630. 



dune in the course of the Belgian in- 
\asion. But Germans ac home Lielieve 
that these charges brought against 
luem are wicked calumnies, the prod- 
ucls or ■lie-factories in i'aris and Lou- 
don.' 'Ihey conduct the war in a civil- 
ized fashion : but those Russians, Bel- 
gians, ana French are capable of any- 
cliing !" 

The photograph of a ruined house is 
no eviaence of Germany's brutality, and 
\i e Kiiuw very wen tnat war is hell. 
Blame the men who have started the 
war, not the men who expose their lives 
111 L.aLiie; ana rememuer that many 
houses and beauciiui trees (as for iu- 
siance in iMalmes) have been destroyed 
L.y Che Jieigians, uoc by the Germans, 
iiie photograph shows neither the 
author or the war nor the men who 
have made the ruins. 

iU explanation of the unreliability of 
lihotographs 1 will insert here a little 
story toia me by a German-American 
who had served in the German army in 
lS(U-ii. luiB name is AMuUmiller and 
he was on his return to his American 
home with his wite ana daughter after 
having visited the tatUeriauu and some 
battlerields where he had faced the 
i'reuch mitrailleuse. He had lain in 
a house with one lieutenant of his 
bhaipshooter batalliou, lor the purpose 
01 Keeping ou some i' reuch assailants. 
The two ueld the enemy at a distance 
by keeijiug up a brisk fire so as to 
give the impression that there were 
great ntimbets or them. As a result 
they drew upon themselves the hostile 
lire from diuerent quarters and even 
of artillery. The house was often hit 
but its two defenders remained un- 
harmed. Upon his visit, Mr. Wind- 
miller found the house preserved in the 
same condition he had left it in with 
all the marks of the French bullets. 
He climbed on an opposite wall to 
photograph the place, but an old woman 
told him that he could buy a picture 
of the house' in the village store, and 
truly there he found it printed on a 
postcard with an inscription which de- 
clared that it had been "defendue par 
des liraves francstireurs." Pictures do 
not prove the stories told about them. 

In America the opinion is often 
strongly expressed that it is a right of 
every one, of civilians and also of 
women, to attack an invading enemy, to 
shoot at hostile troops from their win- 
dows, from ambush, from anywhere. 
But we answer that if this be the case, 
if private persons take part in the 
war, they forfeit their right as neu- 
trals to the enemies' protection of their 
lives and property ; and it will be a 
matter of course that war will revert 
to its original savagery. If civilians 
take part in the combat the invading 
enemy will be forced in sheer self-de- 
fense to extend the war to civilians. 

Before condenmlng the punishment of 
snipers, please take the trouble to read 
the reports printed in German papers 
about Belgian civilians' participation in 
the war, and consider that German oflS- 
cers are human beings possessed of a 
deep-seated love of their men. What 
are they to do if they enter a village 
and are suddenly attacked from all 
sides by snipers hidden in surrounding 
houses? I saw the letter of a captain 
published somewhere who reported that 
he had lost more men in such a situa- 



tion than in the open battlefield. How 
would one of our most kind-hearted 
humane readers act if he were in a sim- 
ilar position? Perhaps he would say: 
"A goodly number of my men have been 
killed and wounded ; the dead have 
gone to heaven. It is Christian to for- 
give the enemy, and I will bless the 
people who have done the deed." 
* * * * 
Another English opinion appeared iu 
the "Saturday Review" as long ago as 
February, 1S96. It is written from a 
"biological" standpoint ; it makes a 
plea for the Russians and the French 
and is important because it is this view 
which has directed British politics, 
which created the Triple Entente and 
caused the British government to con- 
spire with Belgium in secret h'eaties 
by which England was in honor bound 
to begin the war. This article was 
written for Britons alone, not for Ger- 
mans nor for Americans. In its clos- 
ing paragraph it insists first on im- 
perialism ("federate our colonies") ; 
second, on the defeat of Germany ; and, 
third, readiness to fight America. It is 
reprinted on another page of this issue. 
The article is apparently written by 
the same author who a year later 
wrote the other article of the "Satur- 
day Review," republished as the first 
article of the October number of "The 
Open Court." The underlying ideas 
are quite similar and here al.so the 
principle of extermination is taught as 
the most important factor in the prog- 
ress of evolution. We read :° "Were 
every German to be wiped out tomor- 
row, there is no English trade, no Eng- 
lish pursuit that would not immedi- 
ately expand. Were every Englishman 
to be wiped out tomorrow, the Germans 
would gain in proportion. . . . One 
or the other has to go ; one or the other 
will go." 

How untrue this principle is we shall 
see later on. England is even now suf- 
fering from the war by having her 
trade with Germany ruined. 

The Bishop of Carlisle, the Right 
Reverend J. W. Diggle, D.D., must 
have read the article from the biological 
point of view. In an article in the 
"Hibhert Journal" of October, 1914, 
"The Ethics of War," he says: "Bio- 
logical science affirms that in the ani- 
mal world the highest types have been 
evolved out of pitiless struggles." The 
Lord Bishop seems to accept this affir- 
mation as a fact and declares "that 
war, both in its roots and fruits, is 
evil." But he takes comfort in the 
"most encouraging fact that, under the 
moral government of the world, even 
evil can be compelled to bring forth 
good. . . . And the unparalleled 
crime of the crucifixion is still leading 
humanitv forward toward its final re- 
demption. These facts are very strange 
and deep." 

Mr. L. P. Jacks publishes his opinion 
editorially in the same number of the 
"Hibbert Journal," under the strange 
title. "Mechanism, Diabolism and the 
War," and we quote the following sen- 
tences : 

"Every one who reflects on the pres- 
ent state of Europe must feel that he is 



« Compare this with the sentence quoted 
in the middle of page 608 in the October 
"Open Court." 



320 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



in the presence of something anomalous, 
self-contradictory and absurd. . . . 
Intellect, trained for the discovery of 
truth by elaborate systems of educa- 
tion, takes service under the Father of 
Lies, calls itself 'diplomacy,' and lures 
nations to ruin. . . . What is the 
force that unites us? The sense of 
common danger, the call of common 
duty, the certainty of common suffer- 
ing, the memory of a common past- 
each plays a part. . . . Having re- 
gard to all the circumstances under 
which this war has been forced upon 
us, I cannot doubt that it may be con- 
verted into a great moral opportunity. 
. . . The primary feature will be the 
reawakening of the moral conscious- 
ness of the people. . . . Luxury, 
frivolity, and class selfishness will re- 
ceive a check. . . . We shall all 
know better than before what it is to 
have a man's part in the world. . . . 
Our religion also will be less voluble 
and more sincere ; we shall have seen 
something of the terrors of the Lord." 

Sir Henry Jones in the same period- 
ical expresses his conviction in the 
words : "This war has come upon us 
as a duty." . . . "The British peo- 
ple as a whole . . . have gone forth 
into this struggle with an open brow 
and a clear conscience." "All the same, 
the substantial truth is that the Ger- 
man people regards itself as a nation 
with a mission, and we will do well to 
remember that its conscience also is 
in the war." 

German policy is thus characterized: 
"It is the reasoned belief in territorial 
brigandage and in the methods of bar- 
barism, provided they are employed by 
and for the sake of the German nation. 
. . . The pathos of the situation is 
overwhelming." 

On another page T. W. Rolleston 
speaks of "the megalomania of Ger- 
many, or more strictly of Prussia, 
which is now forcing such terrible 
Issues on Europe, her towering ambi- 
tions, her attitude of cynical disregard 
of every national or individual right 
which might stand in the way of these 
ambitions or clog their flight towards 
the goal of world-power." 

English Critics of British Politics. 

It does credit to the English people 
that there are independent men among 
them who do not endorse their coun- 
try's war policy and who denounce 
the government for having started the 
war. Best known of these critics are 
the three cabinet members who resigned 
because of their disapproval. 

We will here quote two other opin- 
ions, one of the Hon. Bertrand Russell, 
as reprinted in the "Cambridge Maga- 
zine," from the "Labour Leader," the 
other of Arthur Ponsonby published in 
"The Nation" (London) of August 22, 
1914, p. 763. 

The former blames as the cause of 
the war the intolerable dread of one 
another in which the people of Europe 
have been living. Mr. Russell says : 

"In every nation, by the secrecy of 
diplomacy, by co-operation of the press 
with the manufacturers of armaments, 
by the desire of the rich and the edu- 
cated to distract the attention of the 
working classes from social injustice, 
suspicion of other nations is carefully 
cultivated, until a state of nightmare 



terror is produced, and men are pre- 
pared to attack the enemy at once, be- 
fore he is ready to inflict the ruin 
which he is believed to be contemplat- 
ing. In sudden vertigo, the nations 
rush Into the dreaded horror ; reason Is 
called treachery, mercy is called weak- 
ness, and universal delirium drives the 
world to destruction. 

"All the nations suffer by the war, 
and knew in advance that they would 
suffer. In all the nations, the bulk of 
ordinary men and women must have 
dreaded war. Yet all felt the war 
thrust upon them by the absolute neces- 
sity of preserving themselves from in- 
vasion and national extinction. Austria- 
Hungary, a kind of outpost of western 
civilization among the turbulent Balkan 
states, felt its existence threatened by 
revolutionary Slavs within its own bor- 
ders, supported by the aggressive and 
warlike Servians on its frontier. Rus- 
sia, being of the same race and religion 
as the Servians, felt bound in honor 
to protect them against Austria. Ger- 
many, knowing that the defeat of Aus- 
tria would leave it at the mercy of 
Russia, felt bound to support Austria. 
France, from dread of a repetition of 
1S70, had allied itself with Russia, 
and was compelled for self-preservation 
to support Russia as soon as Germany 
was involved. And England, believing 
that the German navy was designed to 
secure our downfall, had felt impelled 
through fear to form the entente with 
France and Russia. 

"If, when this war is ended, the 
world is to enjoy a secure peace, the na- 
tions must be relieved of the intolerable 
fear which has weighed them down and 
driven them into the present horror. 
Not only must armaments be immensely 
reduced, but the machinery of mobiliza- 
tion must be everywhere rendered more 
cumbrous and more democratic, the di- 
plomacy must be conducted more pub- 
licly and by men more Ip touch with 
the people, and arbitration treaties 
must bind nations to seek a peaceful 
settlement of their differences before 
appealing to brute force. All these 
things can be secured after the present 
war if the democracy is insistent ; none 
will be secured if the negotiations are 
left in the hands of the men who made 
the war." 

Mr. Ponsonby's letter reads in extract 
thus : 

"I am not an uncompromising 'peace- 
at-any-price,' 'stop-the-war' advocate, 
but am as jealous of my country's 
honor as any one that could be found. 
Nothing matters while our national 
safety is threatened, and I ask myself: 
. . . Would it not be better to be 
silent and so tacitly express approval 
of the past policy of the government, 
and applaud the self-laudatory articles 
with which the press is flUed? It 
would certainly be very much easier, 
and I wish to goodness I could do It. 

"But principles I believe in cannot 
be dispelled at will, and do not allow 
me any peace of mind. Inconvenient 
questions keep on presenting themselves 
to me and waiting for an answer. 
. . . I am not going to embark on a 
long-reasoned argument which cannot 
be compressed into the limits of a let- 
ter. I will simply ask some questions 
and answer them with a single mono- 
syllable. 



"Have the Government during the 
past six years joined in the insane 
competition in armaments, and led the 
way in matters of expenditures? 
Yes. . . . 

"Have they consistently advocated, 
supported, and encouraged the policy 
of the balance of power, which divided 
Europe into two hostile camps, produc- 
ing high tension and possible outbreak 
of war at every diplomatic dispute 
that arose? Yes. . . . 

"So far from the correspondence in 
the White Papers being the cause of 
the war, does it not clearly show that 
our previous policy had committed us, 
and we were simply entangled in 
the meshes of our own creation? Yes. 

"Is it right or even advisable to make 
binding engagements with other nations 
behind the backs of the people in se- 
cret ? No. 

"Did the Government declare in the 
most explicit way that we were free 
and unfettered in the event of war, 
when all the time British and French 
naval experts were drawing up plans 
for mutual defense and assistance? 
Yes. 

"Should we have declared war on 
France if she had found it incumbent 
on her for the sake of national safety, 
to send her army across the Belgian 
frontier? No. 

"Did Germany know from the first 
that we were bound to support France 
and did she want to fight us? 
No. . . . 

"Did the Prime Minister in referring 
to what he called the 'infamous pro- 
posal,' at the same time draw attention 
to the German Ambassador's concili- 
atory request at a later date that we 
should 'formulate conditions on which 
we would remain neutral'? No. 

"Is not Germany's chief fear, which 
has been enormously increased of late, 
a Slav inroad from Russia? Yes. 

"Does our support of Russia mean 
the strengthening of Russian autocracy 
and Russian militarism, and the conse- 
quent check of the development and en- 
lightenment of the Russian people? 
Yes. 

"Will Russian success mean a further 
acquisition of territory by Russia in 
Europe, and is not this very undesir- 
able? Yes. 

"Is there a vestige of foundation, in 
view of the hopeless strategic position 
in which Germany now finds herself, 
for the idea that this is all the out- 
come of a German plot against this 
country ? No. 

"Is it possible or desirable that the 
German empire should be shattered and 
her national expansion forever pre- 
vented? No. 

"Is the capture of all German col- 
onies likely to make a passive and sub- 
missive Germany in the future? No. 

"Was there before the outbreak of 
the war any animosity among the Brit- 
ish people against the Germans? No. 

"Is there reason to suspect that In 
the oflicial world an anti-German policy 
has been steadily pursued for some 
time past? Yes. 

"Is it not deplorable that when Great 
Britain is plunged into the most de- 
vastating war the world has ever seen, 
we should none of us know clearly what 
we are fighting for? Yes. 



SOME VALUABLE LESSONS OF THE WAR 



321 



"Are the peoijles of Europe going to 
be massacred in hundreds of thousands, 
and are incalculable numbers of non- 
combatants going to be reduced to 
misery and ruin only because a few 
ministers, diplomats and monarchs have 
quarrelled? Yes. 

"Are the victors going to gain any- 
thing, either materially or morally by 
this war? No." 

England may be proud of the fact 
that these isolated criticisms have been 
published in England. 

Twelve Points Assured. 

I repeat here that I shall change my 
opinion and gladly confess it publicly 
if I can be convinced of being mistaken. 
I deem the following facts assured : 

1. Pan-Slavism is a movement insti- 
gated and directed by Russia. Its true 
aim is to confederate all Slavs under 
Russian rule, and since many Slavs, in- 
cluding the Poles, the Bulgarians and 
the Bosnians, are opposed to Russian 
rule and against Pan-Slavism, the Serbs 
are its main supporters outside Russia. 
A victory of Pan-Slavism would not 
only doom Poland to a continuance of 
her slavery but also deal a death-blow 
to Austria-Hungary, because there are 
numerous Slavs living in that country 
intermingled with Germans, Magyars, 
the Saxons of Transylvania and Rou- 
manians. The present war is a conflict 
between Pan-Slavisui and Germanism 
in which Great Britain, agninst her real 
interest supports the former. 

2. As the Russians have developed a 
system of international intrigue, mainly 
against the English, and have employed 
spies more than any other nation, so 
the Serbs deemed it proper to fight their 
real or supposed enemies by assassins, 
and were encouraged by the Russian 
government. 

3. Both Servia's method of practic- 
ing assassination and .Russia's support 
of it were carried on officially, even the 
Crown Prince of Servia being impli- 
cated iu suspicion, and so Russia was 
in honor bound to protect Servia when 
Austria-Hungary demanded a thorough 
investigation into the conspiracy which 
caused the death of the archduke 
at Sarajevo. However, neither Servia 
nor Russia could afford to let the truth 
of the details become fully known and 
established. 

4. The Germanic races detest assas- 
sination. It should be remembered that 
when Napoleon I crushed Germany, the 
German people rose against him and 
beat him. in an honest and open tight 
at Leipsic and at Waterloo after several 
failures such as Sehill's rebellion, but 
not even one attempt was made to 
assassinate the tyrant. It seems quite 
unintelligible that England, a country 
moi-e Germanic in blood than Germany, 
could support or sympathize with the 
Russo-Servian cause which spells ruin 
first to Austria-Hungary and then also 
to Germany, and there is but one ex- 
cuse : England always plays the pro- 
tector of small states. The point may 
briefly be summed up that while Aus- 
tria-Hungary meant to extirpate assas- 
sination, Russia and England insisted 
that Servia's sovereignty should not be 
interfered with ; its government should 
be allowed to continue its policy which 
Austria-Hungary and Germany regard 
as criminal. 



5. Russia continued to mobilize in 
spite of official assurances that it was 
not doing so, and Germany came to the 
conclusion that war had become un- 
avoidable. 

6. The Kaiser made vain efforts by 
a personal correspondence with Czar 
Nicholas and King George of England 
to avoid the war, or at least to isolate 
it as much as possible, but Russia had 
promised to support Servia and Eng- 
land was "in honor bound" to help 
Russia and France. 

7. Germany had positive informa- 
tion that the French intended to ad- 
vance into Germany through Belgium 
and since she was threatened by Rus- 
sia and France at the same time, deters 
mined to prevent the French plan. Ger- 
many regretted that she was compelled 
to break Belgian neutrality but was 
fully justified' later on by finding posi- 
tive evidence that the Belgians had 
broken neutrality long before a Ger- 
man soldier set foot on Belgian ground. 

8. Germany's breach of Belgian neu- 
trality was made England's pretext for 
a declaration of war — a very question- 
able act in consideration of the fact 
that England herself had been guilty 
of a breach of Belgian neutrality. We 
grant, however, that England was "in 
honor hound" to come to Belgium's as- 
sistance, on account of her former 
agreements with Belgium. 

9. From the standpoint of Belgium 
it is to lie regretted that England did 
not protect her in her extremity as 
Belgium had a right to expect, but 
England was not sufficiently prepared 
for the war she had declared, except 
perhaps on sea. Apparently she ex- 
pected that her continental allies would 
be suflicieut to crush Germany. 

10. France went into the war be- 
cause she nourished her old grudge 
against Germany and demanded re- 
venge. She believed she had consider- 
ably improved her army, especially her 
artillery, and was convinced that Ger- 
many had remained stagnant ; at the 
same time she felt assured that Russia 
with her overwhelming numbers would 
soon enough invade Germany on the 
east and take Berlin. 

11. England, jealous of Germany's 
expansion and determined not to allow 
any further increase of her navy, had 
concluded the Triple Entente with 
France and Russia and felt in honor 
bound to join the belligerents, thinking 
it would be safe — an easy task. 

12. Germany has suffered much in 
former centuries from incursions of her 
neighbors, especially the French. Under 
the pressure of repeated and unpro- 
voked unjust attacks Germany has been 
compelled to unite into an empire and 
introduce a well-organized institution 
of self-defense, recently called "mili- 
tarism." Through many sad experi- 
ences, Germany has learned that the 
best defense is to take the offensive and 
strike the first blow. This foresight on 
the part of Germany has been called 
"aggressiveness." As soon as the 
Kaiser recognized that war was inevit- 
able and that the Triple Entente was 
determined to crush Germany, he acted 
promptly and led his army against his 
enemies. 



These are the twelve main points that 
characterize the origin of the war and 
we will here only add that the Belgian 
civilian population took part in the 
fight on a large scale, sometimes even 
in a most barbarous fashion, so that 
the German troops frequently suffered 
heavier losses by sniping than in battle, 
and this naturally led to severe pun- 
ishments of the guilty. These reprisals 
were called "atrocities" and are stoutly 
believed by the supporters of the Brit- 
ish cause, although they are sufficiently 
refuted by the Round Robin of the five 
American reporters. 

Was the AVar Unavoidable? 

War was avoidable if the belligerents 
had used any sense at all, common sense 
or foresight, or wisdom. The Czar 
would have kept peace, so far as he 
personally was concerned, but in his 
correspondence with the Kaiser he 
speaks of the pressure exercised upon 
him, and this pressure comes from those 
around him, the archdukes headed by 
his uncle Nicolaus Nikolajewitch. The 
Kaiser tried his best to avert the calam- 
ity of fighting all Europe. Neverthe- 
less, as soon as he saw that his 
enemies were determined on war he 
no longer hesitated but took a most 
vigorous initiative according to his old 
Prussian traditions. 

It appears that Russia would not 
have ventured into the war if England 
had not promised to join. Statements 
have been made to this effect, but docu- 
mentary evidence is still lacking. We 
deem it probable. 

One thing may safely be asserted, 
that whereas the Triple Alliance of 
Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy 
was intended to preserve the present 
status of Europe, the Triple Entente 
of England with France and Russia 
meant war. It was a federation of 
three positively antagonistic races made 
for the purpose of combining these three 
most unlike and mutually uncongenial 
nationalities to serve on common 
hatred. The aim of the three was to 
crush Germany, and it can scarcely be 
doubted that English statecraft is the 
moving power of the whole scheme. 
Thus it seems assured that war became 
unavoidable at the moment when the 
Triple Entente was concluded. 

England has always been anxious to 
rule the seas and her European policy 
has always pursued the aim of antagon- 
izing the main powers on the continent 
and posing as protectress of the small 
states. She has been especially careful 
not to let the coast opposite England 
fall into powerful hands, so an attack 
on Belgium appeared to her like an at- 
tack on Great Britain. 

Here lies the defect in English state- 
craft. Either England should have 
sent the English army at once to Bel- 
gium for the sake of protecting Bel- 
gium efficiently against a German in- 
vasion, or she should have advised 
Belgium to allow the Germans to pass 
through the country on their promise 
to respect Belgian independence. In 
this latter case the Germans could not 
have taken the Belgian coast for the 
purpose of attacking England. As 
matters stand now, English diplomats 
have ruined Belgium and forced Ger- 
many into a hostile attitude towards 
England. The statesmen of England 
thought they could afford to venture 



322 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



Into a war when Germany was sur- 
rounded by enemies on both the east 
and west, and England would thereby 
maintain her supremacy on the seas. 

Speaking of the wars of England 
since Queen Elizabeth, Field-Marshal 
Earl Roberts expresses his view In the 
"Hibbert Journal" (October, 1914), as 
follows : 

"This struggle has always the same 
underlying motive — viz., the determi- 
nation on the part of England that no 
single state shall be allowed to upset 
the balance of power and to dominate 
the western half of Europe. As soon 
as any state attempts this, and then 
gains possession of, or tries to establish 
itself in, the Low Countries, then Eng- 
land is compelled to take up arms. 

"In Queen Elizabeth's reign Spain 
was the powerful and aggressive nation 
of western Europe, and she was estab- 
lished in the Netherlands; and when 
the great Armada sailed the chief de- 
sign of the whole operation was that 
this powerful fleet should gain com- 
mand of the English Channel, pick up 
the Duke of Parma's trained veterans 
in the Low Countries, and escort them 
to the English coast. The real men- 
ace to England lay in the fact that 
Spanish power was established in the 
Low Countries. The main purpose of 
Marlborough's famous campaigns was 
to check the ambitious designs of the 
French under Louis XIV, and the 
great battles of Ramilies, Malplaquet 
and Oudenarde were fought in the 
IjOw Countries. 

"The war against the French Repub- 
lic was undertaken because the French 
had seized the mouth of the Scheldt; 
the fighting began in Flanders in 1793, 
and ended at Waterloo, a few miles 
south of Brussels, in ISlo. 

"At the beginning of the twentieth 
century we find ourselves engaged in 
a colossal struggle against Germany, 
for she is now the strong and aggres- 
sive power which seeks to dominate the 
western half of Europe, and has, we 
hope only for a time, established her- 
self in Belgium. 

"If Germany succeeds in maintain- 
ing her hold on Belgium, Holland and 
Denmark will pass under her sway. 
Then her seaboard will extend in one 
unbroken line from Memel, along the 
southern shore of the Baltic, round 
Denmark, and then by Holland and 
Belgium to the shores of the English 
Channel itself. In Holland and Belgium 
she will find great naval bases close 
to our own shores. The hardy sailors 
and fishermen of Denmark and Holland 
—seamen little, if at all, Inferior to 
our own — will be taken to man the 
warships of the German navy, and the 
naval competition between Germany 
and ourselves will become many times 
more severe than it is at present." 

Incidentally we will say In comment 
on Earl Roberts' historical reflections 
that the victories which in England are 
commonly attributed to Marlborough 
were won by Eugene, Prince of Savoy, 
and the battle of Waterloo was lost by 
Wellington when the Prussian army 
under Bliicher appeared in time to save 
the day and rout Napoleon. 

The English denounce German mili- 
tarism as barbarous ; but their "naval 
supremacy" is considered as unobjec- 



tionable. Says Earl Roberts: "The 
British Isles are the heart of the em- 
pire, parts of which are scattered all 
over the face of the globe. These scat- 
tered portions of the empire, though 
sundered by the Seven Seas, are kept 
together by the British navy which 
guards those seas. Naval supremacy is 
therefore absolutely necessary for us 
if we are to maintain the empire." 

By "empire" Earl Roberts means im- 
perialism, a union of England with her 
colonies which would make the colonies 
obedient dependencies in such a way 
that if the British premier decides on 
war, Africa, India, Australia with New 
Zealand, and Canada shall be drawn 
into the struggle. The same proposi- 
tion is made in the "Saturday Review" 
article of 1896, cited above and re- 
printed on another page, where the de- 
mand is expressed by the words "to 
federate." We remember that imperial- 
ism in Germany has been bitterly con- 
demned by British authors, but for the 
maintenance of Great Britain's domin- 
ion all over the world the federation of 
all colonies into an empire is an indis- 
pensable principle; and further the 
British empire, in this sense of im- 
perialism, presupposes Great Britain's 
naval supremacy. 

In addition, the powers on the con- 
tinent ought to be equally balanced; 
Earl Roberts quotes from Lord Milner : 
"But in order to help maintain that 
balance we require an army, and no 
puny army." This means "militarism." 
Militarism is to be destroyed in Ger- 
many, but England ought to have it. 

And we agree with Earl Roberts. If 
militarism had existed in Great Britain 
as it exists in Germany, if every 
Englishman had to serve in the army. 
Sir Edward Grey would not have ven- 
tured into this war so unconcernedly 
as he did, and for this reason, if not 
for others as well, it is highly desirable 
that the German system of militarism 
should be Introduced into Great 
Britain. 

If we grant the premises from which 
Earl Roberts argues, that Britain domi- 
nance over the world (or, as he more 
guardedly expresses it, her "naval su- 
premacy") is "absolutely necessary" for 
the British, his warlike attitude is 
quite natural, and, both from the old 
standpoint of Macchiavellian politics 
and from the biological point of view, 
the pollcv of the English government 
would be quite intelligible. The British 
cabinet held these views and so war 
was unavoidable. 

But is the biological standpoint really 
true, and is it wise to act accordingly? 
It risks England's present position by 
a war which might hasten the crisis 
with exactly the evil result that Eng- 
lish statesmen intend to avoid. 

A Struggle for lieadership. 

There is a certain justice in English 
ambition to keep ahead in the struggle 
for leadership In the world. Every na- 
tion has a right to do her best to excel 
all the others and be the first among 
them. It is the old principle taught in 
ancient Greece where Homer thus ex- 
pressed It in his Iliad: 
"Always to be in the lead and to be to 
the others superior." 

England has been the dominant na- 
tion in the world and maintains her 



prominence by ruling the seas : but two 
rivals are slowly growing stronger with 
the probability that each of them will 
take a place besides Great Britain, and 
these are Germany and the United 
States. Should their growth be toler- 
ated? Should not the increase of their 
power be stopped in time before it Is 
too late? From the standpoint of the 
English author who expresses the bio- 
logical view. Great Britain should be 
on guard. Russia is not dangerous; 
France is not dangerous ; no other 
smaller power can become dangerous. 
There are only two rivals, Germany and 
America. Our English author says 
directly Germania est delcnda, and im- 
plies as the future aim, America est 
delemla. Is not this principle right? 
Is not the maxim of Homer both true 
and noble? And is not the struggle 
for existence a law of nature fully 
proved by science? 

Britannia still rules the seas ; and we 
can very well understand that she 
would and should do anything, even 
risk a war, to maintain her supremacy. 
We grant that she has a right to do 
so, but we believe that she has not 
taken the right way to carry out her 
determination. 

England has done wrong in forcing 
the war upon Germany, and though the 
moment is comparatively well chosen, 
though Germany is at present in a 
most precarious position, it seems clear 
to me that England is greatly endan- 
gered and has herself to blame If she 
loses her world dominion in the 
struggle. 

Has not Great Britain's action In de- 
claring war on Germany fully justified 
Germany in building a navy? Without 
any cause of her own for war England 
joined Germany's enemies and destroyed 
her large trade over sea through the 
use of superior naval power. England's 
statesmen know perfectly well that Ger- 
many's bi'each of Belgian neutrality 
was excusable and fully justified, but 
thev claim that the war was deliber- 
ately forced upon England by Germany's 
aggressiveness because Germany has 
been from time to time increasing not 
only her army but also her navy, and 
especially after the establishment of 
the Triple Entente. Her na\T is now 
almost half as large as the British 
na^T. and according to English opinion 
this is reason enough to claim that Ger- 
many has forced England to begin the 
war and to blame her for aggressive- 
ness. Says Earl Roberts : "The agree- 
ments between Great Britain and 
France were signed in London 1904" 
. the "good understanding be- 
tween Great Britain, France and Rus- 
sia was completed in 1907," and in an- 
other place he ixtints out the great fault 
of Germany, saying: 

"The German Army was increased in 
1912, and again in 1913, to such an ex- 
tent that the peace strength expanded 
from about fi.'iO.OOO in 1911 to S22.000 in 
1913 ; and it is a fact worthy of note 
that this addition of 170,000 men to the 
numbei-s with the colors— an addition 
just equal to our Expeditionary Force 
— was made almost immediately after 
the Morocco crisis of 1911. when the 
British Government had shown its de- 
termination to stand by the side of 
France against any attempt of German 
aggression." 



SOME VALUABLE LESSONS OF THE WAR 



So it is apparent that in British opin- 
ion Germany bears all the guilt. The 
Triple Entente succeeded in thwarting 
Germany's attempt to receive a portion 
of Morocco which the French reserved 
for themselves. The English succeeded 
in gaining the good will of the strong- 
est nations against Germany, and Ger- 
many deemed it wise to strengthen her 
defense. If , Germany had remained 
as weak as in 1S06, England would 
have condescended to patronize the Ger- 
man people as she patronizes all weak 
nations, for instance Servia and Bel- 
gium. 

England has always been an enemy 
of every nation that might become a 
competitor of her naval supremacy, but 
small nations enjoy her ostensible 
^friendship. A small nation is one that 
'could never gain headway on the ocean, 
never build a navy and never have a 
chance to dominate the world. Eng- 
land's love of small nations has always 
been praised by the British as her be- 
nevolent humanitarianism, as her kind- 
ness for the downtrodden, but closely 
considered it is due to selfishness, for 
these smaller nations have always given 
pretexts for England to promote her 
own interest. So, for instance, Bel- 
gium is now claimed to be a protegee 
of England, but in fact Belgium has 
been utilized as English territory on 
the continent, and at the instigation of 
English statesmen the Belgians have 
been lighting the battles of England in 
the vain confidence that England was 
defending their cause. 

Poor Belgium is a victim of English 
politics, for the English have not given 
them enough assistance to protect Bel- 
gian territory from the horrors of war. 
The people living on the same stretch 
of country, formerly connected with 
Holland under the name of the Nether- 
lands, were once a most powerful sea- 
faring state, but England waged a war 
on these Netherlands for no other rea- 
son than because the country had be- 
come almost as powerful as England on 
the seas. But no nation may rule the 
waves but England, and so the Nether- 
lands fell a victim to English politics 
and lost valuable colonies beyond the 
seas. Now it is Germany's turn to have 
her navy destroyed, and English jingoes 
do not hesitate to announce the United 
States of America as the next power to 
be overcome in order to preserve for 
the future that supremacy on the seas 
which is absolutely necessary for the 
maintenance of the British empire. 

The Higher View. 

We grant that life is struggle and 
struggle cannot be avoidable in life. We 
grant that struggle implies war and 
that under certain circumstances war 
is unavoidable. Therefore every nation 
(our own United States by no means 
excepted) is in duty bound to be always 
ready for self-defense, and this implies 
militarism. But we maintain that the 
fierceness of the struggle, its suffering, 
its unnecessary pangs and pains can be 
eliminated, or at any rate reduced and 
this is done in the progress of civiliza- 
tion. Unnecessary wars can be avoided, 
and they will be avoided not so much 
by humaneness and kindheartedness as 
by intelligence. Humaneness does not 
work, because a genuine true humane- 
ness, a humaneness associated with in- 
telligence, is too rare, and is practically 



pure sentiment which does not affect the 
broad masses, for we must not forget 
that mankind is brutish, not humane. 
The salvation of mankind can be 
brought about • only by education, by 
teaching how the worst ills of life can 
be avoided, and that much of the evil 
which people suffer is of their own 
making. 

Why was this or that war unavoid- 
able? Because the people who started 
it did not possess sufiicient insight to 
recognize its inadvisability. To speak 
plainly, the stupidity of the leading men 
is the ultimate cause of a war. 

Take an example. 

The war of secession was actually un- 
avoidable because at the time the people 
did not understand the slave question. 
First, there were some idealists who 
believed in the liberty, equality and 
brotherhood of man, who thought the 
negro was as much a child of God as 
the white man, and slavery a most 
damnable institution. I shall not enter 
into details which modify the ideal; 
suffice it to say that if men are equal 
before the law it does not mean that 
they are of the same worth and value. 
Those who felt instinctively the errors 
of the ideal saw the reverse aspect of 
the statement and claimed that the 
land of cotton needed workers in the 
fields and that the maintenance of 
slavery was a question of life or death 
for the southerners. The difference of 
opinjpn caused the demand for seces- 
sion. Hence the war was unavoidable. 

Now let us assume that one among 
the leading men had understood the 
slave question, and especially this phase 
of it ; while slavery seems to be a 
special phase in the economical develop- 
ment of mankind, it always abolishes 
itself when the time comes. Slavery is 
a benefit not only for the slave owner, 
but as a rule also for the slave, who is 
incapable of making a living for him- 
self. The slave owner has to provide 
for him, has to care for his future and 
in this way takes many burdens off his 
shoulder which he is as yet incapable 
of carrying. To keep slaves is expen- 
sive, and as soon as there is a sufficient 
amount of free labor that can do the 
work more cheaply, slavery will die out 
rapidly. 

This statement is simple and un- 
deniable; and it is a fact that no one 
would now be willing, even if it were 
not against the law, to reintroduce 
slavery in the southern states because 
free labor is cheaper than the main- 
tenance of slaves, and from this point 
of view we will learn that slavery 
would in time have abolished itself and 
the abolition of slavery would possibly 
and probably have come about grad- 
ually and at a more seasonable period. 

If this truth had been known and 
appreciated there would have been no 
necessity for our war of secession. Ig- 
norance made the war unavoidable. I 
do not mean to say that the people were 
unintelligent and stupid in every re- 
spect, they were as clever and intelli- 
gent as people are nowadays ; but they 
were ignorant on one point which 
happened to be the silent issue of the 
day. Their excitement blinded them 
to the truth that would have been their 
salvation. 

The present war is unavoidable in 
the same sense, but it could have been 



avoided if the men who started it had 
been possessed of more intelligence on 
the point at issue. God did not endow 
them with that wisdom, and so I pray 
that their stupidity may be regarded 
as an extenuation of their crime — but 
the results are terrible. 

What is the reason of the war. the 
underlying ground that makes it un- 
avoidable? I do not now mean the 
occasion. The occasion is the assassi- 
nation of the archduke and the right 
of Servia, on the plea of her sovereignty, 
to have an investigation of the plot pre- 
vented. The real reason of the war 
is Great Britain's fear that Germany 
might grow too powerful. The jealousy 
that has developed between the two na- 
tions is founded on their rivalry. The 
author of the English article in the 
"Saturday Review'' written from a 
"biological" point of view said that Ger- 
many is at present the only dangerous 
competitor and in the future the nest 
will be America. If the laws of nature 
can be relied upon the struggle is un- 
avoidable. Men impressed with the 
truth of this idea have guided the 
destiny of England ; they brought about 
the Triple Entente, they planned to 
utilize neutral Belgium as a basis for a 
British attack on Germany. Germany 
knew that the war with England was 
threatening and she began to prepare 
for it, nor can we blame her for doing 
so. She began to build a navy which, 
though very much weaker in numbers 
than the English navy, is by* no means 
inferior in quality. 

Now the question arises, was the war 
truly unavoidable under these circum- 
stances? I answer. Yes. It was un- 
avoidable if we grant that the men who 
brought it about were blessed with that 
gift of God we have characterized as a 
lack of intelligence. These men are no 
doubt very clever and bright in every 
other respect, but they lack a deeper 
insight into what I call the higher view, 
which throws light on the salient point 
at issue. The present war could have 
been avoided if the men who made it 
had understood the law of progress 
in the history of the world; but the 
avoidance of unnecessary war will be 
possible only when the leading men of 
the world's affairs will take the higher 
view of politics and learn the law of 
civilization by which the unnecessary 
ills of struggle may be eliminated. 

First I would tell the man who wrote 
Gennania est delenda, that England 
would not gain by the destruction of 
Germany. On the contrary she would 
lose, as she actually has lost now in 
many quarters through destruction of 
her own commerce with Germany. But 
I want to make another more important 
point. 

Suppose I were the owner of a drug- 
store doing a lucrative business and 
just when I felt that I had established 
a good business, which practically 
amounted to a monopoly, another drug 
store was established by an enterpris- 
ing young comi^etitor across the street, 
and at a further distance in the Ameri- 
can quarter of the town a third one 
was starting in business. My business 
had become somewhat stationary, we 
might even say stagnant, but I had a 
hard time in establishing it and felt 
that it was my own and that my com- 
petitors had no right to interfere with 



324 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



my trade. If I could do away with 
tUem, there was no brancli in my store 
which would not become more prosper- 
ous. By killing a competitor I would 
certainly get rid of him, but would gain 
nothing. The shop would remain as 
sloven as before. In order to make true 
progress I must imitate my rival's pro- 
gressiveness, must improve my methods 
and do better than he! To kill people 
is against the law in a civilized society, 
but sovereign states do not recognize 
any international law, and the sword 
must decide questions of right. So it 
has been in the past and I fear it will 
still continue for a long time. Here 
comes in the duty of developing man- 
hood, or, to use the modern term, 
"militarism." 

In history, the progressive nation has 
generally been superior in intelligence 
to her powerful aggressor. Take for 
instance the world power of Persia and 
little Greece, the former inexhaustible 
in resources, the latter inspired by 
ideals representing a definite stage in 
the development of mankind, the study 
of which was called later on humaniora. 
The situation was absolutely hopeless 
for Greece on any human consideration ; 
a miracle only could save her from the 
teeming millions of the Persian hosts, 
and yet the miracle happened. Greece 
came out victoi'ious. It is true the 
stupid rivalry between Sparta and 
Athens ruined Greece, but the spirit of 
Greece lived in the Macedonian hero 
Alexander, and he made Greek civili- 
zation triumph over the older culture of 
Asia. 

Numbers of soldiers are very im- 
portant in battle, the quantity of ton- 
nage is a great factor in a naval en- 
counter, but after all, quality is de- 
cisive, the quality of soldiers and 
sailors, of ships and armament, and 
above all of intelligence. 

I wonder whether the English cabinet 
has taken that point into consideration. 
It does not seem so, for they were ap- 
parently unprepared for the occurrences 
in the war. They are now clamoring 
for "an army and a large army." Why 
did they not train an army before they 
declared war? Because they were so 
uninformed about Germany that they 
regarded her army an easy prey to 
superior numbers. 

And what constitutes Germany's 
strength? It is the German spirit, Ger- 
man grit, German intelligence, it is 
quality which we might characterize 
in the word "Germandom," to translate 
what the Germans call Deutschthum. 

Germandom. or Deutschthum, is a 
peculiar phase in the development of 
mankind, and its essential feature may 
be characterized as objectivity. I do 
not mean to say that objectivity is ab- 
sent in England, in France, in the 
United States and other countries, but 
It is more predominant in Germany and 
constitutes an aim, an ideal, a state 
of mind to be desired for certain pur- 
poses and is closely connected with 
the efflorescence of science. 

Science is the ideal of the present 
age. and it is best realized and most 
widespread in Germany. It is there 
applied to practical life more than in 
any other country. German education 
is superior and the Germans are more 
quick-witted and versatile than the 
English. 



England has not been so progressive 
as Germany. A comparison of the two 
countries does not show England in a 
favorable light. France has improved 
wonderfully, but not as much as Ger- 
many. The wealth of England is still 
enormous, but it is not well distributed. 
There is the rich aristocracy and the 
wretched population of London's east 
end, whose destitution can nowhere 
be equaled either in France or Ger- 
many. It even seems as if every con- 
servative man was shrinking from 
having any change introduced into the 
social system. A great scientist in 
England once told me : "We make no 
changes because one change might lead 
to others and our whole system of 
social arrangements might collapse." 
What would appear as a reform in the 
beginning might end in an utter 
breakdown of the entire body politic. 

Several visiting foreigners have as- 
sured me that according to their sin- 
cere conviction England is on its down- 
ward march, that it is the least pro- 
gressive nation and is beginning to lag 
considerably behind the advance of the 
times. Englishmen, they say, can least 
easily adapt themselves to new condi- 
tions ; they are sjow and at the same 
time proud, they look upon other Euro- 
pean nations, the Germans and the 
French Included, at best with bene- 
volent condescension, sometimes with 
contempt, while Americans, so far as 
they approve of them at all, are but 
second-class Englishmen. More • ac- 
curately speaking the people of the 
United States are third class, because 
the Canadians and other colonials 
range in second degree. I will make 
these statements without further dis- 
cussion because a full explanation will 
lead too far here, and I prefer to set 
forth the higher view which would 
make a war avoidable. 

From the lower standpoint as ex- 
pressed by the anonymous author of 
the article from a biological point of 
view, the war is actually as unavoid- 
able as the war of secession was in 
the United States. Germany has grown 
with an unprecedented rapidity in pros- 
perity and power ; if hor progress con- 
tinues, she will outgrow the British 
empire within a calculable time and if 
the British empire means to retain her 
grip on the globe, she will have to out- 
do Germany and keep ahead of her. 
This Is as much England's duty as it 
is Germany's right to grow and expand 
and do better than Great Britain. 

But I will ask the question right 
here. If Germany were eliminated 
would every Englishman really be 
benefitted thereby? In a certain sense, 
perhaps ; England would lose a rival. 
But in another sense, not ; the British 
would remain or fall back into their 
old slovenly way of carrying on their 
business. They would not profit by 
killing off their rival, they would not 
learn, they would not progress ; and 
when other rivals rise, either in 
America or In some other continent 
from their own colonies, or perhaps 
in Russia they would again be obliged 
to dispose of their rivals by knocking 
them out. If they are smart enough 
and follow the old methods taught by 
Macchiavelli, they might succeed, but 
they would not succeed in furthering 
mankind to a higher and higher de- 
velopment. 



The stages of progressive mankind 
are not accidental, they are predeter- 
mined. And when the Persians, those 
sturdy mountaineers, appeared in his- 
tory they took the lead and became the 
rulers of Babylon and the whole Ba- 
bylonian empire. But the Greeks 
reached a higher plane, and though 
few in numbers could not be subdued 
but grew and expanded until they over- 
threw the Persian empire, and the 
Greek spirit permeated all hither Asia. 

A new civilization arose and It took 
root in all civilized nations, but main- 
ly in what we have characterized as 
Germandom ; and this Germandom is 
not the civilization born of German 
blood, it is the civilization of man- 
kind which concentrated mainly in Ger- 
many. The Greeks passed away, but if 
mankind wanted to advance and become 
superior to the Greeks, it could not 
have done so by eliminating the Greeks, 
by slaying them or disposing of them 
in any way. The northern barbarians 
would always have remained barbar- 
ians had fi^ey not risen above their 
own stage and attained the plane of 
Greek thought. The Germans have 
done this more than any other nation, 
not merely by learning what the 
Greeks taught, but by becoming Greeks 
themselves. I do not deny that since 
the Renaissance there have been Greek 
spirits in Italy, France and also In 
England, but the Germans have im- 
bibed Hellenism into their souls In its 
purest form, and In their literature it 
rose to a classical efflorescence in 
Schiller and Goethe. 

Further the Germans were always 
more cosmopolitan than others and this 
is instanced in the fact that they were 
interested in all other nations. There 
has been no work of significance in 
England, in France, in Spain, in Rus- 
sia, that has not been translated into 
German. Shakespeare, Cervantes, Mol- 
lere, Turgenlev. are as well known and 
appreciated In Germany as in their own 
countries, and the most valuable 
thought of all the world has grown into 
the spirit of German literature. The 
soul of every other civilized nation has 
taken abode in Germany ; every one 
was welcome, every one was appre- 
ciated, every one has grown into Ger- 
mandom. 

Nor is Germany limited to German 
blood in its inmost constitution, its bio- 
logical system. Some of the most rep- 
resentative Germans are Slavs, Poles 
or Wends, some are French Huguenots, 
and still others. Italians, and there is 
no nationality of Europe which is not 
interwoven into the texture of the Ger- 
man nation. Nor must we forget that 
Germany owes valuable contributions to 
Judaism, the main and best represent- 
ative of the old Oriental nations. Ger- 
mandom has become most cosmopoli- 
tan, a feature which is developing in 
a still higher degree in America. 

If the English would outdo the Ger- 
mans, they can do it not by killing 
them but by Imitating them. They 
must adopt that Germandom which 
they now despise. They must learn 
from the Germans. They must adopt 
their methods, they must introduce re- 
forms which will best be modelled after 
German patterns, they must imitate 
German etficiency also in defense, or in 



SOME VALUABLE LESSONS OF THE WAR 



325 



other words, they must copy German 
militarism. 

To eliminate by war and slaughter a 
rival who Is dangerous because he is 
too progressive and growing too power- 
ful, may be the proper thing to do from 
the lower standpoint, which in the 
"Saturday Review" has been called 
"biological," but at best it will be a 
poor and unsatisfactory method of 
keeping ahead. This method of keep- 
ing ahead is dangerous, for history 
teaches us that the people to be dis- 
posed of in this brutal manner usually 
accomplish exactly what their enemies 
planned to prevent and so the Biblical 
sentence is frequently applicable that 
"ye thought evil against me, but God 
meant it unto good" (Gen. 1:20). 

The underlying question of this war 
is after all a question of power. The 
war is to decide whether England will 
retain her supremacy over the seas, 
which means her dominance over the 
world ; and questions of power cannot 
be decided by argument, they must be 
decided by the proof of actual superior- 
ity. England's strength lay in peace,' 
but she has chosen war. England 
risks much more than Germany, cer- 
tainly more than her leaders think or 
have thought. The author of the arti- 
cles in the "Saturday Review" thinks 
"that England Is the only great power 
who could fight Germany without tre- 
mendous risk and without doubt of 
the issue." 

To me it seems almost pitiable that 
a few men could mislead the English 



' The war with the Boers was the same 
mistake. The Boers would have lost in a 
peaceful competition with the "uitlanders," 
but England preferred war, a war most 
disastrous to England. England subjected 
the Boers but laid the basis for a future 
United States of South Africa. 



people and rush them into the war, the 
greatest calamity that ever could fall 
upon England. It is a misfortune that 
these men, originally a few jingoes, 
seized the government, manufactured 
opinion, induced the country to ally it- 
self first with France, then with Rus- 
sia, sowed hatred against Germany, the 
nation that is most kin to the English, 
and walk a path that will lead to per- 
dition. When the war is over we shall 
understand history better, we shall see 
more clearly, and those statesmen who 
have begun the war will be wiser. 

Before 1S70 Germany counted thirty- 
eight million inhabitants and now con- 
tains sixty -six millions. She has grown 
in power not by militarism but by a 
peaceful development. But according 
to Sir Edward Grey himself the "un- 
measured aggrandizement" is the true 
reason of the war. If that is the case, 
the reason of the war is indeed a mere 
question of power. Two cannot be the 
first. According to such conceptions 
the seas must belong to one nation; 
any important rival must be disposed 
of in battle while the small ones may 
be tolerated. .There is no question of 
right ; it is a question of supremacy, of 
retaining leadership. Herein lies the 
reason that the British have no argu- 
ments and do not even need a c(isus 
belli. They state their reasons in gen- 
eral phrases, as Germany's militarism, 
Germany's increase of power, Ger- 
many's unprecedented growth, etc. 
England does not seem to feel the un- 
fairness of the present war, but neither 
did she see the unfairness of her for- 
mer wars. It is really an astonishing 
fact that no English war in modern 
times can be defended. And now, why 
begin a war to exterminate Germany's 



militarism or Imperialism? France 
has a severer militarism, and real im- 
perialism is most developed in Russia. 
And if Germany be crushed now, will 
she not rise phoenix-like again and 
again? And will not that spirit which 
now dominates Germandom surely con- 
quer in the end? 

Here is the point we make on the 
issue: The English statesmen will not 
attain what they want, they will not 
keep England in the lead, they are 
positively endangering England's pre- 
dominance in the world most terribly. 
The odds are awful against Germany, 
the moment for attacking her was 
shrewdly chosen ; but it would have 
been wiser to conquer Germany with 
her own weapons by introducing Ger- 
man methods in England and raising 
the level of English institutions, of 
English schools and industrial condi- 
tions, of English science, medicine, 
chemistry, and other branches, to the 
German standard. The reverse is done. 
In Russia the very name Petersburg is 
changed to Petrograd, and If every 
trace of German Influence were wiped 
out in Russia the Muscovites would 
certainly be the losers, and if German 
music is to be cut out in England as 
has been proposed, and if German 
medicines are to be replaced by Eng- 
lish Imitations, the English drugstore 
may have reasons to be grateful, but 
scarcely English patients. 

One way to keep in the lead Is to 
kill a rival. It is the old barbarous 
way and after all inefficient. The 
. higher way is not only nobler, but also 
better and leads to success. It con- 
sists In the firm endeavor to excel your 
rival. That is not easy, for it demands 
hard labor, but it leads to the goal. 



National Ideals, Morality, and the Justification of Force 
Diplomacy and Politics in the War 



THE MORALS OF WAR. 



Is War Immoral': 



Milwaukee Free Press. 

Professor Hugo Muensterberg. 

[The following article is composed of 
extracts from Prof, Muensterberg's new 
book, "The War and America," just pub- 
lished bv D. Appleton & Co. The first 
edition was practically exhausted In ad- 
vance of publication. — Editor.] 

A gigantic destruction of human 
life such as this war demands must 
naturally force on every one the wish 
for a substitute which Is less pain- 
ful to the imagination. But any 
schemes which renounce those higher 
gifts of war that serve the historic 
progress of mankind are utterly un- 
fit and would never he of lasting 
value. 

It might not he difficult to con- 
struct plans which conserve the 
chance distribution of national pos- 
sessions today still more firmly than 
any mere treaty and arbitration 
schemes. But whenever the aim is 
simply to guarantee the present na- 
tional boundaries without means to 



change them in constant adjustment 
to new inner needs of the plan is con- 
demned by the tribunal of historic 
morality. 

I for my part see only one logical 
possibility. War making could be 
overcome only if the fundamental 
condition of wars were artificially 
changed, and this would not be utter- 
ly beyond man's power. 

Almost all the wars between na- 
tions have been struggles to gain 
territory, or at least to deprive other 
nations of their territory. Inter- 
national wars would disappear if na- 
tions did not own their countries. 
The Idea of such a state of mankind 
would be entirely parallel to that of 
socialism for individuals in the state. 

The socialistic plan abolishes the 
economic struggle of the Individuals 
by eliminating capitalism. This 
world plan for the nations would 
abolish the struggle of war by elim- 
inating territoriallsm. The territory 
on the globe would be distributed so 
that any one million beings would 
receive an equal share. 

Of course, it would not be equal- 
ity of size, but of value. The terri- 



tory of Turkey even today is larger 
than that of France, Germany, Eng- 
land and Italy taken together. The 
equal distribution would therefore in- 
volve very different areas. But fund- 
amentally any one million persons 
would gain equal chances, and as 
with the growth of decay of the pop- 
ulation and with the development of 
the territory new distributions would 
always be arranged, no one would 
have any interest in fighting. No na- 
tion would possess land any more 
than the socialistic individual would 
possess capital. 

This seems to me the only possible 
solution of the problem which would 
not stifle the progress of mankind. 
As long as nations have possessions 
of land there will be constant need of 
new adjustment, which no human 
court, but only war can regulate. 
The anti-terrltorialism would bring 
to the nations all the blessings which 
are hoped from anticipation for the 
individuals. 

There would be no poor and no 
economic misery if socialism were 
carried through; there would be no 
militarism and no war, if cosmochor- 



326 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 




©in acmiit^It^er Stat in ben Sotofomfien )3on a?o«be§tncourt. 
A QUIET GAME OF "SKAT" IN THE CATACOMBS AT BANDESINCOURT 

(By Courtesy of the "Illinois Staats-Zeitung") 



ism were the scheme of the world. 
The word cosmochorism is formed 
from the Greek, chora, the land. A 
cosmopolitan order of mankind 
would be one in which the state loses 
its individuality; in cosmochoristic 
order the nations would retain their 
state forms, but their land would be- 
long to the whole world. 

I do think that the transition to so- 
cialism is possible and would not 
even be extremely difficult in our 
present days. I think that an equal 
distribution of land for all the peo- 
ples on earth without any one people 
having a right to possession of land 
would be equally possible. Cos- 
mochorism might be carried out even 
without externally changing much in 
the present status. But it would 
carry with it all those important and 
thousand times discussed disadvan- 
tages of the socialistic system. 

Most men are still convinced that 
the evils of capitalism are less than 
those which a socialistic order would 
involve. The stimulus which the pos- 
session of private and inheritable 
property has given to the world ought 
not to be dispensed with. The prog- 
ress of mankind in the same way 
needs the possibility of private land 
possession by the individual nations; 
it needs the rivalry, and I believe 
that such an anti-terrltorlallstlc plan 
ought ultimately to be defeated for 
the same reasons for which the ma- 
jority of the civilized nations still 
opposes the socialism of the anti- 
capitalists. 



But this is certain: As long as 
private possession of land by the na- 
tions is sanctioned incessant changes 
in the size of the territories are 
needed and must be secured by free 
competition. 

Of course it may happen that the 
industrious, intelligent merchant has 
bad luck and remains poor while his 
less worthy rival grows rich by acci- 
dent or trickery! No unfailing jus- 
tice lies in the decision of the ac- 
count books. Yet on the whole our 
economic system is backed by the 
belief that free competition brings 
gain to the worthy and keeps down 
the less efficient. 

In this sense certainly no unfailing 
justice lies in the decision of the wea- 
pons but in the great average his- 
tory has proved that those nations 
will rise which are worthy of it 
and those will fall which deserve 
punishment from the highest point of 
view of civilization. Success or fail- 
ure In war may come to nations 
without any reference to certain out- 
lying valuable factors of national cul- 
ture. France was beaten by Ger- 
many at a time when it was superior 
to its opponent in the art of paint- 
ing. But on the whole the empire of 
the third Napoleon deserved to 
crumble. 



IS WAR UIMORAL? 



The Courage of Their Convictions. 



The Austrian army had a good day 
yesterday. It was only "practically 
exterminated." — From "The Chicago 
Tribune," September 18, 1914. 



New Yorker Staats-Zeitung. 
Herman Bidder. 

As I glance through the New York 
papers from day to day and see the 
amount of criticism that is being 
heaped upon my head because of my 
editorial policy with regard to the 
Staats-Zeitung, I often wonder where- 
in lies the blame which attaches to 
me. Do my critics believe for a mo- 
ment that the Staats-Zeitung should 
follow the path of the New York 
Herald, for instance, and become a 
French paper published in the Ger- 
man language? Do not misunder- 
stand me, for I have the most sin- 
cere admiration for the New York 
Herald and its frank declaration of 
friendship for France. 

An editor must have the courage 
of his conviction and no man can 
truthfully tell me that I am afraid 
to print what I believe to be true. 
If I were to publish an American 
paper printed in the English language 
I would conduct it in the same vig- 
orous and definite manner that I 
conduct an American paper printed 
in the German language. I, for one, 
have no patience with the journalis- 
tic code that permits a publisher to 
conduct one paper for one side and 
another for the other. As an exam- 
ple, consider Mr. W. R. Hearst, and 
anyone will do for an e.vample. He 



NATIONAL IDEALS, MORALITY AND FORCE 



327 



prints a picture of British troops in 
his New York American of Sept. 9th, 
and the descriptive matter reads: 
"This is the type of Bnglish soldier 
who is doing such tremendous work 
on the battle front in France." The 
same day he brings the same picture 
in his German paper and the descrip- 
tive matter is arranged to suit the 
German taste, reading: "British 
troops that run so fast that it is 
not possible for the Germans to cap- 
ture them." However, that is the 
business of Mr. Hearst and not mine. 
If he is successful In keeping his 
left hand from knowing what his 
right hand is doing and at the same 
time in satisfying his constituents on 
both sides, he is performing a feat 
of journalistic legerdemain which 
calls for applause from all galleries. 

I do not doubt that England and 
the friends of England would like 
to see the war in Europe sugar- 
coated and capsulized for the par- 
ticular benefit of the inhabitants of 
the British Isles. Among those 
friends of England I class a certain 
element of the American press, which 
Is today crying out against the par- 
tial destruction of the cathedral at 
Rheims. Two weeks ago this same 
element of the press featured in its 
Sunday editions the utilization by 
the enemies of Germany of cathedral 
towers to mount guns against air- 
ships. I have been attacked and vil- 
lalnized because I could see in the 
damage done to the cathedral in 
Rheims nothing beyond what was re- 
quired by the circumstances of the 
case. 

It is purest piffle to say that be- 
cause Rheims has been spared 
through seven centuries it should be 
spared today. During no one of 
those seven centuries was Rheims 
the center of conflict between a mil- 
lion men fighting for their hearths 
and homes and a greater number 
bent on the destruction of the same. 
It Is not necessary to go into the de- 
tails of military privileges in the time 
of war. The most simple-minded 
editorial writer must admit not only 
the possibility of unintentional dam- 
age to the prominent landmarks in 
the theater of operation, but also 
the right of each belligerent to pro- 
tect himself against the employment 
of such landmarks by the enemy. We 
cannot discuss the war at all unless 
we are prepared to accept the word 
of each side with the same faith in 
Its integrity. The German Emperor 
has expressed himself clearly and un- 
mistakably In the sense that the ar- 
mies of Germany will not resort to 
unnecessary acts of destruction. Let 
us be candid and fair-minded and ac- 
cept this assurance until the con- 
trary is proven. We have to date 
absolutely nothing in controversion 
thereof. It is not without the bounds 
of probability that the fortunes of 
war should bring the allied armies 
to the banks of the Rhine and that 
the great Gothic cathedral at Cologne 
should suffer a fate similar to that 
of the cathedral in Rheims. If that 
day should come to pass, England 
would have a very different line of 
argument to offer. 

It is a simple matter to talk of re- 
prisals, when the war has been car- 



ried into German territory. Such 
talk, however, can serve but one pur- 
pose: to justify what German arms 
have done in Belgium and France. 
In the same breath England cries 
out against the destruction of Lou- 
vain and Rheims and then promises 
to destroy the first place of art she 
can lay her hands upon in Germany. 
Would it not raise a greater mead of 
sympathy in the world at large if 
that self-satisfied nation which has 
stirred up this world confiagration 
would take its stand solidly on one 
side of the fence or the other? 

I feel as keenly as any man can 
the irreparable loss to art and ar- 
chitecture involved in the present 
war, but what I cannot and will not 
allow myself to be talked or wailed 
or bulldozed into thinking is that the 
destruction of material things can 
be compared with the wiping out of 
the thousands of human lives that 
are being cut short in this unholy 
struggle forced upon Germany. I 
have been assailed on every side be- 
cause I have not joined in the gen- 
eral pro-English outcry against the 
inevitable results of war in the coun- 
try of the enemy. If I could see one 
single point where Germany has been 
wrong or the wail of the Allies jus- 
tified, I would go half way to meet 
my assailants. 

On the contrary, I cannot but feel 
that the American people are being 
asked to forget a great deal in order 
that they may place their faith im- 
plicitly in the logic of England's 
present expression of horrified sur- 
prise at the eventualities which have 
taken place on the continent. The 
halls of the national museum of 
London are crowded with the loot 
of the world. It is well nigh a 
century now since Byron taunted 
Britain with the theft of the "Elgin 
Marbles" and they have not yet been 
returned to the Parthenon. In the 
smallness of our occidental vision we 
are Inclined to magnify the value 
of Europe's treasures of art, to the 
disadvantage of those of the East. 
Those who are loudest in their criti- 
cism of the necessary results of 
armed confiict in Europe, forget the 
blackened swarth of British arms in 
India, carved from one end of the 
country to the other by the ruthless 
policy of instilling respect by the 
wanton destruction of religious edi- 
fices. It does not matter whether 
reared to Jehovah, Jove or Lord, re- 
ligious houses should be spared when 
possible and British arms forgot this 
fact in India and China. Why, then, 
should Britain and a pro-British press 
in this country raise their voices 
when a temple meets an unfortunate 
fate in a city held and defended by 
the enemy? 

The whole plaint is too hypocrit- 
ical, too much in keeping with Eng- 
land's whole plan of campaign against 
Germany, to be deserving of serious 
consideration on this side of the 
water. The value of England's sin- 
cerity in condemning Germany's con- 
duct of the war is measured by her 
talk of reprisals in kind on German 
soil. By virtue of German foresight 
and preparedness, the conflict is now 
being waged in the territory of the 
enemy. But does one single mis- 



guided soul on this side of the At- 
lantic believe for a moment that 
were the theater of war now on Ger- 
man soil, British and French arms 
would respect Germany's art treas- 
ures one whit more than German 
arms, bound by the necessities of 
war, have respected those of France 
and Belgium? The answer is in the 
Louvre and the London Museum. 



DO THE PEOPLE WANT WAR? 



Ijoyalty of German Socialists. 



Literary Digest, New York. 

The German followers of the great 
Socialist leader Bebel are very differ- 
ent from the French followers of 
Jaur6s, the brilliant Socialist and an- 
tlmilltarist, recently assassinated be- 
cause of his outspoken opposition to 
the military ardor and warlike en- 
thusiasm which he saw animating 
the bulk of his fellow countrymen on 
the brink of war. The German So- 
cialists are ready to fight down what 
they style Russian despotism, and 
they rally round their Government in 
its war policy because of their hatred 
and dread of the Czar. They style 
the Kaiser "a prince of peace," and 
speak of him as "showing himself the 
protector of universal tranquility." 
The chief organ of Socialism in Ber- 
lin, the Vorwarts, contains the fol- 
lowing editorial utterance: 

"We are always open enemies of 
the monarchic form of government, 
and we always will be. We were 
often obliged to conduct a bitter op- 
position to the temperamental wearer 
of the crown. But we have to 
acknowledge today that William II. 
has shown himself the friend of uni- 
versal peace." 

In harmony with this is the speech 
made at a mass-meeting of Social 
Democrats by N. Feuerstein, Socialist 
member of the Reichstag, from which 
the Vossische Zeitung (Berlin) 
quotes the following passage: 

"We are all convinced that the 
German Government is peace-loving 
and desires nothing better than to up- 
hold the peace. But in the case of 
the present war it is the duty of every 
Social Democrat called to arms to do 
his best fighting beside his fellow 
countrymen, especially when oper- 
ations are directed against Russia, 
whose absolute despotism constitutes 
a menace and danger to civilized 
Europe." 

"War in our country," declares the 
Volkstimme, a Socialist organ of 
Chemnitz, compels all comrades 'to 
unite against the foe,' and this paper 
proceeds to say: 

"All must set aside the aims and 
purposes of their party, and bear In 
mind one fact — Germany, and In a 
larger sense all Europe, is en- 
dangered by Russian despotism. At 
this moment we all feel the duty 
to fight chiefly and exclusively 
against Russian despotism. Ger- 
many's women and children must not 
become the prey of Russian besti- 
ality; the German country must not 
be the spoil of Cossacks; because if 
the Allies should be victorious, not 
an English governor or a French 



328 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



republican would rule over Germany, 
but the Russian Czar. Therefore we 
must defend at this moment every- 
thing that means German culture and 
German liberty against a merciless 
and barbaric enemy." 

A similar sentiment is expressed 
by the Socialist Deputy Kolk, in an 
article in the Volksfreund (Carls- 
ruhe), when he says: 

"If the Russian Government should 
really be senseless enough to force, 
against all common sense, reason, 
and humanity, this European war, 
every Social Democrat will be ex- 
pected to do his duty toward his 
fatherland, culture, and humanity. It 
will be the last thing that Social 
Democracy could endure to have Rus- 
sian Czarism act as political arbiter 
of Europe." 

Deputy Haase, speaking In the 
Reichstag, voiced the view of the 
Socialists in a speech regretting the 
war, but pledging support to the 
Government.* 



in any quantity at the above men- 
tioned office of the society. The prices 
are five cents for a single copy, and 
all profits from them will be turned 
over to the Society of the Red Cross. 



*Also read editorial from "The 
Hartford Daily Courant," entitled 
"A Piece of Evidence," reprinted In 
full on another page. 

We ask our readers to read care- 
fully "The Session of the German 
Reichstag on August the Fourth, 
1914," which has been printed in 
pamphlet form by the Germanistic 
Society of Chicago, 332 South Mich- 
igan Ave., Chicago. 

This pamphlet contains the 
speeches of the Imperial Chancellor 
von Bethmann Hollweg, Dr. Kaempf, 
President of the Reichstag, Mr. 
Haase, representative of the Socialist 
party, which were compiled and 
translated into English by Mr. Alex- 
ander R. Hohlfeld, Professor of Ger- 
man at the University of Wisconsin. 
These pamphlets may be purchased 



DO THE PEOPIiE WANT WAR? 



The Popularity of the War. 



Editorial, New York Sun. 

The Peace Parade makes today a 
fit time to ask: Is not war always 
or usually popular? 

Here is no question of the merits; 
merely of the facts. Take our own 
country. A candid study of history 
might or might not say that the 
United States had as good reason to 
go to war with France as with Great 
Britain in the infant years of the 
nineteenth century. It chose war 
with Great Britain. A war, it has 
been said, forced upon Madison by 
the young Democrats of the West and 
South. Was it not, outside of New 
England, whose shipping interests 
suffered, a popular war? Opposition 
to it was about the final stroke to the 
Federalist party. It was scarcely a 
war of brilliant American success on 
the land at least, until that post- 
pacem victory of Jackson's at New 
Orleans, yet the memory of it sur- 
vives as something we are supposed 
to be proud of. 

The Mexican war again was popu- 
lar outside of the Free Soilers and 
Abolitionists. It gave the country a 
Whig President. Participation in it 
was all there was to General Scott's 
candidacy in the moribund Whig 
party of 1852. 

The political fate of the Copper- 
heads, of the Democratic nonsense of 
18 64, is familiar to everybody. The 



Republican party long lived on the 
war. 

In 1898 the country, if Congress 
represented the country, forced Mr. 
McKinley into the war with Spain. 

Politically, to oppose a war, at 
least after it has been declared, is 
fatal. The people who didn't want 
war are usually a little more bellicose 
and fiery for its prosecution than its 
original supporters. 

We are all against the war in Eu- 
rope, partly from general weak phil- 
anthropic peace sentiments — we don't 
speak of them as weak in themselves, 
but as flabbily and insincerely held 
when war has become an American, 
not a European, fact — partly because 
it causes various losses and inconve- 
niences to the people of the United 
States. But, if war at home has al- 
ways been popular, can we say that 
there is any firm reality to our beau- 
tiful romantic pacifism? 

"Honor and vital interests:" is 
anybody really going to refer them 
to some "impartial tribunal?" To 
its honor and vital interests a nation 
can't help being partial. And, then, 
there are so many causes, outside 
these categories, which may bring 
war. As M. Renan, or one of his 
characters in the "Philosophic 
Dramas" says, in effect: "War is 
rather the result of a given situation 
than of the will. 

We won't say may the Lord deliver 
the United States permanently from 
war, for all the piety of Europe 
seems military at present; but such 
is, of course, the hope of most of us. 

In reminding the peace paraders of 
the political and popular strength 
which war seems to possess, we wish 
merely to emphasize the difficulty, 
perhaps the human impossibility, of 
making man or woman an unwarlike, 
at any rate, a war shunning, animal. 



It is Immoral for a Nation to Allow Criminal Neighbors 
to Prostitute its Sacred Trust 



SnSCELLANEOUS. 



GERMAN SCHOLARS AND THE 
LARGER VIEW. 

Cultivate the philosophic point of 
view. — Editor. 

Professor Wilhelm Ostwald, pres- 
ident of the Monistic Alliance, and the 
right-hand man of Ernst Haeckel, 
expresses his views on the present 
war in the official monthly organ of 
the Monists, "Das Monistische Jahr- 
hundert," page 860. He shows a con- 
ciliatory spirit, and we quote from 
his article the following paragraphs: 

"Amid the noise and hubbub of 
war the scientifically minded man 
must not lose sight of the fact that 
war is after all an abnormal state. 
Peace is the aim and end of war. But 
this peace we must endeavor to shape 
in such a way that it does not render 
unnecessarily difficult the resumption 
of normal relations between the great 
civilized peoples of the earth. We 
are dependent, materially and spir- 
itually, on other nations and states, 
as they are on us. 



"Above all let us beware of im- 
puting to a race or people the deeds 
of its government or of small groups 
of isolated states. Let us guard 
against generalizations which lead to 
rash judgments concerning the na- 
tional character of individual peo- 
ples. 

"It avails nothing to wage a war 
which has for its object the wresting 
of world dominion, or the acquiring 
of a political hegemony which would 
be but the prelude to a bitter strug- 
gle of the other nations against the 
formidable dominating people. We 
are waging war to preserve our inde- 
pendent national existence. We are 
battling for the life of our political 
organism, which is the foundation for 
the further development of German 
culture. 

"We consider the community of 
German culture, however, as part and 
parcel of the international fellow- 
ship of men throughout the world. 
We value our labor of civilization not 
only as a labor for the German na- 
tion, but as a contribution to the de- 



velopment of mankind. Even in 
time of war we must remember that 
this labor will be the more fruitful, 
the livelier the exchange of material 
and spiritual things — the same inter- 
change which has carried human de- 
velopment to its present stage. An 
International interchange of culture 
is the chief essential even for flour- 
ishing national civilizations, as well 
as for the unimpeded progress of 
man." 

Similar sentiment is to be found in 
the fourth yearbook of the Schopen- 
hauer Society, where Prof. Paul 
Deussen writes: " 'Not to my con- 
temporaries,' says Schopenhauer, 'not 
to my countrymen, but to humanity 
do I commit my work which is now 
completed, in the confidence that it 
will not be without value to the race.' 
Science, and more than every other 
science, philosophy, is international. 
. . . Foolish, very foolish, therefore, 
is the conduct of certain German pro- 
fessors who have renounced their 
foreign honors and titles. And what 
shall we say of a member of our so- 



THE SACRED TRUST OF NATIONS— VIRTUE 



ciety who demanded that citizens of 
those states which are at war with us 
should be excluded from the Schopen- 
hauer Society, and who, when it was 
pointed out that our foreign mem- 
bers certainly condemned this infa- 
mous war as much as we Germans, 
protested that she could not belong 
to an association in which French- 
men, Englishmen and Russians took 
part, and announced her withdrawal 
from our society, indeed even pub- 
lished her brave resolution in the 
column of a local paper in her pro- 
vincial town. We shall not shed 
any tears for her having gone." 



AN AMERICAN RESIDENT OF 
PRANCE. 



Ou the Philosophy of the Failure of 
preparedness for War. — Editor, War 
Echoes. 

Grenoble, Nov. 12, 1914. 

The Open Court. 

My Dear Dr. Carus: 

I have read with interest your 
article on "The European War" in 
the October number of "The Open 
Court" and note your frankness in 
saying, "Should I be mistaken I wish 
to be refuted." 

It is not with any hope of convinc- 
ing you that you are mistaken that 
I write you, but simply as a friend 
desirous that you know exactly my 
opinion and my point of view, for I 
have given the question a great deal 
of thought. 

You may think that my thirty-four 
years' residence in France has preju- 
diced me, but you must not forget 
that I was born and educated in 
America, and am still an American, 
while I cannot forget that you are 
an ex-officer of the German army and 
an ardent promulgator of "German 
culture." 

I note that you criticize English 
and French papers, though you make 
quotations from them, when it serves 
your purpose, of what seem to me 
unquestionable fabrications. 

Undoubtedly a large part of what 
we read in the daily press is pure 
fancy, but from my own experience 
in talking with the wounded, with 
refugees, and people back from the 
front, to say nothing of unimpeach- 
able documents, I am absolutely con- 
vinced that there have been horrible 
atrocities, cold-blooded cruelties and 
flagrant injustice, to say nothing of 
wanton, needless destruction far sur- 
passing what any journalist has been 
able to picture. But when we add 
to this the thousands of killed, the 
hundreds of thousands wounded and 
maimed for life, the millions of inno- 
cent sufferers, men, women and chil- 
dren, the billions of dollars' worth 
of property and business enterprise 
wantonly thrown away, it staggers 
one. What a "Great Illusion." 

But this is not all. Think of the 
hatred engendered among civilized 
people, more extensive and bitter 
than any example you can cite in his- 
tory. For if you correctly describe 
the enthusiasm in Germany, you must 
remember that in France it is the 
same thing. Here there are no par- 
ties, no discords, every man, woman 



and child believes they are fighting 
for their very existence; and it is the 
same in Belgium, England and Rus- 
sia. 

Now all this convinces me that we 
are witnessing the most momentous 
crisis in the world's history, only 
comparable with that of the long 
dra\\n-out Reformation. What will it 
lead to? I hope and believe to in- 
ternational and compulsory arbitra- 
tion, which is my dream; especially 
do I hope for this where questions 
of honor are at stake, for I can con- 
ceive of no question of honor being 
justly settled when a rat terrier kills 
a mouse or even a tabby cat. 

It is, as you know, a long and com- 
plicated story which has led to the 
present situation. Volumes have 
been and will be written on the sub- 
ject. I will simply refer to one or 
two of the points whereon I differ 
from you. 

But first there is one point, and I 
think in this we agree; perhaps no- 
body will be found to differ from us; 
and that is that Germany has built 
up the most marvelous army the 
world has ever seen. When war 
broke out it had reached its maxi- 
mum strength in numbers, in disci- 
pline, in armament and preparedness 
tor a sudden call. Never before was 
such a magnificent fighting machine 
conceived of. 

Now from what I have read, 
heard and seen, it is my opinion that 
more marvelous still is the way in 
which Germany has disciplined 
everything, thought, science, art, in- 
dustry and commerce, to one pur- 
pose, the greatness and power of 
Germany. Every man, woman and 
child is convinced of its incompara- 
ble superiority on all points to any 
other nation. By the way, a little 
logic should lead us to the conclusion, 
that during the present crisis the 
German press has been censored, and 
calumnies and untruths have been 
circulated with a system and thor- 
oughness not possible by any other 
people. I say this with no sarcastic 
spirit. Were I a German I should 
likely be proud of it, for all Germans 
are; but as an independent I can only 
say that if you bar the military part 
of it, the rest would sooner or later 
be counterbalanced in other coun- 
tries. 

Militarism, pure and simple, or dis- 
ciplined brute force, I consider fit 
only for savages, whether it be in 
Germany, France, England or the 
United States, and there is some of 
it everywhere; but when carried to 
the extent Germany has carried it it 
becomes abhorrent and should be 
suppressed. 

It is this military spirit, this confi- 
dence in their army and brute force 
that makes so many Germans un- 
sympathetic. There is little doubt in 
my mind that what made the Ger- 
man people so enthusiastic over this 
war, was the universal conviction 
that they would swallow the French 
army at a gulp and leisurely chew 
up Russia without any serious re- 
sistance; and their sudden and in- 
tense hatred of England is only due 
to the fact that they think it inter- 
feres with their little pleasure trip. 

You say the dream of your life has 
been a federation of "England and 



the United States centering about 
Germany" to insure the peace of the 
world. Possibly some people think 
that France, England and Russia 
should be intrusted with the job, and 
I think their chances of success not 
less probable. 

It is this conception of the incom- 
parable superiority of "German cul- 
ture" and German righteousness, 
giving her the right to dominate and 
direct the world, that staggers me. 
After all, is not Germany, as a world 
power, and a great nation, a mush- 
room growth of fifty years' standing? 
Has no other nation a culture, a his- 
tory, men of worth? Can you not 
respect in others a spirit of independ- 
ence and patriotism, even of national 
pride, however small that nation 
may be? And you would entrust the 
domination and control to one nation 
or group of nations. No, Dr. Carus, 
no nation ever has been or ever will 
be so near God as to be worthy of 
that mission, and I believe my dream 
nearer realization than yours. 

Contrary to you, I believe Austria's 
ultimatum to Servia the immediate 
cause of this war. One man and one 
man only could have stopped it be- 
tween the 28th and 30th of July, 
and that man is the German Emperor. 
That ultimatum and the violation of 
the neutrality of Belgium are the 
two dominating facts of the crisis. 
All your history, going back to 
Caesar, and all your precedents carry 
no weight with me. The crisis is here 
and so momentous that it behooves 
humanity to cry halt, and in some 
way make the repetition of two such 
atrocities impossible. When that Is 
done there is a possibility of the com- 
mencement of the realization of my 
dream, and not before. 

I am not an Englishman, but all 
the arguments put forward to prove 
that England brought on this war 
seem to me silly twaddle. It is my 
opinion that if Germany had had a 
diplomat of the caliber of Sir Edward 
Grey, the war would not have been 
entered upon as it was. 

I believe the world has greatly 
changed for the better during the 
last hundred years, the mentality of 
the lower classes as well as of the 
upper has developed, but you would 
seem to think that Germany alone 
has progressed. 

The majority of thinking French- 
men, while proud of the genius of 
Napoleon, admit that what he repre- 
sented was doomed to failure. Simi- 
larly I believe that in a hundred years 
from now German thinkers and his- 
torians will feel humiliated when 
they read that famous "Appeal to 
Civilized Nations" signed by ninety- 
three of the most illustrious savants 
of Germany. Among other things 
they say: "Without our militarism 
our civilization would have been anni- 
hilated long ago," and "The German 
army and the German people are 
one." Evidently they have a differ- 
ent conception of German civilization 
and German culture from what I 
should like to see them pride them- 
selves in. These ninety-three Ger- 
man savants will not help much to- 
wards the realization of my dream. 

The intellectual element in Prance 
is as enthusiastic over real "German 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



HOA\E CIRCLE STRATEOY. 



HW?RV, lt= THE ENGLISH HAVE 
5U6H COnPiOENCE in 

Their navy whv pon't 
Thev Fight the 

<5EeMAN FUEeT"* 



Ha'Ua' Thats a Cood one ! 

WHY, TME GERMAN'S ARE 

*^S^ ALL Bottled UP iH 
Tme Baltic SeaI 




I Kpiov, But They CouiS> 
SENti SOME OF Their 

CAPTUR.ED VESSELS AHEAD 

OF TMEM And explode 
Tme mines .couldn'tthey? 



You DONT UNDE«?STAND 

The SITUATION, My DeAi? 

rU EXPLAIN- IT ALU 
SOMETIME. 



hetlo' harbv, whappa ya 
Thimk about The w/ae? 




Say, I CANT seE why the 

ENC^HSHFLKT OOESNT RUM SOME 

captured sm ips ahead ofit 
and go in and clean (^p 
Yhe c5gi?man navy 



-Prom "The Chicago Tribune," October 23, 1914 



Culture" as Germans themselves. 
Goethe, Beethoven, Kant, etc., ■will 
live even if Germany and every Ger- 
man living were blotted out of exist- 
ence. There is no need of a German 
army or a German navy to impose 
them on people of real culture. 

One may differ from others, but I 
see no reason, when convictions are 
sincere, why they should alter friend- 
ship. 

Yours very sincerely, 

JOHN STEEL. 

Editorial Comments. 

While it is true that I was born in 
Germany and am an ex-officer of the 
German army, I claim emphatically 



that it is not without good reason 
that I am pro-German in this war. I 
took a positively anti-German posi- 
tion at the time of the Manila trou- 
bles, and I know that the larger num- 
ber of German-Americans were on 
the same side. I am not blind to 
certain German shortcomings, and 
I concede that many Germans present 
themselves to foreigners in a most 
unfavorable light. 

I agree with Mr. Steel that the 
worst feature of the war is the hatred 
engendered between the various na- 
tionalities, and the worst hatred has 
originated where I lament it most, 
between Germany and England. I 
recognize that this hatred has been 



fostered in certain circles and in cer- 
tain yellow journals; but it seems to 
me, and facts confirm it, that in 
England this spirit has taken hold 
of the government, while the German 
government has done its best to come 
to an amicable understanding. Since 
England supported the Slavs and the 
French, popular indignation in Ger- 
many has so much increased that' the 
Germans feel friendly toward the 
French and indifferent toward the 
Russians, but extremely bitter to- 
ward the English. It will be long 
before this hostility can be overcome. 
I have read in German papers that 
while the Germans in the field are 
on terms of hostile comradeship 



THE SACRED TRUST OF NATIONS— VIRTUE 



331 



along the French lines, while they 
exchange little courtesies and under 
certain conditions abstain from hos- 
tilities, this spirit is absolutely lack- 
ing where the English are concerned, 
and a similar odium of the English 
has also been noticed among the 
French prisoners of war who express 
a strong aversion to their British fel- 
lows detained in the same camp. 

Mr. Steel's view of German mili- 
tarism seems to me strongly influ- 
enced by French and English repre- 
sentations of it. I know German 
militarism in its good aspect and all 
I can concede is that there are some 
blustering Germans who lack the 
necessary discretion and naturally 
make a very offensive impression 
upon foreigners; but I wish to insist 
that such unpleasant individuals 
exist in all nations, and I believe 
many Americans traveling abroad 
have often had occasion to feel 
ashamed of some of their fellow coun- 
trymen who have made themselves 
offensive when touring through Eu- 
rope. The French as a rule are the 
least blatant because wherever they 
make a display of national conceit 
it is done with such a child-like van- 
ity that they appear amiable even in 
a display of their faults. 

The dream of my life has indeed 
been an alliance between England, 
Germany and the United States, but 
I did not think the others should be 
"centered" about Germany. Smaller 
nations would form groups about 
each of the three. Mr. Steel has read 
the passage hastily, for what I said 
was that "if these three groups of 
nations, centering about Germany, 
England and the United States, 
stand together, the peace of the 
world will be assured." 

Mr. Steel has given his conception 
of my view, and I will say that for 
different reasons I do not deem either 
the French or the Russians fit to 
sway the destinies of the world. Both 
are peculiarly liable to be pre.iudiced 
in their judgment of others. Neither 
can understand a foreigner; and I 
begin to fear that the British are 
little better in this regard. It is a 
great mistake to consider Germany's 
advance in the last fifty years as the 
whole of German history. The de- 
velopment of German strength is not 
a "mushroom growth," as Mr. Steel 
thinks. It is the slow development 
of a healthy and vigorous race under 
most unfavorable conditions. The 
Germans were deprived of the results 
of their labor again and again, until, 
under the most dire stress of neces- 
sity, they developed what is now 
defense. Now that they have become 
called militarism for the sake of self- 
strong they are blamed for defend- 
ing themselves and overthrowing 
their enemies. 

I have never declared that the Teu- 
tonic race should be the sole arbiter 
of the world's history. On the con- 
trary I have emphasized again and 
again that other nations, such as the 
French, and even such smaller ones 
as Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, and 
Norway, etc., have made most valu- 
able contributions to the development 
of a world-civilization. At the same 
time civilization in these is not based 
on blood, that is, on the closeness of 



their relationship to the Teutonic 
people.^ Please consider that France 
has constantly received a strong ad- 
mixture of German blood, not only 
before Caesar conquered Gaul, not 
only when the Franks, the Burgun- 
dians, the Visigoths, the Normans, 
and Alamans settled in Gaul, but also 
in recent times. Paris and other 
cities are constantly flooded with Ger- 
man immigrants, and the importance 
of this immigration should not be 
underrated. 

I can only say that I differ as to 
the facts concerning Mr. Steel's state- 
ment that the German Emperor could 
have prevented the war by not stand- 
ing by Austria against the regicide 
propaganda of pan-Slavism, vigor- 
ously and, I am sorry to say, ig- 
nominiously supported by Sir Edward 
Grey. 

Together with this letter of Mr. 
Steel I am in receipt of a statement 
by Americans living in Munich who 
proclaim in most vigorous terms their 
support of the German cause on the 
^'round that "England is directly re- 
spoimihlo for, and must share the guilt 
of, this terrible war," saying that "at 
the most critical hour in the history 
of European civilization, England ar- 
rayed herself on the side of Servian 
regicide and in the interest of Rus- 
sian autocracy and barbarism." 



' See for instance my explanation of 
"Germandom" in the December number of 
"The Open Court," pp. 769-772. 



0. C. K. I do not agree with 
your statement that "when the in- 
terests of a country no longer de- 
mand that she keep a treaty she has 
a perfect right to break it." 

Your reference is to the reply to 
G. R. V. in last Saturday's issue, in 
regard to Italy's action in withdraw- 
ing from the Triple Alliance. A line 
must be drawn between theory and 
practice, here as elsewhere; and the 
practice of nations has been to ob- 
serve their agreements with other 
nations only so long as it has been 
to their interests to do so. You will 
find few examples in history where 
this principle has not guided the 
conduct of nations. Diplomacy often 
times has skillfully covered its ob- 
servance, but the principle has 
nevertheless been there. Self-pre- 
servation is the first law of nations 
as of men, and anything which in- 
terferes with it must give way to it. 
In opposing the pretention of Eng- 
land in Venezuela in 189 5, Richard 
Olney, then Secretary of State and 
one of the most clear-visioned men 
who have ever held the post, used 
these significant words: "The people 
of the United States have learned in 
the school of experience to what ex- 
tent the relations of states to each 
other depend not upon sentiment 
nor principle, but upon selfish in- 
terests." We may not agree with 
the ethics of this condition, but we 
must admit the fact of its existence, 
and the fact constitutes its own justi- 
fication. "What ever is," said Pope, 
"is right." — From the "Questions 
and Answers" column in the "New 
Yorker Staats-Zeitung," November 
6, 1914. 



FATE AND THE WAR. 

If Progress is inevitable, we hear 
the cry of the patriot and martyr in 
battles. — The Editor. 

By the Editor.* 

It almost appears as if Friedrich von 
Beruhardi had made the present war. 
No books of his have appeared until 
recently, and he was little known as 
an author before his death in 1913. 
One of his books, "On the Customs of 
War," was published in 1902, but it 
was merely an official statement of the 
German General Staff for public in- 
formation. His main work, entitled 
"Germany and the Next War," which 
appeared in 1912 in the midst of peace, 
now sounds like a prophecy, and the 
contents of this book have been pop- 
ularized in a still more recent book 
(published in 1913) entitled "Our Fu- 
ture — A Word of Warning to the Ger- 
man Nation." General Bernhardi was 
apparently an able general, and also 
a keen diplomat who had studied the 
history of nations, their wars, their 
rise and decline and ever-shifting posi- 
tions in the world, to such an extent 
as to make him a most able judge of 
national development in the history of 
mankind. That he, a German general, 
should have proved to be a true Ger- 
man patriot is surely deserving only 
of commendation; that he was a good 
writer must likewise be counted In his 
favor; but if we are to consider him 
as a prophet, his role has truly been 
a terrible one, for his prophecy seems 
to have been almost fatalistic in its 
consequences. But I will add here 
that, as I-Ierr Dernburg claims, Bern- 
hardi's pessimistic utterances and his 
assistance in the movement for in- 
creased armaments were not approved 
by the German government, and 
caused his discharge. 

In spite of his high rank in the 
army and his position in the General 
Staff. Friedrich von Bernhardi was 
little known in Germany. His warning 
though in some places obviously di- 
rected against the peace iwlicy of the 
Kaiser, was not specially heeded by 
the German people, and as an author 
he remained unknown to fame. Un- 
fortunately, however, his second book 
was translated into English, the work 
being done by J. Ellis Barker who did 
not hesitate to change its title, "Our 
Future— A Word of Warning to the 
German Nation," into the more alarm- 
ing words. Britain os. Germany's Vas- 
sal. This change is not just to the 
author, for there is not a word in 
Bernhardi's book which suggests the 
idea of making Britain a vassal of 
Germany. On the contrary it is a 
liook as Bernhardi himself says, of 
"warning to the Germans," and he 
claims that Germany stands at that 
point of her development where she 
has to decide for herself whether she 
will remain a continental power of 
secondary importance or whether she 
will continue her course of expansion 



«In order to assist the reader to the 
logical connection with the discussion that 
leads up to this final reply, in wmdmg up 
a most valuable debate on the many 
points In question in connection with the 
War the rpafler is advised to look up 
Cariis, Jourflain, War — (European)^n 
the Index, This article is the final reply , 
by the Editor n( "The Open Court, Dr. 
CaruK. to Mr. Jourdain's "An Answer to 
the 'European War.' " 



332 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



and become a world-power possessing 
colonies, like England and the United 
States. 

General Bemhardi recently under- 
took a journey round the world to 
gather impressions, and he passed 
through the United States; but though 
he had then finished his literary career, 
he was unknown. His presence here 
did not create even a ripple of excite- 
ment, and there are few who saw 
his name mentioned in the papers. He 
became famous only since the trans- 
lation of his books created a stir in 
England; and an Englishman can well 
shudder with fear as he contemplates 
the need of Germany's expansion and 
the native vigor of her teeming mil- 
lions demanding also their share of 
space on this globe. On the other 
hand, Bernhardi points out England's 
established policy of refusing to tol- 
erate the growth of another naval 
power and of antagonizing whichever 
state happens to be the most power- 
ful in continental Europe. 

England and Germany have formerly 
been united by the closest ties of na- 
tional relationship and the personal 
kinship of their rulers. For several 
centuries the English royal family has 
hailed from Germany, and has been 
related to the houses of Hanover, Sax- 
ony, Coburg and Prussia. The pres- 
ent King of England and the Kaiser 
are cousins. Queen Victoria was the 
grandmother of both, and if the laws 
of succession were slightly modified or 
some of the Queen's descendants had 
unexpectedly died, or had not been 
born, both thrones might be held by 
the same man. 

The English language, a daughter 
of Anglo-Saxon speech, is practically 
a Low German dialect, and the Low 
Germans of the northern part of the 
fatherland constitute the dominant 
and. in military matters, the most efla- 
cient portion of northern Germany. 
The English people come from the ter- 
ritory where formerly Saxon or Low 
Gernian was spoken, and the Low- 
land Scots are of the same race. The 
Saxons conquered the Celtic portions 
of Britain, and also Ireland, and 
though they form only about one-third 
of the population of Great Britain they 
have impressed upon the remainder 
their language and national character. 

At present the inhabitants of Great 
Britain are about 45,000,000, but with 
a very far-sighted and practical policy 
they have succeeded in acquiring the 
most important inhabitable portions 
of the globe, such as southern Africa, 
Australia, Canada and India, and at 
the same time have possessed them- 
selves of all important naval bases, 
chief among them being the Suez Canal 
together with Aden at the end of the 
Bed Sea, and Malta, and Gibraltar. 

England's position is practically that 
of ruler of the ocean and with great 
foresight the English have always in- 
sisted on having the strongest navy in 
the world. In modern polities Eng- 
land has always opposed any nation 
likely to develop a powerful navy, and 
so it' was perhaps inevitable that Great 
Britain should be arrayed against Ger- 
many notwithstanding her old blood- 
ties "with that country, the kinship of 
their royal families, and all their com- 
mon historical interests, and should 
side with her old enemy, France, and 



even with Kussia, so dangerous to 
England everywhere in Asia. She has 
allied herself with these for the sole 
purpose of checking the more sys- 
tematic and therefore more formidable 
advance of Germany. 

The German danger was pointed 
out by an anonymous pen in two ar- 
ticles which appeared in the London 
"Saturday Keview'" and which must 
be mentioned here because their under- 
lying principles have guided English 
politics; they have led to the estab- 
lishment of the Triple Entente, and 
they explain the plan of an English in- 
vasion of France through Belgium and 
the determination to have Germany 
crushed between France and Russia 
while England destroyed Germany's 
trade and starved the whole country 
into submission, a plan which it was 
expected would be very easy and one 
whose execution was urged while it 
was still feasible. 

The English apprehension of the 
German danger was the real cause of 
the war; the Servian quarrel was only 
the occasion on which Russian eager- 
ness to assert its Pan-Slavic ambition 
with the help of the Triple Entente 
grew bold enough to start the trouble, 
and the German breach of Belgian 
neutrality furnished England a pre- 
text to join in the general fray. 

In former articles I have defended 
Germany for standing by Austria in 
her determination to have the con- 
spiracy of the regicide fully investi- 
gated, and I have also maintained that, 
in view of the fact that she was 
threatened with an invasion through 
Belgium, Germany was justified in at- 
tempting a passage through this no 
longer neutral territory. There is no 
need of re-opening the discussion on 
this problem. Since we know that Eng- 
land herself had intended to break 
into Germany through Belgium, Ger- 
many's action is perfectly justified. I 
assume that every one who wishes to 
investigate the situation with impar- 
tiality will familiarize himself with 
the documents discovered at Brussels, 
which do not admit of any other in- 
terpretation than that Belgium had 
joined with England and France in the 
project of an attack on Rhenish Ger- 
many. In connection with this we re- 
fer to the letter of Baron Greindl, at 
that time Belgian ambassador at Ber- 
lin, who warns his government against 
the danger to which such a step would 
expose them. England saw no wrong 
in breaking Belgian neutrality with 
Belgium's consent, but she angrily de- 
nounces Germany for breaking it with- 
out that consent. 

Baron Greindl was a Belgian patriot. 
He did not want to have the Germans 
admitted to Belgian soil : he wanted 
to preserve the independence of his 
country. For this reason he deemed 
it dangerous to hand the Belgian for- 
tresses and defenses over to the British 
and French who were more easily in- 
vited than disposed of when no longer 
needed. His warnings remained un- 
heeded and now comprise a document 
testifying to anti-German intrigue. 
jVnother letter of a similar purport 
was written July 30. 1914, by M. de 
I'Escaille. the Belgian ambassador at 
St. Petersburg. This was also found 



'See "The Open Court" for October, 
1914, p. 577, and December, 1914, p. 719. 



by the Germans in Brussels and was 
published in the "Norddeutsche Zei- 
tung." M. de I'Escaille recognizes that 
the war has been unavoidable from 
the time that the war party at St. 
Petersburg gained the upper hand, and 
he concludes thus : 

"The army, which feels itself strong, 
is full of enthusiasm and relies on 
great hopes based on the enormous 
progress that has been achieved since 
the Japanese war. The navy is so 
far from having realized the program 
of its reconstruction and its reorgani- 
zation that it can scarcely enter into 
the matter of reckoning. It is prob- 
ably there that the motive lies which 
gives such great importance to the as- 
surance of England's support." 

This expectation was expressed be- 
fore the Germans entered Belgium. It 
is clear that England wanted to throw 
her full weight into the balance with 
France and Russia. The Germans 
asked twice whether England would 
remain neutral if Belgium were left 
alone or if Germany promised not to 
attack France by sea, or, if not, what 
conditions would satisfy her; but Sir 
Edward Grey refused to commit him- 
self and so Germany could run no risk 
of a hostile attack through Belgium 
and saw no other chance to forestall 
her enemies. Even then she would have 
guaranteed Belgian independence if 
Belgium had been willing to allow her 
passage through Belgian territory. It 
was the duty of Germany to protect first 
of all her own citizens and so she 
reluctantly decided to open the war 
by taking Belgium, otherwise the Brit- 
ish and French trenches might now 
lie around Aix-la-Chapelle or Cologne. 

The English make light of the dis- 
coveries of the Conventions anglo-'bel- 
pes at Brussels, and speak of them as 
"an academic discussion," relating only 
to the "event of Belgian neutrality 
being infringed upon by one of its 
neighbors," but to a reader of these 
documents there is no doubt that Bel- 
gium joined England and France with 
definite promises and made common 
cause with them. The documents 
prove a plan to attack Germany; they 
mention the possibility of an attempted 
march of German troops through Bel- 
gium only as one eventuality, not as the 
condition of the whole proposition. 

The question that remains is simply 
a problem of the future. It is this: 
Will Germany continue to expand, or 
will England's dominating power crush 
it before its navy is large enough to 
rival her own on the seas? In other 
words, we stand before a crisis in his- 
tory. The crisis is here. But the 
question is, were the diplomats of Eng- 
land wise in having it decided by war? 
— for no one who has studied the dip- 
lomatic events of the last days of 
July, 1914. doubts that England brought 
about the war. Can England much 
longer, either Viy war or peace, main- 
tain her dominant position in the 
world? The truth is that, apart from 
her forty-five millions at home, she 
counts not more then twenty millions 
of whites in her colonies — Canada. 
Australia. South Africa and India — 
to defend her vast empire, and she 
has not even enough sailors to man 
her navy — which is not surprising 
when we consider the constant drain 
there must be to keep up to the two- 



THE SACRED TRUST OF NATIONS— VIRTUE 



333 



po-wer standard. England is a com- 
paratively small country, her people 
are not as prolific as the Germans, and 
her hold on her tremendous colonial 
possessions is more or less precarious. 
Ought she not, under these circum- 
stances, to have allied herself with 
some virile country such as Germany, 
and would not both countries have 
benefitted thereby? 

The question has been proposed, 
whether England, Germany and the 
United States could agree to stand to- 
gether for a peaceful development, and 
have questions of right or wrong de- 
cided by mutual agreement. Of course 
the basic question of mutual recog- 
nition of their respective spheres 
should be settled at the start. This 
would have been the ideal solution, 
and it is the one we have always 
advocated; but it seems that the dis- 
trust between the nations has grown 
too strong to permit any friendly under- 
standing between them, for English 
policy has recently been very deter- 
mined to put a cheek upon any possible 
aggrandizement of German colonies or 
colonial life. The English have also 
been very much opposed to the in- 
crease of Germany's navy, and, on the 
other hand, the Germans have been 
just as determined not to allow any 
interference with the development of 
their military or naval power. 

Germany would have preferred to 
continue a peaceful competition with 
England like that which prevailed be- 
fore the war, and from her own stand- 
point this would have been the better 
course. Germany was noticeably gain- 
ing, and England seemed either unwill- 
ing to 'fixert herself to outdo German 
trade and commerce, or unable to out- 
do it. War finally appeared to the 
British government to be the only 
chance of suppressing the German 
danger. 

If two nations are actually unwilling 
to allow each other free development 
the result must be war, and in this 
sense we speak of the war as having 
been unavoidable. It is not a ques- 
tion of right, it is a question of might. 

In studying the facts closely, and in 
trying to understand what the English 
and the sponsors of their policy mean 
by the "aggressiveness" of Germany, we 
conclude that it is Germany's unwel- 
come advance in population, in trade, 
in power, in influence, in wealth, etc., 
by which it may rival England. No 
wonder they deem it intolerable. The 
question is only whether it is wise 
to check their intolerable aggressive- 
ness by war. I believe it would have 
been wiser to compete with Germany 
by adopting German methods and 
striving to outdo the Germans in their 
peaceful accomplishments, by imitat- 
ing their schools, by fostering science 
and teaching the growing generation 
to apply themselves in a severer atten- 
tion to the duties of life. 

Another feature of modern Germany 
which the English find unpleasant is 
her militarism. They would much 
prefer to see her helpless. But this 
very institution of universal military 
service is the strength of Germany, and 
it is this that renders her invincible. 
It is Germany's backbone. If England 
wants to continue this war she will 
have to adopt universal military serv- 
ice, and she could not do better than 



imitate the much denounced German 
militarism as speedily as possible. 

England has chosen the war, not Ger- 
many ! England was unprepared for 
the war for she thought it would be an 
easy game. Her former wars have 
been easy, and this war too seemed 
as sure; and it was a matter of course 
to crush any power that threatened 
to grow stronger and richer than her- 
self. In the Triple Entente with all 
its secret implications and corollaries, 
they believed, lay their weapon for 
the isolation and strangulation of Ger- 
many. From the English point of view, 
however, I do not condemn them for 
the course they have pursued, for they 
certainly have ample cause for appre- 
hension; and from the old standpoint 
of Maechiavelljan statecraft there is 
no right or wrong in diplomacy. But 
even from their point of view their 
diplomacy has been grossly deceived; 
the Triple Entente will not accomplish 
what they hoped for ; and the disaster 
which they have planned for Germany 
will recoil on their own heads. 

The present situation appears like the 
work of fate. Similar conditions have 
repeated themselves in history. And 
is it to be wondered at that the Kaiser, 
though he did his utmost to preserve 
peace, should finally be forced into this 
conflict against his will? It is as if 
the German people had been compelled 
to come forth in all their might to 
show themselves worthy of becoming 
a world-power. 

The Germans are naturally a peace- 
ful people. Their much denounced 
militarism is positively a peaceful in- 
stitution, for it means that every father, 
son and brother must fight the battles 
of his country. If England possessed 
this system the English people would 
have iieen considerably less vociferous 
in their clamors for war. 

Germany has accepted the challenge, 
not for the sake of gaining a new and 
larger position in the world, but 
simply to maintain her old hold and 
to ward off the invaders to the west and 
the east. Here, however, appears a 
new factor in history. England has 
become the main enemy of Germany, 
and it will be very diflBcult, if possible 
at all, to eradicate the intense hatred 
which has suddenly arisen in Germany 
against their cousins beyond the chan- 
nel. 

A university professor whose only 
son and all of whose sons-in-law are 
in the field writes : "We pity the French 
and are sorry that the Belgians were 
so misguided; we regret that our men 
have to pit their lives against the 
Cossacks. But we feel a positive hos- 
tility toward the English. They have 
become the arch-enemy of Germany and 
we know that peace, an honorable 
peace, will be possible only if we suc- 
ceed in humbling Albion. We shall 
probably fight against France and 
Russia only until we can establish our- 
selves on foreign soil in a secure de- 
fensive position, and then we will con- 
centrate all our forces against Eng- 
land." 

Another friend of mine, also a uni- 
versity professor, a scholar highly 
respected also in English-speaking 
countries, writes as follows : 

"Our losses on the battlefield, espec- 
ially in the west, are terrible, but how 
is it with the enemy? We have to 
fight hard for every foot of territory 



we gain, but even if the struggle is 
slow no one doubts here but we shall 
win in the end ; for there is but one 
enemy, and that is England. She is 
not only our enemy, but the enemy of 
mankind. 

"You have not the slightest idea of 
the intense hatred against England 
which moves all Germany. Since docu- 
ments have been found in Brussels 
proving a compact made between Bel- 
gium and England, a plan according 
to which Belgium would allow English 
troops to march through Belgian terri- 
tory into the Rhenish provinces of 
Germany, indignation, wrath and con- 
tempt for British hypocrisy knows no 
limits among us. And yet the English 
government could take Germany's 
breach of Belgium's neutrality as a rea- 
son for declaring war, whereas the Eng- 
lish and French had broken it long be- 
fore. 

"England is the instigator of the 
whole war and of all the unspeakable 
misery which has been brought not only 
upon innocent Germany, but also upon 
the allies themselves, the Belgians and 
the French. The most simple-minded 
man in the Landivehr and every peas- 
ant knows this to be the case, so that 
for centuries the deadliest hatred 
against England will remain the most 
sacred inheritance in every German 
family, to be handed down from father 
to son. 

"And what will be the harvest of this 
terrible crop of hatred? Even if peace 
could be obtained now, this hatred will 
remain, and the thought of England as 
the cause of all this horror will not be 
blotted out in future generations. It 
will produce new seeds for future wars, 
and the representatives of the German 
people will always be ready to grant 
any number of millions needed for 
preparing attacks upon England. Our 
armies see the need of conquering the 
Russians in the east and the French 
in the west, but all their ambition burns 
for a humiliation of England, and they 
will succeed! Nothing is more appar- 
ent than the degeneration of that ruth- 
less nation, and careful observers have 
noticed the several symptoms which 
show the lowering of their national 
conscience, of which every day brings 
new evidences." 

The hatred of England which has 
suddenly developed in Germany is ex- 
plicable only through England's sudden 
and unexpected declaration of war, an 
act which showed conclusively that Eng- 
land had definitely determined that 
Germany's commercial and naval de- 
velopment should receive a crushing 
blow. Previous to the summer of 1914, 
there was not the slightest animosity 
towards England among the great ma- 
jority of Germans. The report that 
the most popular toast in certain 
circles in G_ermany since the time of 
Edward VII has been Der Tag or Die 
Stunde (referring to the day or hour 
when Germany should finally settle 
accounts with England) is absolutely 
unknown to me, although I have been 
in Germany repeatedly and should cer- 
tainly have seen something of this 
bellicose attitude had it existed. In 
certain quarters in Germany, it is true, 
there has always been an antagonism 
to England, but the idea of war with 
that country has never been prevalent 
in military circles. Possibly such a 
toast may have been offered in the 



334 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



German navy, as might just as easily 
be tlie case in any other navy since 
England is practically the only possible 
opponent on the seas ; but it certainly 
could not have been in general use in 
the army. Some one may possibly 
have witnessed such a toast in some 
corner, but, if so, it was certainly an 
exception and does not represent the 
general spirit before August, 1914. 

Whatever my English friends have 
said in their accusations of Germany 
has only confirmed my conviction that 
Germany is right in being what she is 
to-day, and that the steps she has 
taken in self-defense are justified. One 
of my friendly critics ends his private 
letter with the following postscript : 
"When Germany shall have lost all her 
navy, all her colonies, all Polish 
Prussia, she will be greater than ever 
spiritually — greater in the things which 
made her great in 1S13 — and 1S70 also." 

I grant that Germany was great in 
the beginning of the nineteenth century ; 
it was the Germany of Goethe, Schiller, 
Mozart, Beethoven, etc. Napoleon's 
armies were garrisoned in the country, 
and the people were impoverished by 
unendurable war-taxes ; yet Germany 
was great, and accomplished things 
that will be immortal. It is this state 
of Germany that the English would 
like to restore, helpless but noble, poor 
but ideal, downtrodden by her invad- 
ers but famous for poetry and science. 
Such is the idea of my friend, Mr. 
Poultney Bigelow. Perhaps the his- 
torian of the future will declare that 
Germany in her greatest distress in 
1S06-1S13 was greater than in her 
military glory and In the restoration 
of the empire in 1871 ; but, after all, 
I can not blame the Germans for tak- 
ing steps to prevent the return of this 
humiliating state of purely ideal great- 
ness. The Triple Entente -was con- 
cluded to check Germany's growth and 
the question now is not whether the 
Serbs should or should not be al- 
lowed to assassinate the heirs to the 
throne of Austria, or -whether the Bel- 
gians have or have not the right to al- 
low the English and forbid the Germans 
to march through Belgium. The ques- 
tion is whether the Triple Entente can 
crush Germany, and I say they will 
not succeed. 

At best, from the English standpoint, 
the war will fizzle out in a drawn state 
of hostility without reaching a definite 
decision. The hope in which the war 
was undertaken and which seemed so 
easy of realization — the hope that Ger- 
many could be crushed between the 
French and the Russians — ^will scarcely 
be fulfilled and becomes more and more 
improbable. On the other hand it be- 
comes more and more apparent that 
Germany suffers less through her isola- 
tion than England, whose trade is also 
crippled through the war.' On the one 
hand the Germans adapt themselves 
more easily to new conditions which 
really are not worse than a prohibi- 
tive tariff (so highly praised by pro- 
tectionists in this country), and. on 
the other hand, England suffers as 
much, perhaps more, through this pa- 
triotic destruction of trade and in addi- 
tion runs greater risks. Her domina- 
tion in India. South Africa and Eg.vpt 
seems pretty well established, but it 
may he shaken at any time, and if so, 
it will probably collapse. The war is a 



test of Germany, but it will prove 
equally a test of those who are re- 
sponsible for the war, and above all 
of England. And it seems to me very 
doubtful whether England will stand 
the test. It is strange that my Eng- 
lish friends do not see the question 
from this point of view. 

Wars are not made by kings or em- 
perors, nor are they made by the peo- 
ple. They come upon mankind like fate. 
They seem predestined. When they 
first break upon us they have a stulti- 
fying effect and all manner of insane 
hates are engendered ; but as time 
passes on the wounds heal— though 
sometimes slowly, as for instance after 
the Thirty Years' War — new times and 
conditions arise, new generations come 
on, and, forgetful of the past, the 
development of mankind progresses 
along fresh channels. If manlsind stood 
on a higher plane, if the leaders in 
European politics had commanded a 
broader vision, the war might have 
been avoided, but, as conditions were, it 
was inevitable. We inhabitants of the 
United States can only regret this 
struggle, for we. are closely allied to 
both England and Germany, and we 
feel keenly the terrible losses on both 
sides. And for the outcome, — nous 
verrons se que nous verrons! 



IN ANSWER XO CRITICS. 

In the current issue I have taken 
pleasure in publishing a number of ar- 
ticles which take the opposite ground 
to my own, but I do not feel like re- 
suming the controversy and restating 
my arguments. In most cases my crit- 
ics simply offer anti-German testimony 
from any source available, but their 
arguments do not carry conviction, and 
I have seen no reason for changing my 
position. The enemies of Germany 
harp continually on the same string. 
Over and over again they repeat the 
charge of atrocities, and Sir A. Conan 
Doyle speaks of this war as nothing 
but murder. I recommend, however, 
the perusal of the open letter by Mr, 
James O'Donnell Bennett, the well- 
known American journalist, in answer 
to Sir Conan Doyle, which was pub- 
lished in the "Chicago Tribune" of Jan- 
uary 17, 1915. In his letter Mr. Ben- 
nett expresses his astonishment that a 
man of Sir Conan Doyle's intelligence 
can lend his pen to the propagation of 
such untruths. Mr. Bennett is a man 
whose honesty is beyond question, and, 
although an eye-witness of German 
manoeuvres in lielgium and France, he 
was nowhere able to discover a founda- 
tion for these stories. On the contrary, 
he has observed many highly humane 
features both among the German sol- 
diers, and among the civilians; and the 
wounded and prisoners from the en- 
emy's ranks — English, French and Bel- 
gian — are the appreciative recipients 
of many kindnesses at their hands. 

Another favorite theme resorted to 
by those bent on proving the injustice 
of the German cause is the German 
breach of Belgian neutrality ; and this 
is reiterated again and again in spite 
of the well-known discovery in Brus- 
sels of documents proving that an 
arrangement had long before been con- 
cluded between England and Belgium 
for the pui'pose of invading Rhenish 



Germany. In these papers all the de- 
tails are specified, the harbors at whici) 
the English troops should be landed, the 
Iirovision of interpreters and also of 
capable spies for the German provinces. 
Such a contract ctinnot be interpreted 
as a mere provision for defense, and 
when a neutral country enters into such 
a compact it forfeits its protection un- 
der international treaties. 

I might add that the contents of these 
Brussels documents have been published 
in convenient pamphlet form, with fac- 
similes of the original French and a 
rather precarious English translation, 
under the title "The Case of Belgium ;" 
they are procurable from "The Interna- 
tional Monthly, Inc.," of New York City, 
and also doubtless through German con- 
sulates. "The Continental Times" 
(Berlin W. 50, Augsburger Str., 38), in 
its issue of November 25, 1914, has like- 
wise reprinted the substance of the 
documents, which are no doubt pro- 
curable also, through German con- 
sulates. Consult: "The Case of Bel- 
gium," in War Echoes. — Editor. 



WAR AS A HUMAN NECESSITY. 



Is War a Necessity? 



The Great Sti'uggle in Europe. 



The Annalist, New York. 

It remains for the psychologist, if 
he can, to tell us why people pretend 
to disbelieve in war and yet both 
glorify and practice it. 

No civilized country can teach the 
history of itself to its youth' without 
glorifying the wars of their fathers. 
It begins in the elementary textbooks, 
and even before that in the story books. 
Who was the Father of his Country? 
George Washington, a General, victor- 
ious in war against tremendous odds. 
Fancy beginning the narrative of this 
country's liberation with such asser- 
tions as that the Revolutionists were 
a lot of wild, blood-lusting men who in- 
volved themselves and the American 
colonists in a war with England, 
reckless of the fact that it was im- 
moral and unnecessary and altogether 
unprofitable, and that if the Thirteen 
Colonies had remained at peace with 
the mother country it would have been 
much better in the end ! 

But, of course, you say, that was a 
righteous war. There is such a thing 
as intolerable provocation. A war in 
self-defense, a war of liberation, a war 
for the rights of man — those may be 
righteous wars. 

That leaves us worse off for argu- 
ment than before. 

True, there is such a thing as 
righteous war, and will be so long 
as people other than ourselves are 
capable of unrighteousness, in our 
point of view, but one must see that 
when one has admitted the righteous- 
ness of war at all, on any ground, he 
has admitted pretty nearly the whole 
case of war, because there is no such 
thing as an unrighteous war, taking it 
from the point of view of those who en- 
gage in it. 

Only a few weeks ago our own coun- 
try, now boasting of its hold upon peace 
and feeling somehow morally superior 
to the war-crazed people of Europe — we 



THE SACRED TRUST OF NATIONS— VIRTUE 



ourselves adopted force in Mexico, sac- 
rificed lives to take the Custom House 
of Vera Cruz, and were prepared to do 
battle vrith a man named Huerta. That 
seemed to us to be a necessary and 
righteous thing to do, and we did it 
sorrowfully, but it was the beginning 
of war (happily averted), and might 
have cost thousands of lives on both 
sides. We thought it a proper thing to 
do. "We justified it to ourselves, or we 
couldn't have undertaken to do it ; but 
the Mexicans, at least a great many of 
them, and almost certainly a very large 
majority of them, thought very differ- 
ently, and were perhaps as unready and 
unable to see the righteousness of it 
as France is to see the righteousness of 
Germany making war upon her, or as 
Germany is to see righteousness in the 
cause of the Allies. 

Germany may be both wrong and 
blind, but she has simply got to believe 
in the justice of her cause, else war 
would be impossible. The spectacle of 
the German Socialists themselves going 
to war, willing to shoot down other So- 
cialists from France, all of whom were 
for peace in theory independently of 
economic and racial lines — what does 
that signify? 

The French Revolution, 100 years 
ago, was thought to be an event of tre- 
mendous auguries for the people. It 
was the coming of the people into their 
own. The people thereafter should 
rule, and never again would two Kings 
be able to send their subjects into a 
battlefield, as Carlyle said, to shoot the 
souls out of one another. People were 
under the delusion, you see, that Kings 
made war. Then came the uprising of 
the masses in many directions, espe- 
cially in England, and after that rose 
Socialism, the most important move- 
ment, perhaps, of the last century. It 
was opposed to war, and proposed to 
keep peace in the world. But what has 
happened? Socialism has failed to 
keep the peace, and three Kings are 
said to have plunged Europe into the 
greatest war in the history of Western 
civilization. They didn't, though. They 
were but the agents, the instruments, 
the helpless leaders. One does not have 
to go so far as Tolstoy, who eliminated 
the personal equation entirely, to be 
able to see that Kings and Emperors 
cannot make war alone, nor at all, save 
in obedience to an urge so much greater 
than themselves as perhaps to sweep 
them all away. 

The world has been ruled by strength 
since man possessed it, and though that 
may change in time, it will require a 
great deal of time, indeed, so that for 
the present it is enough to say that 
there is no substitute for it. Indeed, it 
is impossible to teach the history of civ- 
ilization itself without glorifying war 
f and the heroism of war. Man has had 

I to fight for his place in the sun, for his 
liberties and for his economic rights. 

Assume the Slav peril really to exist. 
What then? The Slavs are people with 
emotions and traditions and wants and 
qualities, as other people are, and yet 
they are dammed up, nearly 200,000,000 
of them, on an inhospitable soil, prac- 
ticing industry, frugality, and reproduc- 
tion. Fancy their saying to Europe, 
"Please, we want a place in the sun!" 
Would they get it? Certainly not. 
When they are strong enough, then they 
can get it — by taking it. They think 
they have a right to fight for it, and the 



German Emperor thinks he has a right 
to resist, believing, no doubt, that in 
doing so he is the servant of all West- 
ern civilization and protects it against 
a rising tide of semi- Asiatics. The con- 
sequence is war. 



IS WAR A NECESSITY? 



Why General Disarmament is Im- 
possible. 



Leslie's Illustrated Weekly. 
Dr. Constantin Theodor Dumba. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: 

The editorial in "Leslie's" of Sep- 
tember 10th, entitled "Make It the Last 
War," lohich recommended that the 
eivilieed world should itisist that no 
treaty of peace between three belliger- 
ent nations should be concluded unless 
it involved an agreement for general 
disarmament has attracted wide atten- 
tion and much approval. The Ambas- 
sador to the United States from, Aus- 
tria-Hungary, Dr. Constantin TJieodor 
Dumba, Privy Councilor, writes the 
following interesting and enlightening 
letter on the subject. We com,mend it 
to the careful perusal of our readers. 
It conies froin a statesman and scholar 
as ivell as a diplomat of the highest 
reputation: 



To the Editor of Leslie's: 

I cordially sympathize with the 
high humanitarian feelings which in- 
spired your editorial in favor of dis- 
armament. War is a horror, and the 
sufferings entailed by it are outrage- 
ous, barbarous and in keeping neither 
with religion nor with real civiliza- 
tion. And yet I profoundly regret to 
be unable to agree with your sugges- 
tion to "Command peace by refusing 
to purchase the war bonds or the 
manufactured products of any nation 
that win not consent to a general 
disarmament." 

After a gigantic struggle like the 
present, a natural reaction sets in. 
The continental nations, exhausted 
and impoverished by a prolonged 
war, will be unable to bear even the 
heavy burdens of armament now 
weighing them down. They will be 
compelled to submit — at least for 
some time — to the verdict of history, 
to the solution brought by the peace 
treaty to come. But general disarm- 
ament is impossible for the reason 
that the victors in the present strug- 
gle would never consent to it, even 
if they were able to impose it upon 
the defeated Powers. Can Great 
Britain, if victorious, possibly pro- 
ceed to such a reduction of her fleet 
that she no longer would enjoy ab- 
solute command of the sea? Does 
she not rely for her food supplies on 
this control of the sea, considering 
that her 40,000,000 of inhabitants 
could be reduced to starvation the 
moment she should lose her absolute 
power over the ocean? 

As to Germany, of course if she 
is reduced to Prussia's fate in 1806, 
she might disarm ; but then she would 
cease to be an independent power. 
Owing to her central geographical po- 
sition she is exposed to frontal at- 
tacks from France, her hereditary 
enemy, and from Russia, the protag- 



onist of Slavonic expansion. It is a 
question of life and death to her to 
keep a strong and highly efficient 
army to protect her frontier and her 
independence. 

To give you another example: Can 
the United States fulfill its civilizing 
mission without a strong navy? Can 
she defend the Panama Canal, police 
the Central American republics, pre- 
vent Japanese encroachments on the 
Pacific, after having disarmed her 
dreadnoughts? 

Again, with other Powers, such as 
Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, the 
army is a civilizing and educating in- 
stitution in which the illiterates learn 
at least the rudiments of reading and 
writing, and by discipline and effi- 
ciency are raised from the low cul- 
tural level of peasantry. Besides, a 
strong army is necessary even in 
France to check the socialistic ten- 
dencies and dangerous outrages of 
the Unions (federations of labor) 
threatening general strikes, and to 
prevent anarchy. 

As to the suggestion against the 
purchase of war bonds and of the 
manufactured products of any nation 
refusing to disarm, I regret to say 
that it does not seem to me practical. 
Wealthy nations with unlimited re- 
sources like Great Britain, France or 
even Germany, place their war bonds 
with their own people, especially in 
moments of great national enthusi- 
asm. A boycott of foreign commodi- 
ties may be kept up for some time, 
while national passions are roused — 
as in Turkey against Greece in 1908 
■ — but gradually the high waves of 
popular feeling subside and trade fol- 
lows its natural outlets and paths in- 
dicated by self-interest. Whoever 
produces better or cheaper is certain 
in the long run to find buyers. 

Peoples, like individuals, are gov- 
erned by the instinct of self-preserva- 
tion, and whenever their existence is 
at stake nothing will prevent them 
from recourse to the extreme means 
of violence in order to annihilate 
their foes. This is the reason why 
I am reluctantly compelled to regard 
the cry for general disarmament as 
a generous Utopia. ■ 

C. DUMBA. 



"The World," as Established by Jo- 
seph Pulitzer, May 19, 1883. 

"An institution that should always 
fight for progress and reform, never 
tolerate injustice or corruption, al- 
ways fight demagogues of all parties, 
never belong to any party, always op- 
pose privileged classes and public 
plunderers, never lack sympathy with 
the poor, always remain devoted to 
the public welfare, never be satisfied 
with merely printing news, always 
be drastically independent, never be 
afraid to attack wrong, whether by 
predatory plutocracy or predatory 
poverty." 

The above appears daily as first 
item on the editorial page of "The 
World," New York. — The Publisher 
of "War Echoes." 



Joffre reports an "undeniable" vic- 
tory, which proves that he doesn'.t 
know Von Bernstorff. — Prom the 
"Boston Evening Transcript." 



336 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



No Nation without Laws; No Law without Force; ConfHct and Force 
Ergo: The Tail End of Every Law is a Whip 



WHAT COXSTITUTES Mlhl- 
TARISM? 



Reply to Certain Hypocritical Asser- 
tions o( the Allies. 



Editorial, Army and Navy Journal, 
New York. 

The persistence with, which there 
Is flung across the oceans the asser- 
tion that the allies will not agree 
to peace till "German militarism is 
wiped out" has so systematic an as- 
pect that it would seem that some 
people are determined to make mili- 
tarism the scapegoat of this war. 
Hence it is part of present and future 
wisdom to analyze the term "Ger- 
man militarism," to ascertain exactly 
what is meant by it, for our efforts 
for the last forty years to awaken 
the American people to the need of 
an adequate army and navy has been 
met with the parrot-like cry of "mili- 
tarism." By "German militarism" 
there must be meant something en- 
tirely different from every other kind 
of militarism, for the accredited in- 
tention of the allies has nothing to 
do with French or British or Russian 
militarism, and if they found their 
own door yards encumbered they 
certainly would not go abroad with 
brooms. 

By German militarism, then, we 
take it, is meant a plant of a pecu- 
liarly baleful influence upon civiliza- 
tion, a plant that grows only on Ger- 
man soil, and unless exterminated 
threatens to blight the whole world. 
It is gratifying in a measure to have 
the term militarism against which 
the present wrath is directed quali- 
fied with the word German, for too 
long before has it been applied to 
any attempt to give a country proper 
military defenses. It has been ap- 
plied to the preparations which little 
Switzerland has taken for the de- 
velopment of an army, and even the 
modern statesmen of China who have 
sought to arouse that country from 
her torpor by giving to her people 
that stimulus and sense of solidarity 
that come from the possession of a 
military establishment have had the 
word militarism thrown at them. 

But the present war has resulted 
in a differentiation. There is mili- 
tarism and militarism. The special 
brand which needs the immediate ap- 
plication of an extinguisher is the 
German brand. The inference is not 
unwarranted, therefore, that those 
who hope to purify the world by get- 
ting rid of German militarism see in 
it elements which the military estab- 
lishments of other big continental 
nations do not possess. 

We have kept a fairly close watch 
of the development of the military 
systems of Europe in the last fifty 
years, and we confess to an utter 
Inability to find anything in "German 
militarism" which differs radically 
from the military establishments of 
other countries. The two funda- 
mentals of present-day "German mili- 
tarism" are universal compulsory 
military service for all citizens of the 
German empire and complete readi- 



ness. But compulsory military serv- 
ice is not confined to Germany. It 
obtains in France, Austria, Italy and 
Russia. In fact, of the large Euro- 
pean powers. Great Britain alone has 
no compulsory service law. 

It is not, then, in compulsory serv- 
ice that "German militarism" differs 
from the other "militarisms" of Eu- 
rope. It may be said that Germany's 
military establishment exacts more 
of the country in the way of annual 
drafts from the ranks of its young 
men than any other of the nations 
of the continent, but study of the 
military strength of Germany and 
France disclose the fact that with a 
population nearly twenty-five millions 
less the actual war strength of the 
two countries is practically the same. 
We base this statement as to prac- 
tical equality of numbers on the 
admissions made in the work pub- 
lished a few months ago from the pen 
of Lieutenant Colonel W. von Bre- 
men, of the German army, which was 
recently extensively reviewed in our 
columns. The title of this work is 
"The German Army After Its Re- 
organization." On page 6 of this 
volume the German officer-author 
says: 

After the autumn of 1914 we shall he 
able to dispose, in time of peace, of 
73 5,000 men without counting officers. 
France after the autumn of 1913 has 
been able to dispose of 749.000 men. As 
to the war effectives one can make only 
estimates, but in doing so one arrives at 
the conclusion that France, after making 
the proper deductions for fortress garri- 
sons, will be able to put into the field 
an army of 2,750,000 men. It is possible 
that we can put as many into the field, 
but not more, at the present moment. 

If with a far smaller population 
France is able to put into the field a 
trained army as great as that of Ger- 
many, it must be plain that French 
"militarism" is drawing more heavily 
on the men of that country than the 
German system is drawing on the 
men of Germany. Comparatively, 
then, if the maintenance of large 
forces is a drain upon a country, as 
is claimed, France suffers more from 
her militarism than does Germany. 
The point is thus firmly established 
that "German militarism" does not 
demand extraordinary sacrifices from 
the people of the empire, that the 
sacrifices are greater in France. Two 
things have now been cleared up: (1) 
That Germany is not peculiar in hav- 
ing compulsory service; (2) that her 
military system does not draw upon 
her resources as heavily in propor- 
tion to population as other systems 
draw upon her neighbors. 

There is left, then, only the last 
supposition, namely, that "German 
militarism" is condemnable because 
of its extreme readiness. But this 
is a feature of her military system for 
which Germany should be praised, 
not blamed, for what is any army 
worth if it is not ready wlien the 
call comes? The more nearly ready 
it Is, the more nearly it approaches 
those standards of value and effi- 
ciency for which all great com- 
manders have striven through all the 
ages. Instead, therefore, of "Ger- 



man militarism" being something 
that should be "wiped out," it is 
something that should be imitated 
closely imitated by other nations, not 
excepting our own United States. By 
being as ready as it proved itself to 
be at the outbreak of the present 
hostilities, Germany has got more out 
of its army for the expense involved 
in maintaining it than perhaps any 
other nation, and in this respect is 
a shining example to her neighbors. 

Further proof that it cannot be the 
compulsory military service obtain- 
ing in Germany that merits this gen- 
eral "wiping out" of which we hear 
so much just now is furnished by 
the attitude of Field Marshal Lord 
Roberts and other distinguished Brit- 
ish soldiers toward compulsory serv- 
ice. Lord Roberts was so gravely 
impressed by the military unpre- . 
paredaess of Great Britain that a 
few years ago he organized a league 
the purpose of which was to carry 
on a propaganda in favor of compul- 
sory service. The agitation he began 
has" resulted in dividing the military 
sentiment of the British empire into 
larso camps, one favoring the present 
voluntary system and the other advo- 
cating the ideas of Lord Roberts, 
which are practically the ideas ob- 
taining in Germany. 

We have referred only to "German 
militarism" on land, for we do not 
believe that its enemies would desire 
to bring in the question of whether 
"militarism" also includes large sea 
forces, for if they did, they would find 
the British navy, which has been 
overwhelmingly predominant on the 
seas for generations, condemned by 
the force of their own logic. If there 
is such a thing as militarism on land, 
it is only fair to conclude that there 
is a militarism of the sea as well. 
Yet we believe that there would be 
a loud protest if an attempt were 
made to indict Great Britain on the 
ground that her "naval militarism" 
were something that should be ut- 
terly "wiped out." As a matter of 
fact, however, the army of Germany 
is not so large in proportion to the 
armies of her neighbors as the navy 
of England is compared to the navies 
of other nations. It may be argued 
that an overwhelming navy is essen- 
tion to Great Britain on account of 
her colonial possessions. Nobody 
will gainsay that, nor should anyone 
doubt that Germany may find in the 
existence of two great enemies to the 
east and west of her an equally good 
excuse for the excellent army which 
she has had for more than half a 
century. 

Thus an analysis of the thing called 
"German militarism" discloses noth- 
ing that has in it any aspect or char- 
acter of a monster that is going about 
among the nations seeking whom it 
may devour. On the contrary, it is 
found to contain elements of national 
strength that other nations would do 
well to copy and that even England 
has been urged to adopt. — Reprinted 
from the editorial page of the "Mil- 
waukee Free Press," of October 8, 
1914. 



THE TAIL-END OF EVERY LAW IS A WHIP 



337 



MILITARISM AND THE WAR. 

This is ihe tenth article of a series 
on THE EUROPEAN WAR, which 
appeared in the October Number of 
THE OPEN COURT, under the title 
'•Militarism" icritten ly the Editor, 
Dr. Paul Cariis. 

Consult the INDEX for the com- 
plete series, and, in order to see ivhere, 
in the i^ariotis Chapters of the hook, 
the different articles of this treatise 
mail Ijc found, loolc for EUROPEAN 
WAR (THE). In this loay the reader 
may read the entire series of articles 
in their original order, if he chooses 
to do so, while the present arrange- 
ment still gives him the advantage of 
bringing the various articles under 
their propef, respective Chapter-head- 
ings of the book. 

This is a series of exceptionally 
fine articles on the subject in ques- 
tion, and they bear a unique and im- 
portant relation to each other. Be 
sure to read them also in their original 
order. — Editor, "War Echoes." 

The term "militarism" is of re- 
cent coinage, and it may mean the 
German institution of universal mil- 
itary service, or the shortcomings of 
military institutions. The former is 
militarism as it ought to be, the lat- 
ter are excrescences of military arro- 
gance, a kind of social disease which 
will naturally and from time to time 
make its appearance, or develop into 
an epidemic. There is no need of 
explaining the disease of militarism 
which, as it seems, was contracted by 
some members of the officers' corps 
at Zabern, and which has been se- 
verely censured in Germany by the 
Reichstag. We will only say that 
militarism, in that sense, has always 
been of a transient nature and has 
never been worse in Germany than 
in other countries. 

Militarism, as an institution of the 
German empire, established by law, 
with the full consent of the German 
people, for the sake of national de- 
fense, is a state of things that can 
neither be condemned nor com- 
mended off-hand, but must be studied 
and understood. Only people who 
know it, not merely from experience 
but also in its history and actual ef- 
ficiency, can really express an intel- 
ligent opinion regarding it. 

If there is any one outside of Ger- 
many who can speak with authority 
on the subject, it is the writer of the 
present article. He is sufficiently in- 
formed as to its history during the 
last one hundred and six years; he 
has served in the German army and 
has been an officer in a Saxon artil- 
lery regiment; he knows the German 
needs, which demand the sacrifice of 
military service, and is well ac- 
quainted with the spirit of German 
patriotism which, for the sake of pa- 
triotism, assents to it. 

The German army is different from 
any other, and especially from the 
English army. The official definition 
of the German army reads that it is 
"the Genii:iii iiedjile in arms" — da^ 
deutschr \ (ilk in Waffrn. The father- 
land does not enlist mercenaries; it 
calls upon every able-bodied man of 
the nation to appear at the colors and 
be ready for the defense of his coun- 



try. The Kaiser is the leader, the 
lord of battle, jvho has the highest 
command, and to whom every soldier 
has to swear his oath of allegiance. 

How often do foreigners misrepre- 
sent the state of things, and pity the 
German soldiers for allowing them- 
selves to be enslaved in the service 
of a tyrant who will lead them to be 
slaughtered. What foolishness! Does 
any one believe that the German 
army could win its decisive battles 
if it consisted of slaves and were 
serving the private interests of a 
vainglorious monarch? Great battles 
can be won only by free men inspired 
by an idea, and the Germans of to-day 
do not fight for the possession of a few 
hundred million pounds sterling, not 
for dollars and cents, but for their 
homes, their liberty, their country. 
In order to defeat Germany, her ene- 
mies will have to slay the whole male 
population capable of bearing arms. 

The origin of the present system 
of militarism dates back one hundred 
and five or six years, to the time when 
Napoleon I had humiliated Prussia. 
One of the conqueror's conditions of 
peace was that the Prussian army 
should be limited in numbers. So the 
Prussian general Scharnhorst kept 
on changing his soldiers; he had them 
trained and discharged, only to be 
replaced by new recruits, and when 
the day of liberation dawned, the in- 
habitants rose in great masses, not 
as raw recruits, but as trained men, 
in an army about four times as strong 
as had been permitted to be kept. 
This system of regarding the stand- 
ing army as a school has been worked 
out first for Prussia and then for 
Germany, to its present completion, 
not for the benefit of one man, but 
for the people; and the history of 
Germany has impressed the necessity 
of militarism upon the whole nation. 
The suddenness with which the pres- 
ent war broke upon Germany is but 
a new proof of the absolute necessity 
of a national defense. 

Militarism in this sense, as a sys- 
tematic defense of the nation, will 
not be abolished, as some ignoram- 
uses predict, but will be more se- 
curely and permanently established 
than ever in the fatherland, and all 
the enemies of Germany will have to 
adopt it if they intend to have the 
same, or approximately the same, 
military efficiency. 

France has introduced militarism, 
but the English newspaper writers 
find no fault with French militarism, 
although it is more severe than the 
German system, and lacks its intel- 
lectual advantages. I will only men- 
tion here the one-year service in Ger- 
many, reserved for youths of higher 
education, a distinction which is not 
permitted in France, on the ground 
that there ought not to be prefer- 
ence of any kind in a republic. But 
the preference shown is not that of 
a privileged class, it is not due to 
noble birth, nor to wealth; this pref- 
erence is allowed to those who, by 
public examinations or in their course 
of education, prove themselves 
worthy of this distinction; any one 
can secure the privilege if he but 
reaches the required standard of edu- 
cation. From these volunteers for 
one-year service, the officers are 



chosen for the reserves. This privi- 
lege of a one-year service looks like 
an aristocratic institution. It is not, 
and, as a result, there is no one, not 
even among the Social Democrats, 
who finds fault with it. On the con- 
trary, it is a stimulus to education. 

The German army is one of the 
most democratic institutions in the 
world. Its supreme law is efficiency, 
and that is being attained without re- 
spect to persons. The son of a duke, 
a prince, the millionaire's son, or 
any poor fellow from the lowest 
ranks of the peasantry, all are treated 
alike, all have to perform their duty, 
and from the beginning the best ex- 
ample has been set by the princes of 
the imperial house, the Hohenzol- 
lerns themselves. 

And what is the result? The Ger- 
man people acquire an invaluable 
education in duty, in promptness, in 
accuracy, qualities in which all other 
nationalities, without exception, are 
sorely deficient. Even young men 
who do not serve are benefited by 
German militarism, for they inevita- 
bly imbibe its spirit. 

How often has the criticism been 
made, that the German youths lose 
two or three years from the most im- 
portant part of their lives, in mili- 
tary service; but the truth is that 
the money annually spent on the 
army brings as great returns as that 
which is expended for public schools; 
this militarism is part and parcel of 
the German education, and some- 
times men wonder where Germans 
have acquired those qualities of stur- 
diness, of a sense of duty, of exactness 
in details. A wealthy foreigner liv- 
ing in Germany, and wishing to en- 
gage a driver, will naturally first pro- 
pose to a candidate for the position 
the question whether he has served 
in the army; for if he has done so, 
he will probably be the more ef- 
ficient and the more reliable. Would 
not our American youths be better 
equipped for life if they had served 
in the army? 

Germany's militarism does not 
suit Germany's enemies, for mili- 
tarism, in the best sense of the term, 
has enabled Germany to withstand 
the attacks of her foes. While the 
Germans were absolutely peaceful, 
their neighbors fell upon the father- 
land and tore off province after prov- 
ince from the empire, and those Ger- 
man tribes that found no support in 
the common fatherland became inde- 
pendent. Strasburg and other cities 
of Alsace-Lorraine, became French, 
Pomerania fell to Sweden, the Neth- 
erlands and Switzerland became in- 
dependent, and finally the entire 
German empire broke down. Thus 
the exigencies of national struggles 
developed German militarism so 
called, to supply the manhood of the 
country with a methodical training 
in self-defense. 

Mr. H. G. Wells, the English nov- 
elist, declares that "every soldier 
who fights against Germany now is 
a crusader against war." He adds: 
"This greatest of all wars is not just 
another war; it is the last war!" 

There are many apparently intel- 
ligent people who claim that Eng- 
land, France and Russia are not 
fighting Germany, but the militarism 



338 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



of Germany, and as soon as the 
power of this institution is broken, 
the era of universal peace will be at 
hand. There is scarcely any need 
of refuting the hypocrisy of this 
claim. One thing is certain: If in 
Great Britain every man were in 
duty bound to rally to the defense 
of his country, the British would not 
have rushed into war, and it is prob- 
able that if the German type of mil- 
itarism were Introduced throughout 
the world, there would be fewer 
wars, and none of them would be 
entered into with such frivolous and 
unscrupulous stupidity as the war of 
this year. 

Militarism. 

And here is Mr. Jourdain's reply to 
the Editor's discussion of this subject. — - 
Editor, War Echoes. 

In this section the Editor makes a 
useful distinction between two uses 
of the word militarism.^ With the 
training of a large proportion of the 
citizens of military age for military 
service, which is the practice of nearly 
every country in Europe, few English 
critics find fault; though hitherto Eng- 
land, standing outside the European 
system, has contented herself with a 
small professional army. The French 
are also "the French nation in arms."" 
The militarism that is condemned by 
England and Prance is not only "the 
disease of militarism contracted by 
some members of the officers' corps at 
Zabern,"" but the political condition 
characterized by the predominance of 
the military class and its armed doc- 
trine. It was against this subordina- 
tion to armed doctrine that Theodor 
Mommsen warned his constituents at 
Halle: "Have a care, gentlemen, lest 
in this state which has been at once a 
power in arms and a power in intelli- 
gence, the intelligence should vanish, 
and nothing but the pure military state 
should remain." * 

Growing Militarism. 

And here is Mr, Jourdain's reply to 
the Editor's discussion of this subject. — 
Editor, War Echoes. 

Whether a peace party will make an 
end of armaments' in the future or 
whether militarists, the men who be- 
lieve with Moltke that universal peace 
is "a dream and not a pleasant dream," 
is an academic question suitable for a 
debating society, and from its nature 
insoluble at the present moment. Other 
contentions in this section are that 
Germany has been converted from a 
friendly to an inimical nation, which 
has been dealt with already, and that 



* "O. C," p. 636. Militarism, according 
to the "New English Dictionary." is "the 
spirit and tendencies characteristic of the 
professional soldier the political con- 
dition characterized by the predominance 
of the military class in government and 
administration : the tendency to regard 
military efficiency as the paramount inter- 
est of the state." 

" Before the war the French army, with 
84 per cent of competent men called up, 
was even more "a nation in arms" than 
the German army with only 53 per cent of 
such men called up. 

" "O. C" p. 636. It is hardly correct 
that militarism in this sense "has never 
been worse in Germany than in other 
countries." 

•But the intelligence has not yet van- 
ished : to the contrary, it is the ever-in- 
creasing superiority and surpassing Effl- 
ciencv that Germany's enemies fear. — 
Editor, War Echoes. 

'"Ibid.," pp. 639-640. 



in Germany warfare has developed into 
a science." "The German army is a 
school in which German youths are 
training to be good soldiers and the 
German staff is also a school in which 
officers are instructed in strategy. 
There is not a Moltke to lead them, but 
Moltke's spirit guides them all. Should 
one of them die to-day, even if he oc- 
cupy the highest rank, there are dozens 
who can take up his work." Strategj' 
is not the monopoly of the German gen- 
eral staff ; and the German operations 
on both fronts have hitherto shown 
small signs of serious strategy. In the 
west there was the occupation of Bel- 
gium and, while the way to Calais and 
Dunkirk lay open, the rush to Paris. 
Then the retreat from Paris, a defeat 
on the Marne; and — Calais is now the 
objective! In the east, an advance 
toward Warsaw and a strategic retreat 
with heavy losses. Some of the army's 
defects in war were foreseen by a 
critic of the manoeuvres in 1911 when 
the military expert of the "Times"" 
gave warning that "the German army 
has seen less of modern war than 
any other which stands in the front 
rank. The contempt which it displays 
for the effects of modern fire, and pro- 
fesses to hold for armies of naval 
states with which it may come in 
conflict can only be set down to ignor- 
ance." But the end tries all, and it 
is not wise, as the Editor points out, 
to discredit the enemy." 

Illustrations. 

At the close of my examination of 
the Editor's statement of Germany's 
case I wish to draw attention to some 
of the illustrations in the October num- 
ber of "The Open Court." As a pend- 
ant to the serious damage to Rheims 
cathedral the Editor gives a photo- 
graph of the Castle of Heidelberg, and 
the same juxtaposition of the two 
buildings has occurred to German 
purveyors of picture postcards. No 
one defends the ravage of the Palati- 
nate in 1688, but as I have pointed out 
we do not draw our precedents from 
the reign of Louis XIV. With refer- 
ence to the three views of Nurem- 
berg, the Editor writes : "It is almost 
forgotten that according to newspaper 
reports, the first bombs were not 
dropped over Antwerp or France or 
England, but from French aeroplanes 
on this city of old German art." 
"Newspaper reports" (exclusively in 
German papers, by the way) are not 
sufficient evidence for this statement 
It is inconsistent with the attitude 
of the French government, which with- 
drew the French army six miles from 
the frontier to prevent a collision be- 



•"Ibid.," p. 642. 

' "There is nothing In the higher lead- 
ing at the manoeuvres of a distinguished 
character, and mistakes were committed 
which tended to shake the confidence of 
foreign spectators In the reputation of the 
command. .. .The German army, apart 
from its numbers, confidence in itself and 
high state of organization, does not pre- 
sent any signs of superiority over the best 
foreign models and in some ways does 
not rise above the second rate." "Times," 
October 2S. 1911. 

"The cheerful brutality of Mr. Winston 
Churchill's speech at the recruiting meet- 
ing at Liverpool in which he used the fol- 
lowing words : "If the German navy does 
not come out and fight, they will be 
brought out like rats in a hole" (Quoted 
in "O. C.," p. 641), is also to be depre- 
cated. 



fore the outbreak of war' and later 
protested against German bomb-drop- 
ping upon and bombardment of un- 
fortified towns. 

England's Blood-Guilt in the World 
War. 

The Editor's contribution to the dis- 
cussion of Germany's case is by far 
the largest and most considerable of 
the papers in the October number. But 
there remain two papers to be con- 
sidered. That by Professor Burgess,'* 
reproduced from the "Springfield Re- 
publican," brings forward no point of 
importance, and its value may be 
gathered from the fact that he gives 
up a whole page to an account of a 
dinner at Wilhelmshohe with the Em- 
peror, including a list of the guests. 
Haeckel's contribution, "England's 
Blood Guilt in the World War," like 
the German appeal "To the Civilized 
World," is interesting as showing that 
German savants have not realized that 
assertion is not proof. We read: 

"Parliament and the Press of the 
hostile Triple Entente, the English, 
French and Russian newspapers are 
endeavoring ... to throw the 
whole blame upon Germany. . . . 
Emperor William II has, in the twenty- 
six years of his reign, done everything 
within his power to preserve for the 
German people the blessings of peace. 
. . . Similarly, the other two mem- 
bers of the Triple Alliance, Austria- 
Hungary and Italy, have ever en- 
deavored to preserve the precious bless- 
ing of peace and avoid European com- 
plications. Rather does the whole 
responsibility for the outbreak of this 
world war fall on that mighty triple 
coalition, the entente cordiale. . . . 

"In the splendid speech from the 
throne with which Emperor William 
II opened the German Reichstag on 
August 4 he showed the real causes 
that drove the enemies of our Ger- 
man empire to their insidious attack, 
envy of the prosperity of the dear 
fatherland," etc' 

The method is that of a Free Kirk 
minister dealing with the difficulties of 
belief in the existence of John the 
Baptist. He began : "Some people 
say John the Baptist did not exist." 
(Very solemnly) "He did! Having dis- 
posed of that difficulty. . . ." 

It is the spirit of the German ap;- 
peal to the civilized world* with its 
many national trumpet-peals, each be- 
ginning "It is not true," sheer denial 
with no attempt at adducing evidence 
for the denial. The appeal might have 
originated in the Wolff bureau, not in 
the minds of savants. As the Nation' 
points out, "Nowhere is there any 
evidence of a desire to undertake an 
unbiased investigation of facts, logic 
is thrown to the winds, and we are 
treated to a flood of rhetoric and of 



* "The French troops have orders not to 
go nearer to the German frontier than a 
distance of 10 kilometers, so as to avoid 
any grounds for accusations of provocation 
to Germany." "G. B. and the E. C," p. 
69. 

'"O. C," pp. 587-595. 

•Consult Burgess In Index. — Editor. 

* "Ibid.," p. 581. 

* This appeal was published by ninety- 
three German savants and artists. Among 
the signatures are Eucken, Haeckel, Freda, 
Humperdinck. Sudermann, Hauptmann, 
Lamprecht, Kaulbach, Dorpfeld. 

•"The Nation" (New York), October 
29, 1914. 



THE TAIL-END OF EVERY LAW IS A WHIP 



unsupported statements. ... It 
really seems as if some of tlie pro- 
fessors who have rushed into print to 
defend Germany's cause are doing It 
quite as much harm as the enemy." 
The appeal to the cultured world has 
destroyed the myth of German culture. 
The rest of Haeckel's paper is not- 
able only for a few misstatements — 
such as that "Russia in the beginning 
of August declared war on Germany 
and Austria,"" wherea^ Germany sent 
an ultimatum to Russia on July 31,' at 
a time when negotiations were still 
proceeding between Russia and Aus- 
tria,' and that England aims at a 
world empire, "the annihilation of the 
independent German empire, the de- 
struction of German life and works, 
the subjection of the German people 
to British domination,"' a dream 
worthy of a German mind. The con- 
clusion has a very unlucky prophecy, 
also an outcome of German subjectiv- 
ity, that Germany would find powerful 
allies among the nations that already 
bear England's unbearable yoke — Can- 
ada, India, Austria, Egypt and South 
Africa. Prophecy is of all controver- 
sial weapons the most dangerous. 

Twelve Points Assured. 

And here is Mr. Jourdain's reply to 
the Editor's discussion of this subject. 
— Editor. 

The only important controversial 
points in the Editor's December article, 
"Lessons of the War," are summed up 
in the section "Twelve Points As- 
sured," pp. 758-760. The Editor re- 
gards certain points as assured. Could 
he give any evidence that Russia "ofB- 
cially" supports a policy of assassina- 
tion in Servia (p. 758)? In the fourth 
paragraph he assumes that the con- 
flict between Austria-Hungary and Ser- 
via is the result of the assassination 
of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 
1914. We now know, thanks to Signor 
Giolitti's revelations to the Italian 
parliament, that the murder of the 
archduke and the indictment of Ser- 
via's complicity, which figured so 
largely in the Austrian ultimatum, had 
little to do with the settled purpose 
of Austrian policy. In the middle of 
191.3 Signor Giolitti, then Italian prime 
minister, was informed by the Austro- 
Hungarian government that it con- 
templated immediate action against 
Servia and reckoned on the support of 
Italy under the terms of the Triple 
Alliance. The Italian government re- 
plied that it could not regard the ac- 
tion indicated as constituting a casus 
foederis, which would never arise out 
of an aggressive act. This reply in- 
duced Austria-Hungary to postpone ac- 
tion. As the Austro-Hungarian policy 
was already set in 1913, it is absurd 
to speak of it as conditioned by the 
Sarajevo assassination in 1914. I have 
already dealt with further points such 
as the Belgian neutrality and Russian 
mobilization. In the case of Ger- 
many's "positive evidence that the Bel- 
gians had broken neutrality long be- 
fore a German soldier set foot on Bel- 



«"0. C," p. 5S4.* 

'"G. B. and the E. C," p. 66. 

•On July 31, "the Austro-Hungarian 
ambassador declared the readiness of his 
government to discuss the substance of the 
Austrian ultimatum to Servia." "Ibid.," 
p. 69. 

•"O. C." p. 5S5. 

* For the complete reference see 
Jourdain in the Index. — Editor. 



gian soil," the English case is strength- 
ened by Herr Deruburg's publication of 
the military convention between Eng- 
land and Belgium. The proposed help 
from England, it is definitely stated in 
this document, was only to be given 
after Belgian neutrality had been vio- 
lated. 



VEST POCKET ESSAY. 



THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 



By George Fitch, Author of "At 
Good Old Siwash." 

The German empire is a world 
power which is contained, with diffi- 
culty, by Europe. It has 200,000 
square miles and 65,000,000 round 
citizens. It alarms England on the 
west, backs Russia off on the east, 
impinges seriously on Austria to the 
south and reduces Prance to a state 
of frantic irritation on the southeast. 
It is not large in area, but has a 
14-inch rifled voice with large pen- 
etration which is widely respected. 

The German empire once consisted 
of a large number of kingdoms, each 
of which are a different variety of 
sausage and were otherwise at vari- 
ance. About 50 years ago, however, 
these nations united and since then 
Germany has grown until even Rus- 
sia is respectful in its presence. 

The German empire has two ar- 
mies which inspire great fear. One 
is composed of a million soldiers and 
the other consists of several thou- 
sand traveling men who are selling 
goods from Cape Horn to Nome. 
Germany manufactures everything 
from battleships to Teddy bears, and 
its cities are growing faster than 
Chicago. They do not. however, 
grow in the same way. German cit- 
ies are handsome and clean and 
whenever a man throws paper on 
the street he is arrested. Americans 
subject to heart failure from great 
shocks should not visit German 
cities. 

Germany is surrounded by the 
North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Alps 
and custom houses. Its greatest 
rivers are the Rhine, the Elbe, Wurz- 
burger, Pilsener and Munchener. 
There is not much water in Ger- 
many, and the citizen who drinks 
any of it is charged with wasting a 
natural resource. 

Germany has the finest musicians, 
the deepest thinkers, the largest air- 
ships, the fastest automobiles, the 
greatest steamships, the tallest 
cathedrals, the haughtiest lieuten- 
ants and the most obedient private 
citizens in the world. The whole 
duty of Germany is to obey the army 
and the whole duty of the army is to 
obey the Kaiser. 



SAVING A CATHEDRAL. 



From "The Chicago Tribune," Octo- 
ber 24, 1914. 

Chicago, Oct. 21. — (Editor of The 
Tribune.) — Of the many valuable 
and interesting facts which your cor- 
respondents on the European battle- 
fields have recently brought before 
the American public I consider the 



article in this morning's "Tribune" 
by Joseph Medill Patterson, together 
with your staff photographer's pic- 
ture of the "Guns Mounted on the 
Antwerp Cathedral," one of the best 
and most convincing yet published. 

The Christian world owes your cor- 
respondents a deep gratitude for the 
saving of this beautiful cathedral. 
But for them this sacred structure 
would now be in ruins and we would 
have been told by London and Paris 
that it was willfully destroyed by the 
German guns as a pure act of van- 
dalism by the German army. Your 
photograph speaks for itself and 
shows as the real vandals the French 
and Belgian governments, who send 
their armies to mount guns on top 
of these cathedral towers. Many will 
now say what a pity your photog- 
rapher was not in Reims, for he prob- 
ably would have saved that sacred 
edifice by another such photograph. 

The millions of liberty loving and 
impartial citizens throughout the 
United States will continue to appre- 
ciate your efforts for truth and jus- 
tice in this lamentable conflict. 

J. Matthews. 



DEWEY AND DIEDRICHS. 



Quarrel of "Newspaper Manufac- 
ture," Said American Admiral. 



(From "The Fatherland," New York, 
October 14. 1914.) 

From the days of Frederick the 
Great and General George Washing- 
ton, the German people have been the 
friends of the United States, while 
twice England has been engaged in 
war with us, and time and again she 
has all but provoked us to war, 
notably in 1861-5, and during the 
Venezuela episode. But enemies of 
Germany have tried to erect the 
Dewey-Diedrichs affair in Manila har- 
bor into a German attempt to em- 
barrass the United States. Hence it 
is interesting to recall an exchange 
of letters between the two admirals, 
published July 6, 1898. The first 
is addressed to Dewey under date of 
March 17, and reads: 

Sir: — I have the honor to acknowl- 
edge the receipt of your communica- 
tion of March 4, informing me your 
excellency has been promoted Admi- 
ral. While congratulating your ex- 
cellency sincerely upon this new to- 
ken of recognition, I beg you to be- 
lieve your good news has given me 
the greatest satisfaction. 

I have the honor to be your Ex- 
cellency's obedient servant. 

DIEDRICHS. 

Admiral Dewey replied April 16, 
saying: 

Dear Admiral von Diedrichs: — I 
wish to thank you most heartily for 
your cordial letter of congratulations 
upon my promotion. It is a great 
pleasure for me to feel my advance- 
ment is a source of satisfaction to 
you, and I rejoice that our differences 
have been of newspaper manufac- 
ture. 

Hoping to have the pleasure of 
meeting you again before leaving this 
station, I am, very sincerely, 

DEWEY. 



340 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 




THE FIELD DENTIST 

Dentist OfRee in the Field behind the Trenches in Galicia 

(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 



GROWING MIIilTARISM AND THE 
WAR. 

Ttiis is the eleventh article of a 
series on THE EUROPEAN WAR, 
■which appeared in the October Num- 
ber of TBE OPEN COURT, under 
the title "Growing Militarism," written 
by the Editor, Dr. Paul Cams. 

Consult the INDEX for the com- 
plete series, and, in order to see tvhere, 
in the various Chapters of the boolc, 
the different articles of this treatise 
mwy he found, look for EUROPEAN 
WAR (THE). In this way the reader 
•may read the entire scries of articles 
in their oriiiiiuij order, if he chooses 
to do so, v:Iiilr tlic iiriscnt arrange- 
ment still gives him I lie nrlrantage of 
Vringing the various articles under 
their proper, respective Chapter-head- 
ings of the book. 

This is a series of exceptionally 
fine articles on the subject in ques- 
tion, and they bear a iinique and im- 
portant relation to each other. Be 
sure to read them also in their original 
order.- — Editor, "War Echoes." 

The advocates of peace are often 
peculiar people; they preach peace 
on earth, and their ideal is quite 



commendable; but each clamors for 
his own peace. England will pre- 
serve peace so long as she owns the 
seas, and Germany's chief fault is 
the exasperating persistence with 
which she builds up a navy. Italians 
of the "peace" party condemn war, 
but they justify the conquest of Trip- 
oli; and there are Americans, for ex- 
ample, Mr. William Randolph Hearst 
and Mr. Richmond P. Hobson, who 
demand a strong American navy to 
dominate the Pacific and the At- 
lantic. 

Such views are often uttered. A 
certain famous "peace advocate" once 
said that he would shoulder the gun 
himself to keep the Japanese out of 
the United States, and Mr. Tschirn, 
whose German poem we have quoted 
above, also belongs to those who de- 
sire "peace at any price." 

There are some in England who 
declare that the present war will be 
the last one; that it is commendable, 
because it is a war against militar- 
ism; but one Englishman, Mr. C. 
Cohen, a liberal and freethinker, 
prophesies that this war can not lead 
to peace, but is sowing future dis- 
cord. He says: "Who is to say that 



there shall be no more wars? Is it 
England? Is it Russia? Is it France? 
Is it the three combined? Will any 
of these trust the others enough to 
depute the task? Are Russia and 
France and England in alliance with 
each other because of their mutual 
love or because of their enmity of 
others? Was it love of Russia that 
drove France into alliance, or hatred 
of Germany? And with Germany 
eliminated what bond is there that 
can unite the autocracy of the Czar 
and the republicanism of France?" 

He continues: "An international 
agreement that would secure peace 
is a laudable ideal, but how is it to 
be secured? England, it may be as- 
sumed, will still demand the control 
of the seas. It suits us, and we say 
it is necessary to our existence. Very 
good; but can we expect every other 
country to submit to this ownership 
of the world's highway forever and 
with good feeling? AVhy, this fact 
alone will drive other nations along 
the old line of offensive and defen- 
sive alliances, the fruits of which we 
are reaping in the present war. And 
alliances based upon such consider- 
ations as hold the Christian nations 



THE TAIL-END OF EVERY LAW IS A WHIP 



341 



of the world together may be broken 
at any moment. Nor Is there any 
power based upon force too strong 
to be overthrown. Of course, it may 
be said that it is to everybody's in- 
terest that some international agree- 
ment should be reached when this 
war is concluded, and such outbreaks 
• prevented in future. Quite so; but 
on the other hand, it is never to 
anybody's real interest to go to war. 
Even to win is to lose. The truth 
is, that nations do not go to war be- 
cause it really pays them, but be- 
cause of misdirected ambitions and 
mistaken ideals; in other words, be- 
cause of lack of intelligence and 
defective civilization. 

"How wrongly the lessons of this 
war are being read, may be seen in 
the newspaper talk about 'blotting 
Germany out,' or 'wiping Germany off 
the map.' These are the greatest 
fools of all. If by 'blotting out Ger- 
many' is meant the destruction of 
the German navy and defeat of the 
German army, that may be done, and 
looks like being done — unless our 
press censorship is keeping us in the 
dark. But Germany remains, the 
German people remain, German am- 
bitions remain, and there will also 
remain the memory of crushing de- 
feat. And the man is a lunatic, blind 
alike to the lessons of history and 
the facts of human nature, who imag- 
ines that a nation of seventy millions 
can be 'blotted out.' All the power 
of Russia has not been able to crush 
the sentiment of nationality in Fin- 
land. All the power of Russia, Ger- 
many and Austria has not been able 
to crush out the sentiment of nation- 
ality in Poland. After four cen- 
turies, England, in spite of all it 
could do, finds the sentiment of Irish 
nationality as active as ever. Short 
of an absolute, a complete massacre, 
a nation of seventy millions cannot 
be 'blotted out.' They remain, their 
ideals and ambitions, and their way 
of looking at life, must always be 
reckoned with.f 

"Armaments will go on; of that 
I feel assured, although I should be 
only too pleased to find myself mis- 
taken."* 

Note that Mr. Cohen expects Great 
Britain and her allies to win, but his 
belief is subject to a slight doubt. 
Certainly we agree with him in his 
conclusion when he says: "There is 
only one way to peace; and that is 
the growth of intelligence and hu- 
manity." 

The peace advocates in England 
are certainly mistaken if they claim 
that this war is a war against mili- 



t See "The Metaphysical Point of "View 
of Italv in the Turkish War," in The Open 
Court, XXVI, p. 190. 

•One of the noblest sentiments of my 
experience! This expression alone 
oug-ht to commend the Author to the 
profoundest respect and a generous 
consideration of his articles. 

We all appreciate, to a great extent, 
the value of the pros and cons on 
Militarism. Whatever we mig-ht say 
or do about it, I am convinced of one 
thing: the peace advocates who seem 
to deplore German militarism so much, 
and would impress us with their noble 
■work of doing away with it. need les- 
sons in logic and common sense, for I 
can hardly conceive of anything that 
would have a greater effect in an exactly 
opposite direction .than that of their pre- 
tended and hypocritical boast. — Editor. 



tarism and that it will be the last 
war. There are symptoms of a grow- 
ing militarism. 

The British government has come 
to the conclusion that the war will 
not be so easy as originally supposed. 
It will need more soldiers, and so re- 
cruiting offices are opened. We read 
in the newspapers that Rudyard Kip- 
ling has offered his oratorical talent 
to persuade young men to join the 
army, and that he said: 

"We must have many men, if we, 
with the allies, are to check the in- 
rush of organized barbarism. We 
have only to look to Belgium to real- 
ize the minimum of what we may 
expect here. Germany's real object 
is the capture of England's wealth, 
trade and world-wide possessions." 

If you knew a little more about 
Germany and were a little less in- 
fected with English egotism, Mr. 
Kipling, you would be ashamed of 
what you have said! 

Speaking at a great recruiting 
meeting in Liverpool, Winston 
Churchill, First Lord of the Admi- 
ralty, said: "If the German navy 
does not come out and fight, tney 
will be brought out like rats In a 
hole. . . . The English should have 
no anxiety about the result of the 
war." 

No comment is necessary on this 
specimen of modern English, as 
spoken in these days by the men 
who are guiding English destinies. 
England's navy must be proud of the 
First Lord of the Admiralty. 

In the second week of September 
another inducement to join the army 
appeared in London, on large bill- 
boards, which read thus: 

"We've got to beat Germany he- 
cause her arrogant brutality is a 
menace to civilization; because she 
breaks treaties; because she murders 
non-combatants; because she de- 
stroys beautiful cities; because she 
sows mines in the open sea; because 
she fires on the sacred Red Cross; 
because her avowed object is to crush 
England. 

"Men of England, remember Lou- 
vain. 

"The fight is democracy vs. tyr- 
anny. 

"Do you wish to share the fate of 
Belgium? 

"If not, enlist now." 

Why did the author of these post- 
ers not say: "The Germans are can- 
nibals; they are coming to roast 
your babies for supper and will make 
Ijoots of human skin!" Such de- 
scriptions of the Germans might 
have been more effective. They 
would not have been less false than 
the placard, and would have been 
more fanciful, more poetical and 
more romantic. In modern English 
newspapers, Germany is almost com- 
parable to the ogre shouting: 
"Pee, Fi, Fo, Fum, 
I smell the blood of an Englishman, 
Be he alive or be he dead, 
I'll grind his bones to make my 
bread." 

My dear English friends: If your 
liberty is really at stake, rush to the 
colors, have your names enrolled in 
your country's service, take up arms 
to defend England's honor; but I 
fear the honor of England has been 



tarnished, not by the Germans, but 
by your own ministers, by your 
statesmen, your diplomats, by those 
men who, by their secret treaties, by 
the machinations of the Triple En- 
tente, have led you into a most per- 
verse and stupid war. If your coun- 
try needs defense, join the army, but 
first have your generals replaced by 
capable men who are able to meet 
an enemy as great as your Saxon 
brothers of the continent. And, 
above all, see to it that you fight for 
a cause that is honorable, not merely 
a flimsy excuse to rid your shop- 
keepers of a dangerous rival, even 
though the sum at stake may average 
two hundred million pounds a year! 
Fight for a cause endorsed by men 
of understanding, by men of honor! 

And if you fight, do not slander 
your enemy, do not discredit him, do 
not lie about him, do not brag about 
your own superiority, your greater 
prowess, your courage, your un- 
rivaled heroism; history will correct 
your bravadoes and you are running 
the risk of making yourselves ridic- 
ulous. The writer of these lines has 
been your friend, your defender, 
your supporter. He feels ashamed 
now of the misjudgment he has 
shown, and even yet he feels inclined 
to defend you by saying that, in his 
opinion, you English people are per- 
fectly honorable, and that it is only 
a very small diplomatic clique that 
has misled you. This small clique 
has brought on the war without the 
consent of the people, and even now 
your government establishes a cen- 
sorship of news and propagates de- 
liberate falsehoods for the sake of 
defending the war, and to induce 
English youths to prop up the blun- 
ders that have been made. 

I would try to convince you that, 
by provoking the war. Great Britain 
has not only done wrong — a grievous 
wrong — but she has proved to be 
blind. The war policy leads you to 
your own ruin. You have made an 
enemy of a people that has been your 
friend, and, in Germany, you will 
have a most insistent and dangerous 
enemy. At present you do not care, 
but the time will come when you will 
regret having lost Germany's good 
will. I can not help seeing greater 
danger in this war for England than 
for Germany. Great Britain is 
scarcely prepared to face the danger. 

As soon as war has begun, people, 
as a rule, become impervious to rea- 
son, and I fear that my friends in 
England have reached that stage. 
They have grown mad; they have be- 
come incapable of arguing calmly 
and impartially. They believe all, 
they hope all, they suffer all. They 
believe all accusations against their 
enemies, the most impossible ones. 
They hope for victories where there 
is but little if any chance. They suf- 
fer defeats with patience, in antici- 
pation of a final triumph which they, 
in their vanity, think must be theirs. 

In Germany, warfare has been de- 
veloped into a science, and it is not 
left to a genius who is able to as- 
sume leadership. The German army 
is a school in which German youths 
are trained to be good soldiers, and 
the German general staff is also a 
school in which officers are instructed 



342 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



in strategy. There is not a Moltke 
to lead them, but Moltke's spirit 
guides them all. Should one of them 
die today, even if he occupy the high- 
est rank, there are dozens who can 
take up the work. 

The indignation of the Germans 
against the English is tremendous. 
The Germans were prepared for 
French hatred and Russian impu- 
dence, but the bickerings between 
these brother nations were (at least 
in the writer's opinion) petty jeal- 
ousies such as often exist among 
quarrelsome brothers. But now Eng- 



land declares war at a moment when 
Germany is in the greatest danger 
from the simultaneous attack of her 
two neighbors, in the east and in the 
west, the two mightiest land-powers 
next to herself. And at this critical 
moment for Germany, England casts 
in her lot with Germany's foes, in 
the hope of dealing a crushing blow. 
But England may be mistaken. 
Things may turn out differently from 
what is now expected. My good Eng- 
lish friends, how I wish you had not 
been so rash in venturing into this 
war — this abominable war, this vic- 



JXrST WHAT TERMS USED IN DE- 
SCRIBING BIG ARMIES MEAN. 



From the Chicago Evening American, 
August 25, 1914. 

Do you know the difference between 
a corps, a division, and a brigade? Few 
do. The terms are not used the same 
in the various armies. Here is an en- 
lightening table : 

Germany. 

Army Corps — Its staff: Two infan- 
try, two regiments of field artillery, 
three squadrons of cavalry, a comi^any 
of pioneers, a bridge train, field bak- 
eries, telegraph troops, field hospital, 
etc., one or two batteries of heavy field 
howitzers or mortars and a machine 
gun group. Total, 40,000 men. 

Infantry Division — Two brigades. To- 
tal. 12,000 men. 

Brigade — Two regiments. Total, 
6,000 men. 

Regiment — Three battalions of four 
companies each. Total, 3,000 men. 

Battalion — Four companies of 250 
men each. Total 1,000 men. 

Regiment of Field Artillery — Nine 
batteries of field guns and three of 
field battery, six guns ; howitzers. 
Seventy-two pieces. 

Brigade of Cavalry — Two and occa- 
sionally three regiments. Total, 1,600 
to 2,400 men. 

Regiment of Cavalry — Four squad- 
rons of 200 men each. Total, SOO men. 
France. 

Army Corps — Two infantry divisions, 
one brigade of cavalry, one brigade of 
horse and foot artillery, one engineers' 
battalion, one squadron of train. Total, 
40,000 men. 



Infantry Division— Two brigades of 
infantry, one squadron of cavalry, 
twelve batteries. Total, 12,000 men and 
48 guns. 

Brigade — Two regiments of three bat- 
talions each. Total, 6,000 men. 

Regiment — Three battalions of four 
companies each. Total, 3,000 men. 

Battalion — Four companies of 250 
men each. Total, 1,000 men. 

Cavalry Division — Two and some- 
times three brigades. Total, 3,200 to 
4,800 men. 

Brigade of Cavalry — Two regiments 
of eight squadrons, with two batteries 
of artillery. 

Regiment of Cavalry — Four squad- 
rons. Total, SOO men. 

Squadron of Cavalry — Two hundred 
men. 

Battery of Artillery— Six 



guns. 



Great Britain. 



Brigade of Infantry — Four battalions 
and administrative and medical units. 
Total, 4,000 men. 

Cavalry Brigade — Two regiments of 
four squadrons each. Total, SOO men. 

Brigade of Artillery — Three batter- 
ies eighteen guns ; heavy artillery, fif- 
teen field howitzers, two batteries, 
horse artillery, two batteries. 

Battery — Six guns. 

Division — Fifty-four field guns, 
twelve howatzers and four heavy field 
guns. Total 15,000 combatants. 

Russia. 

Battalion of Infantry — Eight hundred 
men. 

Squadron of Cavalry — One hundred 
and twenty-five men. 

Battery of Artillery — Eight guns. 



ious, mean, ill-intentioned war, this 
most stupid war. 

The Roman proverb says. Quern 
Deus pcrdere vult eum dementat. 
When surrounded by enemies, Ulrich 
von Hutten, the valiant knight of the 
age of the Reformation, exclaimed, 
Vicl Feiiid, riel Ehr! Certainly, 
Germany, much honor is thine, for 
thine enemies are numerous, and 
England among them! What a glory 
for Germany! What a shame on 
England! 

QuantiUa pnulentia Britannia regi- 
tur! How small is the wisdom with 
which Great Britain is ruled. 



TEN MAXIMS ARE LAID DOWN 
FOR GERMAN SOLDIERS. 



By Harry Hansen. 

(From "The Daily News," Chicago, 

September 28, 1914.) 

(Special Correspondence of The 

Daily News.) 

Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, Sept. 
14. — Here are ten maxims of the 
German army that come to me from 
an officer who considers them as 
potent as the ten commandments; 
there is no need to add that they 
epitomize the spirit of the German 
army: 

No soldier can lead who has not 
first learned to obey. 

The character of the discipline in 
an army augments or weakens its 
numerical strength. 

A soldier insufficiently fed may be 
overcome without recourse to the 
sword. 

Courage is worth more than co- 
horts. 

The bravery and resourcefulness 
of an officer inoculates a thousand 
men. 

A soldier should wish to teach 
the enemy, not learn from him. 

He who prefers the defensive reaps 
greater security, but ultimately loses 
more than he gains. 

A good soldier defeats rather than 
reviles the enemy. 

The victor defeats himself if he 
allows the vanquished time to re- 
cuperate. 

The soldier's worst enemies are 
presumptuousness and pride. 



Interesting Comment and Speculation concerning Results of the War 



EMERSON ON THE PHILOSOPHY 
OF WAR. 

The struggle of Germany for the 
right to exist as a free and united na- 
tion is, in some respects, similar to 
our own struggle to preserve the Union. 
The high contemplations aroused in that 
great contest for human rights and the 
integrity of our Union were most fit- 
tingly expressed by Emerson, in his per- 
oration on "Lincoln," and may be prof- 
itably pondered at this time : 

There is a serene Providence which 
rules the fate of nations, which makes 
little account of time, little of one gen- 
eration or race, makes no account of 
disasters, conquers alike by what is 
called defeat or by what is called vic- 



tory, thrusts aside enemy and obstruc- 
tion, crushes everything immoral as in- 
human and obtains the ultimate tri- 
umph of the best race by the sacrifice 
of everything which resists the moral 
laws of the world. It makes its own 
instruments, creates the man for the 
time, trains him in povert.v. inspires his 
genius, and arms him for his task. It 
has given every race its own talent, and 
ordains, that only that race which com- 
bines perfectly with the virtues of all, 
shall endure.* 

•This extract rightly belongs at the end 
of Mr. Albert E. Henschel's article, War 
Hypocrisy Unveiled, found in Chapter II 
ot War Echoes. But it was a great temp- 
tation to put this bit of Philosophy on 
War (rom Emer.son under PhUosophy on 
the War. — Editor. 



L. E. M. Is it true that as an 
answer to the action of England and 
France in prohibiting the production 
of the compositions of Wagner and 
other leading German dramatists and 
composers, Germany has barred 
Shakespeare? 

It is not. The question was raised 
in Germany of adopting this retali- 
ating measure, but was unanimously 
opposed by the leading Germans con- 
sulted and was consequently lost. 
Among those most emphatic in their 
stand for the continued production 
of Shakespeare's plays were Profes- 
sors Harnack and Max Liebermann 
and the Chancellor, Dr. v. Bethmann- 
Hollweg. Shakespeare will be played 
as usual. — Herman Ridder. 



SOME PROPHECY ON RESULTS OF THE WAR 



343 




XAKIXG DEPARTURE AFTER RECOVERY 
(By Courtesy of the "Chicago Abendpost") 



GERMANY'S DESTRUCTION AS 
FORETOLD BY A FRENCHMAN. 

In Major de Civrieux's book, La fin 
de Vempire allema/nde. — La iataille du 
Champ des Bouleanix i9i.. (Paris and 
Limoges, Henri Charles-Lavanzelle, 
1912), we gain an interesting insight 
into the Belgian neutrality question as 
seen through French spectacles, and we 
get the impression that the invasion of 
Belgium by Germany was not only ex- 
pected by France but ardently hoped 
for in order to make an end of Ger- 
many. 

The book gives an imaginary pic- 
ture of the end of Germany in the near 
future. This takes place in the fol- 
lowing way : After the German fleet 
has been annihilated through a sudden 
attack by the English fleet, following, 
as the book says, the example of Japan 
in the Russo-Japanese war, without any 
further declaration of war, the invading 
German armies are defeated by the 
French at Apremont, southwest of 
Metz, then at Neufchateau, south of 
Toul, and on the Ourthe in Belgium ; 
in the latter battle In conjunction with 
the English and Belgians. After these 
defeats the victors, strengthened fur- 
ther by the Dutch, press forward from 
different directions through the Rhine 
province and Westphalia, and finally 



make an end of Germany in "the battle 
of the Birch field" near Hamm. Wil- 
liam II is also killed in this battle, as 
the last German emperor, his head- 
quarters being smashed into a thousand 
fragments by bombs thrown from 
French flying machines. 

In the book the following sentences 
are significant. First, that one in the 
preface, written by Major Driant, re- 
presentative from Nancy, to the author 
of the book, and those by the author 
himself. Major Driant says : "The pro- 
posed violation of Belgian neutrality 
has long ceased to be a secret. True, 
every one resists this idea, we know 
that ; but in spite of this, and in conse- 
quence of the intimate relations between 
France and England, this violation 
is unavoidable. It is of the most press- 
ing interest to Germany to march 
through Belgium as quickly as possible, 
first, in order to hinder the junction 
of the British forces and the northern 
French armies, second, in order to gain 
the shortest and most weakly defended 
route to Paris." 

The author, Civrieux, says in his im- 
aginary description of the future war : 
"As long as the Belgian border was 
barred to the French movements every 
French attack, which found itself con- 
fined within the narrow space between 



Basel and Mezicres, had to go to pieces 
against the powerful girdle of German 
fortifications in Alsace-Lorraine, and, 
behind them, against the fortified line 
of the Rhine. On this narrow space a 
campaign having a prospect of victory 
was impossible. Never could it have 
carried our troops along with enthu- 
siasm. It would have come to a bitter 
and terrible struggle, and one of ex- 
treme sacrifice, without a spark of hope 
for victory in the hearts of the fighters. 
On the contrary, the superior mass of 
the Germans would have crushed the 
French through its weight alone, for 
the mobility of the French would have 
been restricted by the narrowness of 
the war area, yes, would have been 
made entirely ineffective. But now, all 
at once, the plains of Belgium were op- 
en to the French armies, where, besides, 
there were 100,000 Belgians ready to 
defend the violation of their neutrality. 
Now the prospect was altogether differ- 
ent. After a victorious fight on Belgian 
soil there would be an invasion into 
the enemy's country, toward the Lower 
Rhine, which was without fortifica- 
tions, hand in hand with the English 
ally who ruled the sea and would now 
set foot on the continent." 
Iowa City, Ia., Feb. 11, 1915. 

A. Kampmeikb. 



344 



THOUGHTS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE WAR 



AN AMERICAN GENEBAL ON THE 
AVAR. 

"The war will be over by fall, and 
the German submarine will win it," de- 
clared General Samuel Pearson, of 
Scrantou, Pa., to a reporter of the New 
York "Staats-Zeituug" when he arrived 
on March 24th on the Danish steamer 
Hellig Olav. "The real submarine war 
has uiDt commenced as yet; when Ger- 
many once begins it with all the power 
at her disposal, England will get the 
surprise of her life, and give in very 
quickly.'' 

General Pearson was American Con- 
sul at Johannesburg, South Africa, 
■when the Boer war broke out, and took 
part in the war against England as 
Quartermaster General of the Boer 
forces. At the outbreak of the present 
war he was sojourning in Germany, 
where he stayed until now, and has 
watched the unrolling of events with 
critical and expert eyes. 

"It is possible," he said, "that there 
are still people here who believe in a 
defeat of Germany in this gigantic 
struggle for her existence, and it is 
also possible that the allies themselves 
are still hoping for a victory. Anybody, 
however, who has been in Germany 
since the outbreak of the war, and has 
kept his eyes and ears open, as I have 
done, cannot have any doubts as to the 
outcome of the war. Germany will, and 
must remain victor because it Is one 
and indivisible, because all her prepa- 
rations for this war have been made 
with the most wonderful foresight, and 
because her organization Is so perfect 
that nothing has gone wrong since the 
beginning of the war. Any odds that 
may have been against her have been 
wiped out by her submarines. The 
German tribes and states ever since the 
declaration of war are more like a 
great big family than they have ever 
been before, and on her own soil Ger- 
many can never be overcome. The Ger- 
mans of whom it was said formerly, 
'Two Germans, three opinions,' now 
have only one opinion about the war, 
'Forward' till everything that is oppos- 
ing us has been overcome,' and a people 
of seventy million, to whom this has be- 
come a kind of religious dogma, cannot 
be vanquished, and if the civilized 
world should go up against them. 

"The German submarines will W'in the 
war In the long end, and I do not be- 
lieve that it will take longer than fall. 
The real submarine war has not even 
begun, for most of the 116 German sub- 
marines are at present busy with lay- 
ing 30,000 mines all around England. 
When that war once begins England 
will experience the surprise of her ex- 
istence, against which the German 42- 
centimeter mortars willhavebeen child's 
play. England may have made her 
calculations very accurately, but I be- 
lieve that she has left the German sub- 
marines out of her calculations and 
that will be her doom. In the German 
ship yards forty thousand men are 
workiiig day and night to complete fur- 
ther submarines, and I have been told 
that more than one of them is launched 
every week. Building material is on 
hand in great quantities, money more 
than surtieient, and as to soldiers and 
sailors. Germany will never want for 
them. T.et America furnish the allies 
wiUi all the guns and munitions they 



want, Germany manufactures herself 
everything that she needs, and her food 
supply is suflicient until the next crop ; 
the 'neutrality" of the United States 
can only make the war last longer, but 
can have no decisive influence on the 
outcome. 

"Personally I do not think so much of 
the Zeppelifis as of the German subma- 
rines, but I am not an expert and as I 
have furthermore not seen these big 
airships In action I cannot judge au- 
thoritatively. It seems to me that they 
otfer too large a target even If they 
have to be hit a number of times to be 
injured fatally. One thing is sure, that 
so far no aeroplane has been Invented 
which could become dangerous to a 
Zeppelin. A Zeppelin can carry bombs 
of a maximum weight of four tons and 
there is no doubt about It that in a hos- 
tile fortress it could cause enormous 
destruction if only these bombs could 
be thrown with more accuracy. 

"I am not of the opinion that the 
present way of fighting In trenches Is 
something new. During the Boer war 
we used trenches with great success 
against the English, and Lee and Grant 
had used them during the Civil war. 

"As to the Dardanelles, Germany is 
not troubled a bit. During the last five 
years they have been newly fortified by 
the Germans, and the old fortifications 
were at the same time greatly strength- 
ened. I know that at the narrowest 
point of the channel are placed some 42 
cm. mortars on either side, and If the 
battleships of the allies really should 
succeed to get that far, further they 
will not get. 

"In Germany everything goes on as 
usual. The streets of Berlin have the 
same appearance as in times of peace 
except that you see soldiers every- 
where. It is hard to believe when you 
see all these recruits, that already five 
to six million soldiers are in the field. 
In other countries It Is not sufliciently 
recognized how little disturbance the 
war had produced in the everyday oc- 
cupations of the German people, how 
business goes on as usual, and how at 
the same time there is a quiet but al- 
most Incredible enthusiasm permeating 
the "whole people from the lowest to the 
very highest. If the neutral countries 
were correctly informed about all this 
I should think that the opinion would 
quickly change in favor of Germany, 
especially here in America, for the 
American loves to be on the winning 
side." 

General Pearson declared that he 
would soon return to Germany, as he 
would not miss for the world the spec- 
tacle of the final German victory. 



The German citizens of this coun- 
try have heretofore avoided entering 
the political field as Germans. The 
spitework and falsifications of our 
newspapers and statesmen will be to 
blame if the Germans should find it 
necessary to organize a German 
party. Pressure always induces 
counter pressure. The Germans In 
America no longer want to tolerate 
oppression. — From a Faithful Ameri- 
can. 



The modern machine gun hasn't 
been able to put the bayonet out of 
business; which shows that you can't 
invent a substitute for courage. 



THE NEW EUROPE AND THE 
NEW CULTURE.* 

The "World War will bring us a 
new Europe and a new culture. This 
opinion was upheld by> Dr. Max 
Maurenbrecher In a lecture delivered 
to the "Hamburger Ortsgruppe des 
Deutschen Monistenbundes." It Is to- 
day that the dream of centuries, that 
was to have been realized In the re- 
establishment of the German Empire 
on January 18, 1871, has first be- 
come a reality. A new unit of feel- 
ing and purpose unites the whole of 
the German nation. The breaking 
out of the war has settled many dis- 
putes. It has removed the final op- 
position to the establishment of the 
empire, and we shall never again 
quarrel as to whether it is necessary 
to assure the security of the nation, 
by means of strong military forces. 
After the decision we are mutually 
determined to do what is necessary. 
The policy of our Emperor has al- 
ways reckoned with the possibility \ 
of a war with England (Heligoland, 
the fleet, friendship with Turkey) ; 
but it aimed at rendering this war 
Impossible. 

Now England's declaration of war 
has cleared matters up. Our whole 
future will have an anti-British ten- 
dency. But we are fighting against 
the English state, the universal em- 
pire, not against British culture or 
British people. Our trade will never 
more be able to exist in the shadow 
of British universal commerce; we 
have become Independent. The Brit- 
ish universal empire must be demol- 
ished If our policy is to flourish. It 
sounds harsh, but we must learn it 
and stand firm, then England's ene- 
mies will become our friends. Cul- 
tural intercourse with the British, 
however, must be taken up again 
after the war. In the same way we 
will look toward the East. Faithful 
to the promise made to his grand- 
father, the Emperor endeavored up 
to the last moment to keep peace 
with Russia. The Prussian govern- 
ment, too, has nearly always been 
backed up by Russia. But the Ger- 
mans as a people were on the side 
of Austria, and felt Austria to be our 
friend and brother, Russia on the 
other hand, our enemy. The future 
of Germany now depends on her 
union with Austria. The watchword 
"Germans against Slavs" is now done 
away with, for the Slavs of Austria- 
Hungary are our allies. It Is now a 
case of antagonism between occident- 
al and oriental culture. The war has 
drawn this dividing line very dis- 
tinctly. 

As a universal empire, Germany 
alone is too small; only in combina- 
tion with her natural ally will she 
constitute a will-power suflicient to 
turn the balance. Either the state 
on the Danube will remain, or the 
Russian state. At any rate if we are 
not powerful enough to split up the 
Russian Empire into its elements, we 
must at least prevent any further 
expansion. We are looking forward 
to a union from the North Sea to the 
Persian Gulf; Germany, Austria, the 
Balkan States (as many as care to 



■ See also Index for Macchiavelliism, 
Dr. Paul Carus. — Editor. 



SOME PROPHECY ON RESULTS OF THE WAR 



join us), Turkey as far as the Indian 
frontier. 

The speaker then turned his at- 
tention to the home policy. We do 
not depend on our ships for our 
bread, but on our farmers. Social 
democracy must learn to participate 
in the formation of our policy; the 
social idea must flow into the stream 
of culture. Culture is the general 
way in which a group of human 
beings live. It includes their econo- 
my and their politics. It is not a 
possession to satisfy, but a star we 
are determined to reach in the 
future. The lecturer touched deli- 
cately on the necessity for the fall 
of Prance and compared this with 
the internal growth of Germany out 
of the talent, the history and the 
present condition of the German 
nation. Pichte already saw in the 
hearts of the Germans the idea of 
cultivating a higher state of human- 
ity. We shall form an economic 
power to sustain us, but we shall 
stand firm by our German culture. 
Our policy will constitute the means 
by which to climb up to a greater 
and firmer future. Then we shall ex- 
perience a wonderful reconciliation 
with the history of our nation. It is 
just because we were split up and 
had to accustom ourselves to another 
culture, other religions and other 
political aims, that we are now able 
to enclose a portion of humanity 
within the bonds of culture without 
injuring them. We came later than 
other nations and were so much the 
fitter. This great reconciliation with 
our past is our best comfort, should 
everything turn out a mere vision. 
But if it is possible our WILL will 
bring about a new reality, for during 
the centuries we have grown capable 
of this work which the war is now to 
complete. This is the sacrifice, the 
tremendous stakes. But the goal is 
worth such a sacrifice, for it procures 
us the reconciliation for the private 
suffering. 



WILL GERMANY BECOME A 
REPUBLIC? 

In a letter to the New York "Evening 
Mail" Mr. George Caillaux, of British- 
Holland and French Huguenot ancestry, 
says : "What amuses me most is the 
prediction that the form of govern- 
ment in Germany will change to a re- 
public. I do not see any reason for 
such a change. Everybody in Germany 
admires and loves the Kaiser; his ad- 
ministration was immensely successful ; 
it brought prosperity and enormous 
wealth. A country seven-eighths the size 
of Texas, with 6.5,000,000 people, made 
remarkable progress in industry and 
scientific farming, so that the Ger- 
mans doubled their crops in thirty 
years. Their prosperity, of course, de- 
pended on the forty years of peace and 
work. 

"The municipal Governments are 
clean, and services are not equaled in 
any other country. The poor, sick and 
invalids are cared for in a remarkable 
way. Why should they change? To 
have every four years an election, we 
know, if we are honest, how these 
changes affect our business life. The 
uncertainty, what is to come next, 
would be very annoying for the con- 
servative character of the Teutons. 

"Besides, all of the responsible 
positions in Germany are held by peo- 
ple trained in their vocations and 
elected on account of their fitness. 
Graft is absolutely unknown, impos- 
sible." — From "The Crucible." 



ENGLAND'S DISILLITSIONS 
GREATEST. 

COPENHAGFN, March 4. — The 
"Nationaltidende" says : The English 
and the British Prime Minister are for 
the first time beginning to realize 
clearly, that the world's war is a far 
harder thing than they had at first 
anticipated. When we glance back at 
the past seven months of war we find 
that all the military leaders and states- 
men have miscalculated. The German 
general staff in the imagination that 
it could bring France to her knees be- 
fore the Russian mobilization was com- 
pleted ;* the French and Eussian lead- 
ers because they had not thought that 
Germany could bring into the field 
such a mighty army to protect her two 
fronts as she has been able to do. The 
Russian ministry of war, in its idea 
that it could annihilate the German 
army. The greatest disillusion, how- 
ever, lies in Churchill's often repeated 
statement of his thorough satisfaction 
with the competency of the navy as 
being able to rule the seas, upon the 
top of which comes the German block- 
ade. Even if Germany does not man- 
age to threaten England seriously, 
there will still remain the disagree- 
able sentiment that England, profes- 
sing to rule the waves, has been un- 
able to defend her own coasts. — The 
"Continental Times," Berlin. 



The United States is not at war 
with any nation and the newspapers 
should be so conducted that the fact 
will be made clear to all who read. 



Reader, do you blame that Ger- 
man soldier who "upon a certain day 
took the farmer's hen away" to 
brake the monotony of the "large, 
furious, green sausages, built on a 
displeasing foundation of. stew?" 
We are almost inclined to believe 
that the German hating editorial 
writer of the "Chicago Herald" 
would do the same under equal con- 
ditions, although in his sanctum he 
may today pretend to be very 
shocked at every thing he himself 
and others of his ilk lay at the Ger- 
mans' door. — The Publisher of "War 
Echoes." 



The lies about German Socialists 
are in keeping with the doctored 
cablegrams that represent the Ger- 
man army as defeated all along the 
line. If the stories which are con- 
stantly appearing in the anti-German 
press of this country were true, th© 
French, English and Russian armies 
should by this time be well on their 
road to Berlin. So far from this be- 
ing the case, they are fighting to hold 
their own against the onward march 
of the Kaiser's troops, which at this 
writing are advancing with the irre- 
sistible momentum of a mighty 
avalanche menacing with destruction 
all that stands in its way. 



INDEX 



Air Craft — 

Air War— No Time to Prepare for the 297 

Has Knocked Military Strategy into a Cocked Hat 298 

On the Use of Air-Craft in the World War 

The Use of Dirigibles More Common Than Suspected. 298 

Alliance — Germany and the Holy 16 

The Crystallization of the Anglo-Japanese 134 

Triple— Withdrawal of Italy from the — H. Ridder 235 

Allies— England to Fight on if Allies Quit— Winston 

Churchill 112 

Jews Should Support the — Zangwill Thinks 130 

Shells for AUies Earns Falk Censure 215 

Alsace in 1870 — Count Zeppelin in — Karl Klein, The Open 

Court 123 

Anarchy — Foreign to Germany 15 

Anglo-Japanese Alliance — The Crystallization of the — 

Herman Ridder, New Yorker Staats-Zeitung 134 

Anglo-Saxons — The Peace of the — The Crucible, Editorial 120 

Antwerp and After — The Chicago Tribune 264 

Armament — The Cost of — Editorial, The Milwaukee Free 

Press 172 

America — See also United States — 

America and Japan — The Continental Times 134 

America's Enemy? — Who Is — Translation of an Editorial, 

The Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago 110 

American Eyewitnesses 216 

American General on the War — An — The Crucible, Edi- 
torial, Richmond, Va 344 

American Neutrality — Frank Harris 220 

Americans — See also United States — 

Americans are to be strictly neutral 166 

American Character — Lest we forget — Herman Ridder. 260 

Americans must set house in order 29 

Americans took their lives in their hands 289 

Dernberg's Comment on warning to Americans 290 

Quarrel of Newspaper Manufacture, said American 

General 339 

Armies — See also Navies, Militarism — 
Just What Army Terms Used Mean — Chicago American 342 

Of Nations at War 273 

Arms — Shall America Furnish 215 

Asquith Says Atrocity Reports Lack Confirmation 90 

Atrocities — 
An Authoritative Statement on German — The Spring- 
field Union 263 

Are Fiction — German — James O'Donnell Bennett — The 

Chicago Tribune 249 

English Perfidy and Russian — The Vital Issue 131 

Atrocity Reports are Libelous 258 

Austria — See also Austro-Hungary — 

Mobs in Italian Cities Try for War on — The Chicago 

Examiner 236 

Reason for the Ultimatum 150 

The Central Empires — Germany and 278 

The Seven Weeks' War With 18 

Austria and the National Liberty of Her People — Dr. 
Erwin Klein, Peekskill, N. Y. — The Vital Issue, New 

York City 278 

Austria-Hungary — Letter of Emperor Francis Joseph to 

the Children of— The Crucible. . 201 

Austria-Hungary — The Continental Times 201 

Austrians — Germans and — Their Treatment in France 

Objected to by Gustave Herve 123 

Austrian LTltimatum — 

Could Germany Have Pacified the Slavs? 243 

Did Germany Approve in Advance of Note to Servia?. . 243 

Austria's Part in the War— The Editor. The Crucible 279 

Austro-Hungarian Empire and Consequently Against Ger- 
many — Intrigue Against the 74 

Austro-Hungarian Red Cross 201 

B 

Balkan Alteration— Denies 285 

"Barbarian" Hallucination — The — General Suggestions 
About Germany the "War-Seeker," L. Niessen- 

Deiters, Bonn, Germany 108 

Belgian — See also Belgium — 

Commission — With President Wilson at Washington... 91 
Diplomat — Anent Germany's Efforts for the Mainten- 
ance of Peace 75 

History — Points in — Topic Under : War Hvpocrisv Un- 
veiled. Albert E. Henschel ." ] 78 



91 



History — Belgian Vicissitudes for a Century — Neutral- 
ity and International Law 78 

Invasion — Reasons Justifying — Topic Under: War Hy- 
pocrisy Unveiled. Albert E. Henschel 84 

Belgian Neutrality — Various Topics on 60 

A Fraud — The Exposure of the — The Hamburger 

Fremdenblatt 64 

Surrendered 60 

A Myth — The German Ambassador to U. S 66 

Has Germany Violated the 69 

Its Real Meaning — "Scrap of Paper" — The Vital Issue, 

New York City 59 

Queen Victoria on 81 

Belgian Pretext for War — Discredits 67 

Belgian Royal Commission — President Wilson's Greeting 

to the — Chicago Daily News 219 

Belgian Vicissitudes for a Century — Neutrality and In- 
ternational Law — A Sketch of Belgian History 78 

Belgians and Germans at the White House 218 

Belgium — As Related to the Nations in the War — See also 
Belgian — 
Bellicose — Topic Under : War Hypocrisy Unveiled. 

Albert E. Henschel 81 

British Interest in 82 

Change of Policy of 61 

During Franco-Prussian War — England Ready to In- 
vade 83 

Germany and — Editorial, The Chicago Tribune 67 

In 1866— France Tries to Annex 82 

Justice to — Topic Under : War Hypocrisy Unveiled. 

Albert E. Henschel 78 

Mistrusted England in 1913 — Earl Grey says 83 

New Life Since that Nation's Liberation from Holland 85 
The Deeper Meaning of the Alignment of Nations in 

the War 

The Powers Plotting Against — Topic Under : War Hy- 
pocrisy Unveiled. Albert E. Henschel 82 

The Outlook Justifies Retributive Action by Germans 90 

United States Upholds Germans in Belgium 93 

Bernhardi on the War 39 

Bernstorff — Count J. H. Von — German Imperial Ambas- 
sador to the United States — 

Germany and the Great War 243 

Regrets Loss of Life on Lusitania 291 

Bismarck — What Would Bismarck Say and Do in the 

Great War 6 

And the French Prisoners in '71 S 

Carlyle's Estimate of — New Yorker Staats-Zeitung 20 

German Ideals and Their Realization 4 

On the Purpose and Policy of the German Empire — 

Julius Goebel, The Fatherland 161 

What Would Bismarck Say ? 6 

Bismarck's Program 18 

Bismarck's View and the War — Dr. Paul Carus, The 

Open Court 7 , 

Blockade a Chimera — Complete 1 12 

Boer's Opinion — The Illinois Staats-Zeitung, Chicago.... 11 
Britain's Attack on Neutral Rights — Milwaukee Free 

Press 119 

British — See also Great Britain, Britons, England — 
Action Against Kaiser — Submarine Blockade Forces 

Drastic — Chicago Examiner 114 

Admiralty Plot the Destruction?— Did the— Hobson. . . 289 

And German White Papers 55 

Authorities on Law and Self-Preservation 84 

British Principles and Character in Action 110 

British Subtle— Calls 190 

Censors Forge Dispatches — Corey Declares — St. Paul 

Dispatch 256 

Combine Against Rivals 190 

Government Wanted War — Not the British People — 
Topic Under : War Hypocrisy L'nveiled. Albert 

Henschel '. 85 

Illiberal Foreign Policy 131 

In a Supreme Task Speech Making — Mr. Asquith... 258 
Interest in Belgium — Topic Lender : War Hypocrisy Un- 
veiled. Albert E. Henschel 85 

Reply to Wilson Note to Cite More German Faults- 
Chicago Daily News 292 

The Situation in Persia 131 

Violates International Law 119 

We Cannot Submit to British Demands 119 

British Policy — See also Great Britain, England- — 
Holding Up Mail to Read It 258 



INDEX 



Leaders Object to 55 

London Papers Begin Rebelling 257 

Sharp Surprise for Censor 257 

Suppressing the Prime Minister 258 

Tried to Suppress Antwerp Story 257 

What Happened to Patterson 257 

What Kitchener Would Do 258 

Britons in Protest — Milwaukee Free Press 144 

Bryan — Hon. William Jennings — Secretary of State 221 



Causes of the War — See also : Diplomacy, Treaties, 
Progress — 

Looking Deeper and Beyond Casual Appearances 3 

Cause and the War — The German — Dr. Paul Carus, 

Editor, The Open Court 153 

Cause of War — "Made in Germany" — Real — Sam. H. 

Clark 285 

Cause That Forced the Kaiser's Hand — The Underlying — 

Prof. Kuno Francke, Harvard University 26 

Censors Forge Dispatches, Corey Declares — British — Her- 
bert Corey, St. Paul Dispatch 256 

Chancellor's Error — The 66 

Chancellor — The Iron — George Sylvester Viereck — The 

Independent, New York City 7 

Chicago Irish Leaders Denounce Recruiting in Ireland — 

The Irish Voice 99 

Chinese Neutrality Assailed 66 

Christianity and the Reformation 15 

Civilization at Stake 100 

Civilization? — In Defense of — Editoral, The Chcago 

Tribune 63 

Civilization — How Will the Historian Settle Accounts 
With the Nations at War? — Anti-Macchiavelliism. . . 15 

Civilization — The New 15 

Civilized World — Appeal to the 148 

Congress — An Awakened — Army and Navy Journal, New 

York City 171 

Conspirator — England the Arch — The Fatherland 64 

Contraband List is Growing — Associated Press 120 

Count Zeppelin in Alsace in 1870 — Karl Klein, The Open 

Court 123 

Crim c — Against Austria — 

Assassination 321 

Belgian NeutraUty 321 

Crush Germany 321 

England Jealous . . .' 321 

England's Pretext 321 

Germanic Races Detest Assassination 321 

International Intrigue 321 

Against Ireland — Sir Roger Casement, The Crucible... 321 

Kaiser Made Vain Efforts 321 

Pan-Slavism 321 

Political World Machinations and Intrigue.' 258 

The Trick 321 

Twelve Points Assured 321 

Unable to Verify 252 

Crisis — The — See also : Critical, Horizon Darkens — 

Could Have Believed Kaiser 152 

Dramatic Scene Play'ed 151 

England's Excuse Given 152 

Four Days Had Been Lost 152 

France Had Made Pledge 152 

France Sees Interest 152 

Motives Not Considered 151 

Spirit of Women Noble 152 

The Emperor's Speeches — The European Situation Has 

Come to 237 

Thinks Mediation Was Offered 151 

Was the Day of Servia's Answer 151 

Critics — ■ 
In Answer to — Dr. Paul Carus, Editor, The Open Court 334 
Lessons of the War — Dr. Paul Carus, Editor, The Open 

Court 315 

Cruelty and Inhumanity- — Editorial — The Chicago Tribune 260 

Cruelty — Kiss, Slap, Then a Smile 252 

Cruelty of Germans Untrue — Alleged — The Chicago 

Tribune 262 

Culture — The New Europe and the New 344 

Csar—Revea-h Morgan Bent— $25,000,000 Loan to— Boer- 

sianer, Chicago Examiner 216 

Czar — The New York World for the — The New York 

Herald 239 

Czar's Ukase — The — The Fatherland 130 



D 

Defenses and Defenders — 
Defend Your Home— A Right to— The Chicago Herald 

—Editorial 259 

Defender of Small Nations — The — The Irish Voice.... 114 

Defense — A Passionate Defense of Germany 147 

Defense of Civilization — Editorial, The Chicago Tribune 63 
Democracy — A Difference of Position — H. Ridder, New 

Yorker Staats-Zeitung 310 

Democracy — German Forces of — Topic under : War 

Hypocrisy Unveiled — Albert E. Henschel 78 

Diplomacy — And Diplomatic Relations — 
And International Politics — Vital Causes of the War.. 43 

Diplomatic Correspondence — The Chicago Herald 45 

Macchiavelli Diplomacy — Dr. Paul Carus, The Open 

Court 15 

Secret Diplomacy — H. Brand, The Illinois Staats-Zeitung 63 

Talleyrand Diplomacy 15 

Disarmament is Impossible — Why General — Dr. Constan- 

tin Dumba, Leslie's Weekly 335 

Dum-Dum Bullets — Germans Capture 90 

Dum-Dum Charges — Specific 220 

Duty — of Peace and War — See also Patriotism — 
All Neutrals During the War — Fairness and Impar- 
tiality the Plain Dutv of 30 

Is Neutrality Our Duty ? 227 

Preparedness — The Duty of — Editorial, The Chicago 
Tribune 187 



Editor — War Echoes — George W. Hau VIII 

Acknowledgment VII 

Anti-Macchiavelliism and the New Civilization XV 

Cause of the War — Vanity and Jealousy XI 

Defending the Fatherland — Why X 

Deutschland, Deutschland iiber Alles VIII 

Difficult Position of the United States '. X 

Faith in the Fatherland vs. The Lying Press XI 

Feeding the War — Stevenson Stops X 

Luther on the True Soldier VIII 

Mission of War Echoes VIII 

Neutrality of the United States — Popular and Official IX 

People and Their Governments IX 

Promise of War Echoes IX 

Responsibility of the Editor XII 

Task in its Inception XII 

Unpopular Cause — Championing an XI 

Egypt — England's Benevolence Towards — Topic Under : 

War Hypocrisy Unveiled. Albert E. Henschel 78 

Emperor Francis Joseph to the Children of Austria-Hun- 
gary — Letter of — The Crucible 201 

Emperor William II — See also : Kaiser — 
Emperor a Lover of Peace — The — Topic Under : War 

Hypocrisy L'nveiled. Albert E. Henschel 78* 

Emperor's Addresses — From the 80 

Emperor's Speeches — The European Situation Has 

Come to a Crisis — The 237 

Emperor William the Man. Dr. Hugo Muensterberg, 

Everybod}''s Magazine 182 

Empire — A More Extensive Account of the Evolution 

of Germany Since Luther 13 

Empire — The Evolution of the German 16 

Enemies — Forgives — Speech by Kaiser Wilhelra II.... 238 
Enemy? — Who is America's — Editorial, Illinois Staats- 
Zeitung 110 

England — See also : British, Britain, Great Britain — 

Cutting the German Cable, Violates Our Neutrality.. 69 
England and Her Dear Ireland — Hamburger Fremden- 

blatt, Hamburg, Germanv 102 

England in 1812 for Self-Protection— We Had to Fight 214 
England in 1913 — Earl Grav Says Belgium Mistrusted. 83 

England— Right Rev. Dr.— England's Fall 102 

England the Arch Conspirator — The Fatherland, New 

York City '. 64 

England the Real Aggressor 286 

Frank in One Thing — Its War is a Commercial One — 
Dr. Edmund von Mach, The Fatherland, New York 

City 29 

In Conspiracy Against Germany 66 

Ready to Invade Belgium During the Franco-Prussian 
War — Topic Under : War Hypocrisy Unveiled. Al- 
bert E. Henschel 83 



348 



INDEX 



The United States and England — Hamburger Frem- 

denblatt. Hamburg, Germany 227 

Threatened by Strikes — The Sun 103 

To Fight On if Other AlHes Quit— The Daily News.. 112 

Violates the Moral and International Law „ 79 

England's — Sins and Virtues. See also: England, English, 
Britain's, Great Britain's — 

Benevolence Towards Egypt 79 

Black Soldiers — Some of the Deviltries of 100 

Blood-Guilt in the World War— Jourdain 338 

Case — The Buttressing of — Herman Ridder, The New 

Yorker Staats-Zeitung 112 

Case — Herman Ridder, The New Yorker Staats-Zeitung 14S 
Contempt for American Rights — The Irish World, New 

York City 286 

Declaration — Editorial, The Illinois Staats-Zeitung.... 105 
Disillusions Greatest — The Continental Times, Berlin.. 345 

Domestc Troubles and Outlook 99 

England's Cause — Editorial, The Illinois Staats-Zeitung 71 

England's Jealousv 138 

Fall— Right Rev. Dr. England 102 

False Steps — New York Evening Post Ill 

Hypocrisy — Bernard Shaw Shows Up — The Crucible.. 67 
Neutrality Stand — Folly of — The Fatherland, New York 

City 236 

Treason to the White Race — Continental Times, Berlin 99 

Wars Since 1870 — The Chicago Tribune 168 

English — See also : England, Britain, Great Britain — 
Arrogance May Bring About an Anglo-American War 

— Complaisance Under 286 

Critics of British Politics — Dr. Paul Carus, Editor, The 
Open Court. Topic Under: Lessons on the War.... 320 

English Detectives Search Mail 302 

Englishman to His German Friend — Letter of an — The 

Continental Times, Berlin 49 

English Point of View — The — ^Jourdain, The Open 

Court 24 

English Press — Violent Outbursts of the — The Father- 
land. New York 148 

English Protectorate — France as an 126 

English Views — Dr. Paul Carus, Editor, The Open 

Court. Topic Under : Lessons of the War 315 

Entente — Playing the Greatest Game of World Politics 

Ever Played 23 

Faithlessness — More — Translation of Editorial, The Illi- 
nois Staats-Zeitung 75 

London Buoyed Up by Lies 302 

Nursing Hatred Toward the Kaiser — The 115 

Outbursts of the English Press — The Fatherland 148 

Perfidy and Russian Atrocities — The Vital Issue 131 

Point of View and the War — The — Dr. Paul Carus, 

The Open Court 24 

Evolution of Germany Since Luther — Present Situation 

of the Empire — Dr. George L. Scherger 13 

Expansion — Serbia's Dream of 135 

< F 

Falaba — Explanation as to 225 

Force : Conflict and Force — The Tail-end of Every Law 

is a Whip 336 

France — See also : French, Franco-German, Entente — 
An American Resident in — John Steel, The Open Court 329 

And the "Dime Novel" Literature 304 

As an English Protectorate — Hamburger Fremdenblatt, 

Hamburg, Germany 126 

France and Germany 10 

France's Meaning Clear 189 

French Civilians Peaceable 89 

Frenchman — Germany's Destruction Predicted By a... 343 

French Militarism 167 

French Socialist Objects — The Fatherland, New York 

City 123 

French Writer — Who Served in Franco-Prussian War 

— Tribute to German Soldier 166 

Franco- Prussian War — The 19 

Has Behaved for a Century Among Her Neighbors — 

How 265 

In the Great War — Bits of News on 122 

National Ideals, Morality, and the Justification of War. 325 

Prisoners in '71 — Bismarck and the 5 

Whips the Kaiser's .-\rmv — The Fatherland, New York 

City ". 265 

Frederick the "Wise" — Editor, War Echoes 15 



G 

Germany's — See also The Fatherland — 
Action in Belgium — The Supreme Court of the United 
States upholds — The Fatherland, New York City.... 93 

Appeal to America — German Chancellor 29 

Declaration — Horace L. Brand — The Illinois Staats- 
Zeitung, Chicago 199 

Destruction as foretold by a Frenchman — A. Kamp- 

meier. The Open Court, Iowa City, la 343 

Enemies — Germany's Efforts for the Maintenance of.. 75 
Enemies — Rev. Alfred E. Meyer, Chicago Mass Meet- 
ing, Auditorium, Chicago 137 

Foes and the war — Dr. Paul Carus, Editor, The Open 

Court 178 

Moral and Sacred Trust to Posterity — Her Defense... 194 
Moral and Sacred Trust to Posterity — Patriotism and 

Duty 186 

Moral and Sacred Trust to Posterity — Spiritual Values 199 
Place in the Sun — Dr. Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President 

of the University of California 162 

Struggle for Existence — H. C. G. Von Jagemann, The 

Outlook 10 

Gibraltar — The German — Why given up — The Boston 

Herald 195 

Gladstone on Treaties — See J. Ramsey Macdonald, Why 

we are at war 98 

Grosscup — Judge Peter S. — An Appeal for a Fair Judg- 
ment — The New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, New York 

City. Oct. 5, 1914 30 

God? — On Whose Side is — The Fatherland, New York 

City 23 

Goebel — Dr. Julius — Head of Dept. of Germanic Lan- 
guages and Literature, The University of Illinois — 
Bismarck on the Purpose and Policy of the German 

Empire, The Fatherland, New York 161 

The German-American and the President's Neutrality 

Proclamation 217 

Great Britain and her Enemies in the war— See also 
Britain, English — 

Great Britain' Reprimands President Wilson 231 

Great Britain's and Russia's Part in the World War... 131 
Great Britain's Case — Herman Ridder, New Yorker 

Staats-Zeitung, Oct. 19, 1914 70 

Great Britain's Position — Some Remarkable Confessions 121 
Great Britain's Real Motive for Entering War — Her- 
man Ridder, The New Yorker Staats-Zeitung 72 

In Africa, Egypt, and at Home 293 

On Germany — Peaceful Pursuit of Industry Spurned.. 49 

On International Law 119 

The Entente — Playing the Greatest Game of World 

Politics ever Played 23 

German — See also Germany — the Fatherland — 

A German Gibraltar— The Boston Herald 195 

Army Absolute Necessity • • 122 

Army and Navy — To the — Proclamation of Kaiser Wil- 

helm II 237 

Army and the German People in France and Belgium — 

With the ■ 245 

Army — Swedish Poet on the German — The Crucible... 172 
British Cite More German Faults — Chicago Daily News 292 

Cause in the War — German Character and the 150 

Character in the Conflict — The Vital Issue 163 

Culture- and "Kultur" — Topic under: War Hypocrisy 

Unveiled. Albert E. Henschel 78 

Difficulty of Digging Out the German Navy — Editorial, 

The Sun, New York .^ 

From a German Sympathizer — "The Times-Picayune," 

New Orleans 311 

Empire — Proclamation of the New 19 

Food Until Next Harvest 190 

Forces of Democracy — Topic Under: War Hypocrisy 

Unveiled. Albert E. Henschel 78 

German I\lilitarism — Topic L'nder: War Hypocrisy Un- 
veiled. Albert E. Henschel 78 

Government and the German People — The 139 

Ideals and Their Realization — Bismarck 4 

In France and Belgium — With the German Army.... 245 

Invaders Prove Quiet 252 

Leaders of Libertv — Topic Under: \\'ar Hypocrisy 

Unveiled. Albert 'E. Henschel 78 

Letter from an Englishman 49 

Menace — George William Hau, Editor, War Echoes 53 

Mobilization of German Women — The Independent. . . . 273 
Patriotism in the Fatherland, Editorial — The Crucible, 
Richmond, Va 187 



INDEX 



349 



Race Wars for Life — Joseph Medill Patterson, The 

Chicago Tribune 188 

Reply to U. S. — Official Text of — Von Jagow, Minister 

of Foreign Affairs, The Chicago Daily News 225 

Representative Men — An Appeal to the World — The 

Fatherland 148 

Scholars and the Larger View — The Open Court 328 

Scholars — In Appeal to the United States 149 

Socialists — United with Germany 345 

Soldiers of the Fatherland Respect Women — The 

Fatherland, New York City 166 

Spirit of German Life — Tribune Gives New Light on — 

James O'Donnell Bennett, The Chicago Tribune 245 

Stability Tested — Jobless Few in Fatherland — The Chi- 
cago Daily News 198 

Supremacy in Commerce and Industry 160 

Supremacy in Agriculture — The Outlook, New York.. 160 
The German Empire — Bismarck on the Purpose and 
Policy of the — Dr. Julius Goebel, The Fatherland, 

New York ...161 

The German Position — Dernberg's Statement — H. Rid- 

der. New York City 139 

The Significance of German Militarism — George Stuart 

Fullerton, Prof, of Philosophy, Columbia University 167 
The Women of the Fatherland — An Appeal by the 

Kaiserin, Auguste Victoria, Berlin 273 

"War-Makers" — A Critical Stud}' — Noel Sargent, The 

University of Washington 37 

White Papers — The British and German — The Boston 

Herald 55 

Germans — See Also : German, Germany, Fatherland — 
Accusations of Germans lack confirmation, says Asquith 90 

Belgians and Germans at the White House 218 

Cable Kaiser Love — 10,000— The Chicago Tribune 185 

Disdain Italy — for Italy's ignoble conduct 282 

Feel Confident 245 

In Faneuil Hall — Speeches made at a Mass Meeting of 

— Robert Sturm, Boston Globe 210 

In Washington — Expect Victory 284 

Misjudged — Believe 250 

Naughty "Liebe Kinder" 255 

No Panic after Battle 255 

Nothing Against Foe 255 

Pay for What They Buy 255 

Salute Their Prisoner 255 

Shows German Patience 255 

To be Trusted 250 

Treat Frenchmen Well 254 

German-American — The — In the Llnited States — 

German-American and the President's Neutrality 
Proclamation — The — Prof. Julius Goebel, The Father- 
land, New York City.... 217 

German-Americans — in Chicago Mass Meeting 137 

German Atrocities — See also Cruelties, Vandalism, Huns, 
Ghauls, etc. — 
An Authoritative Statement on — The Springfield Union 263 
Germany and Atrocities — Extracts from Ediorial. Her- 
man Ridder, New Yorker Staats-Zeitung 294 

Fiction, So Far as Tribune Men in Belgium Can Find — 

James O'Donnell Bennett, Chicago Tribune 249 

German Atrocity Reports Lack Confirmation 90 

Germanistic Society of Chicago — "War-Makers" — Noel 

Sargent 37 

Resolution Adopted by 300 Passengers on Board the 

Holland Line Steamer "Rotterdam" 26 

Joseph Medill Patterson on 277 

The Duchess of Marlborough on 277 

German Cruelties — Denied by LI. S. Correspondents — See 
also Atrocities — 
Irvin S. Cobb, Saturday Evening Post and Philadelphia 

Public Ledger 209 

James O'Donnell Bennett, Chicago Tribune 209 

John T. McCutcheon. Chicago Tribune 209 

German Menace — A — Editor, War Echoes 53 

German Militarism — See Militarism, Navalism — 

German Militarism — Dr. Paul Carus 80 

Militarism and English Navalism 214 

Militarism and the Evolution of the Empire 165 

The Significance of German Militarism 167 

Germany — See also : German, Germans, Fatherland — 

A Competitor 188 

An American Sympathizer with — The Open Court.... 191 
And the Great War — The Imperial German Ambas- 
sador, The Independent, New York 243 

Become a Republic? — Will — The Crucible — Editorial, 
Richmond, Va 345 



Belgium and Germany — Editorial, The Chicago Tribune 67 
Colossal Machinations and Intrigue Against the Austro- 

Hungarian Empire 74 

Congressman Bartholdt's Plea for — The Fatherland... 143 

Does Not Threaten England 122 

Doing Without — The Literary Digest, New York City. 159 

Full Text of President Wilson's Answer to 226 

Germany — of To-day — Charles Tower, Prof, of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago 156 

Germany — "Made in Germany" — Real Cause of War — 

Sam. H. Clark 285 

Germany Warned Us Says Senator Vardaman 290 

Had No Desire for War — Topic Under : War Hypoc- 
risy Unveiled. Albert Henschel 85 

Had to Strike First 189 

In Self-Def ense — Topic under ; War Hypocrisy Un- 
veiled. Albert Henschel 85 

In the Crisis-i-Attacking and Defending 143 

Jobless Fewer than Year Ago in — The Chicago Daily 

News 198 

National Life and International Importance of 8 

Necessity for the German Nation 198 

On Lusitania — Has Expressed Its Regret 225 

Passionate Defense of — Editorial, The Chicago Even- 
ing Post 147 

Peaceful Pursuit of Industry Spurned — Great Britain 

and 49 

Previous Efforts Not Effective 198 

Railroad Receipts Almost Normal 198 

Since Luther — Present Situation of the Empire — A 

More Extensive Account of the Evolution of 13 

Swing Thinks Germany was Forced Into the War — 

Raymond E. Swing, The Daily News 

Terrors of the Sea Owned by — History of 287 

The Case for Germany — W. G. Nasmith, The Outlook, 

New York .^. 154 

The German Menace — Kipling 177 

The Only World Power that has Kept the Peace for 
a Generation — Topic under : War Hypocrisy Un- 
veiled. Albert E. Henschel 80 

The Real Purpose of 8 

The World is Fighting 234 

"War-Seeker" — The "Barbarian" Hallucination — Ger- 
many the — L. Niessen-Deiters, Bonn, Germany 108 

Who Began the War, and Why? — The Case for — Speech 

by Kaiser Wilhelm II 231 

Why Germany is at War — The Irish Voice 43 

Why I Champion Germany — Dr. John W. Burgess, The 

Boston Evening Transcript 8 

Will Seize All Grain in Nation — The Daily News 195 

H 

Hindenburg — German Field Marshal — 

Character and Characteristics 169 

Is Hero of Every German Town : 274 

Saved Mazurian Lakes 274 

"We Shall Win," says Hindenburg — The Fatherland... 168 
History, Historical, and ?Iistorians — 
How Will the Historian Settle Accounts with the Na- 
tions at War ? IS 

Historical Instances of the Plea of Self-Defense — Topic 

under: War Hypocrisy Unveiled. Albert Henschel. 84 
History of Eight Days — (The) — Translation of Edi- 
torial — The Illinois Staats-Zeitung 48 

History on Modern Ultra-Pragmatism in this World 

Politics — The Philosopher of 37 

History Repeat Itself? — Will — The Fatherland, New 

York 265 

Harris — Frank — American Neutrality 220 

Hau — George W. — See: Editor, War Echoes; also see: 
Preface. 

The German Navy — A Menace 53 

The Deeper Meaning of the War 15 

The New Civilization 15 

Helgoland — Why Ceded to Germany? — The Boston Her- 
ald 195 

Holland— 

In 1839 — Belgium's New Life Since that Nation's Lib- 
eration from 85 

In the European War — The Position of — Albert Ooster- 

heerdt 203 

Resolution Adopted by 300 Passengers on Board the 

Steamer "Rotterdam" .^ 209 

Hope for Russian Jews — The Chicago Tribune 129 



INDEX 



Hypocrisy — See also : Secret Diplomacy — 

False and Malignant Analogy 78 

Hypocrisy — A True Analogy 78 

Hypocrisy — Justice to Belgium 78 

Limitless Self -Deception Conduct Abject and Degrad- 
ing 106 

War Hypocrisy Unveiled — E. Henschel 78 

I 

Ideals, Morality, and the Justification of Force 32S 

Immoral — Is War — Herman Ridder, New Yorker Staats- 

Zeitung 326 

Immoral for a Nation to Allow Criminal Neighbors to 

Prostitute its Sacred Trust— It is 328 

Intrigue Against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Con- 
sequently Against Germany 74 

Ireland — See also : Irish, Irish Publications — 

Chicago Irish Leaders Denounce Recruiting in — The 

Irish Voice 99 

Extracts from the Crime Against — By Sir Roger Case- 
ment — The Crucible 100 

Irish — See also Ireland, Irish Publications — 

The Resolutions 214 

To Organize Throughout the Country 214 

Italy — Fact and Comment, Pro and Con — 

And the War— An Ally, Neutral, Belligerent 234 

From the "Triple" Alliance— The Withdrawal of— 

Herman Ridder, New Yorker Staats-Zeitung 235 

Germans Disdain — Say She Deserves Punishment 282 

Mobs in Italian Cities Cry for War on Austria— The 

Chicago Examiner 235 

Italy's Action — Leaving the Triple Alliance 331 

Action to Prolong War— Peace Far Off 284 

Cause in the War— Translation of Editorial — The Illi- 
nois Staats-Zeitung 282 

Entry Into the War— The Military Expert of The 
Fatherland 281 



Japan— In Alliances and in the War— Also See: Entente- 
America and 134 

Japan and Kiautschau — Translation of Editorial, The 

Illinois Staats-Zeitung 133 

Japan and the War — Dr. Paul Carus, Editor, The Open 

Court 133 

Japan's Broken Pledges 181 

Japan Sees Us Rival 189 

Jews — The — Russia and Poland — 

Hope for the Russian Jews 129 

My Beloved American Jews 130 

The Jewish People and Their Liberation by Russia 127 

The Jews and the Polish — Russia's Declaration of Love 

^ for 129 

The Jews and Russia — Herman Ridder, The New 

Yorker Staats-Zeitung 128 

The United States to Support Russia, Says Zangwill... 130 

Justice — Five Men Want 252 

Justice to All Nations — Policy of 80 

Pustice Olson— Chief— Not Ready to Pass Judgment 
on Lusitania 290 

K 

Kaiser William II — See also Emperor M'illiam II — 

First Successful Battle 239 

Letter to Lord Tweedmore 116 

On Victory near Metz 237 

Speech from the Throne 238 

The Kaiser's New Year Greetings 184 

Forgives Enemies 238 

His indiscretion was Calculated 115 

The Spirit of the Men 115 

To the German Army and Navy 237 

Kaiser Wilhelm II — "Up and at the Foes" 237 

Who Began the War, and Why? The Case for Ger- 
many 237 

Kaiser— See also Kaiser William II and Emperor William II 

and Peace— The New York Herald 239 

and the Boer War 116 

Andrew Carnegie Praises— The Vital Issue, New York 

City 164 

At a Parade During Swift German Advance Toward 
Paris — Speech of 238 



Emperor William, the Man — Dr. Hugo Muensterberg. . 182 

Germans Cable K. Love — The Chicago Tribune 185 

Glory-Mad? — Is the — The Army and Navv Journal, 

New York, Aug. 5 184 

Hindenburg's Appeals to — in behalf of the Mazurian 

Lakes 274 

How the K. Worked to Avoid War — The Chicago Daily 

News 46 

Kaiser — What Great Men Know of His Character. 

Motives and Ability— The 182 

Kaiser Worked for Peace — How the 46 

Kaiser's Hand — The Underlying Cause that forced the 

— Dr. Kuno Francke, Harvard 26 

Kaiser's Peaceful Instincts 185 

Kaiser's Telegram — The Spirit of the Men 237 

Peace Sought by — Raymond E. Swing, The Chicago 

Daily News ISO 

Resents a Personal Insult 115 

Speeded it along — The Perfection of the Submarine — 

its history 287 

Submarine Blockade — forces action 114 

To King George, July 31 47 

Vindicated — Herman Ridder, the New Yorker Staats- 
Zeitung, Sept. 18, 1914 183 

King — See also Kaiser, Emperor William, Czar, Queen — 
King Albert's Policy — The Editor, Dr. Paul Carus, The 

Open Court 74 

King Edward as a "Peacemaker" 8 

King George's Peace Plan 46 

Kipling Brands Germany Menace — The Chicago Tribune. 177 
Kipling — Rudyard — The Truce of the "Bear" — New 

York Times, New York City 177 

Kitchener, Asquith, Churchill and Balfour at Guildhall... 146 

Kitchener Believes His Course is Right 256 

Kitchener — Pretty Close to High Treason 256 

Kluck — General Von 266 

Kluck — Von — Poem 267 

Kluck — General Von — A Week With — Poem — Siegfried 

Jacobsohn, The Fatherland 249 

"Kultur" — A French View of — The New Republic 164 



Law — International — Topic under : War Hvpocrisv Un- 
veiled. Albert E. Henschel ". ' 78 

Law of Nations — War in the Air and 295 

Laws; No Law Without Force; ergo: The Tail End of 

Every Law is a Whip 336 

Liberties of the People — In Austria-Hungarj' — Dr. Irwin 

Klein, The Vital Issue 278 

Life — German Race Wars for — J. M. Patterson — The Chi- 
cago Tribune 188 

Literature — The French "Dime Novel" 304 

London — And the War — 
"New Age" — The London — Geo. Raffalovich Dares 

Write On London in 107 

Why was London Not Raided Sooner ? 297 

Lusitania — The — Fact and Comment on the Sinking of — 
Pro and Con — 

A Floating Arsenal 288 

Blame Laid on Ammunition 226 

Called a Cruiser 225 

Case — Prominent Statesmen on — The Fatherland, New 

York City 289 

Chief Justice Olson Will Not Pass Judgment On 290 

Disaster — Mr. Hobson, The New York Tribune 289 

Says Troops Were Carried 226 

The Boast of the Cunard Company — Boston Journal.. 291 

The Duty of the United States 289 

Tried to Intimidate the United States 290 

United States Insists on Rights of Neutrals 227 

LTnited States Navy Men Blame British 289 

L'nited States — Plain Words as to Tragedy 227 

United States Willing to be Mediator 227 

Von Bernstorff Regrets Loss of Americans 291 

Who Had a Motive? , 289 

Why Was the Lusitania Sunk? 291 

M 

Macchiavelli and the War — Anti. — Dr. Paul Carus, Editor, 

The Open Court IS 

Macchiavelliism — Editorial, The Chicago Tribune 187 

Macdonald — J. Ramsay — Why We are at War — The Open 
Court 97 



INDEX 



Mazurian Lakes — Hindenburg's Victory and Honor 274 

Memel Regained 277 

Menace — The German — George William Hau, Editor, 

War Echoes S3 

Meyer — Rev. Alfred E. — Defending the Fatherland 137 

Militarism — See also Navyism — 

Militarism vs. Navalism — The Chicago Tribune 172 

Of Germany — The — E. Dallmer, The Fatherland.... 168 

Protest Insincere 144 

The Significance of German 167 

The War and Growing Militarism — Dr. Paul Carus. 

The Open Court 340 

What Constitutes? — Editorial, Army and Navy Journal, 

New York 336 

Mobilization of German Women — The 273 

Morality, the Justification of Force, Diplomacy and Poli- 
tics in the War — National Ideals 325 

Morals of War — The — Prof. Hugo Muensterberg, The 

Milwaukee Free Press 325 

Munitions of War — Lusitania a Floating Arsenal 288 

N 

Nations — The Defender of small — The Irish Voice, March 

4, 1915 114 

Naval Warfare — The Influence of Precedent? and Mod- 
ern 286 

Navalism Vs. Militarism — The Chicago Tribune, Sept. 

18th. 1914 172 

Navy — How to dig it out — Editorial, The New York 

Sun 195 

Navy — Unrelenting — Action of 112 

Neutral — Let America be — Editorial, The Irish World. . . . 234 

Neutral Nations — Spain and Portugal — Some 203 

Neutral Ships— Not to Attack 225 

Neutrality— A Breach of 88 

Neutrality — And International Law — A Sketch of Belgian 

History — Belgian Vicissitudes for a Century 78 

Neutrality — Belgian — Its real meaning 59 

Neutrality — Committed to These Propositions 67 

Neutrality Fraud — Belgian — Exposed 64 

Neutrality — Guaranteed, Treaties Made and Broken 85 

Neutrality — Inhuman and Wrong for America to Remain 

Neutral, Author Argues 106 

Neutrality — Letter of Senator Stone 221 

Neutrality — Message, President Wilson's 217 

Neutrality Myth — German Ambassador to U. S 66 

Neutrality— of the United States— The Official 221 

Neutrality — our duty ? — Is 227 

Neutrality — the War and a Breach of — Paul Carus, Edi- 
tor, The Open Court 85 

Neutrality — Violated by Great Britain — Cutting Cable.... 69 
Neutralized — State Must be Impartial and Beyond Suspi- 
cion 85 

Nietzschian War — The Euro- 38 

P 

Pan-Slavism and the War — Dr. Paul Carus — The Open 

Court 20 

Paris Now and in 1870 — Editorial, The Boston Evening 

Transcript 266 

Patriotism — German — The Crucible 187 

Peace — See also Pacific — 

And the European Federation — Kant for Perpetual ... 84 
Far Off — Italy's Action to Prolong War — The Chicago 

Tribune 284 

How the Kaiser Worked for 46 

"Peacemaker" — King Edward as a 8 

The Emperor a Lover of 80 

Polish — Russia's Declaration of Love for Polish and 

Jews — Illinois Staats-Zeitung 129 

Powers Since 1839 — Under the Protection of the 82 

Preparedness for War — The Duty of — Dr. C. R. Hender- 
son, The Chicago Tribune 187 

President Wilson — See also Wilson — President of the 
United States — 

And the American Exportation of Weapons 225 

And the Belgian Commission 91 

Answer to Germany — Full Text of 226 

Greeting to the Belgian Royal Commission 219 

Neutrality Message 217 

Progress Spurned — Great Britain and Germany — A Peace- 
ful Pursuit of Industry and 49 



Prussia — The Rise of — Dr. George G. Scherger 15 

Prussia's Blighting Influence — By Frederick F. Schrader. 

The Fatherland, New York. . 181 

R 

Red Cross — The Austro-Hungarian 201 

Republic? — Will Germany Become a — Geo. Caillaux 345 

Rhine — The Watch on — Poem and Song 186 

Rohrbach— Dr. Paul— The Root of the World War— Ad- 
dress to the Protestant Union of Hamburg, Germany 

— Hamburger Fremdenblatt 3 

Roosevelt — A Question for Mr 152 

Roosevelt — As a Mediator 9 

Russia — See also : Russian, Russians, Slavs — 

Causes for War 43 

Forced Action in the War 189 

Glorious Prospects for Russia 107 

Playing a Trick— The Mobilization Plot 345 

Revolutionary Movements in Russia — Hamburger Frem- 
denblatt, Hamburg, Germany 131 

Takes Issue on — S. N. Harper, The New Republic... 132 

The Fateful Word from Russia 46 

The Jews and— Herman Ridder, The New Yorker 

Staatz-Zeitung 128 

What Will the Coming Century Bring Germany from 

Russia? 274 

Russian — See also Russia, Russians, Slavs — 

.A.trocities — English Perfidy and — The Vital Issue . . 131 

Empire — Fair Play Was Denied the — Chicago Daily 

News 106 

Jews — Hope for — Editorial, The Chicago Tribune 129 

"Orange Paper" — The — Herman Ridder. The New 

Yorker Staats-Zeitung 35 

Russians — See also : Russia's, Russia, Slavs — 

Hindenburg Honored — Drove Russians Out of Prussia 274 
Russia's — See also : Russia, Russians, Slavs — 

Declaration of Love for the Jew and Polish — Transla- 
tion of Editorial, The Illinois Staats-Zeitung 129 

Good Faith — As Was Expected — Editorial, Milwaukee 

Free Press 130 

Part in the World War — Great Britain's and 131 

S 

St. Petersburg — The Plan Evolved in 47 

Schleswig-Holstein Affair— The 18 

Secret Diplomacy 76 

Serbia — Cause of — Position and Her Part in the World 

War 135 

Serbia— Must Go Back to Murder 150 

Serbia — Where the Kernel Lies ISO 

Serbia's Dream of E.xpansion — The Literary Digest, 

New York City 135 

Shells— Falk Censured for Making Ally 215 

Slav Peril Now— The 8 

Slav Peril of the 70's— The 8 

Soldiers — Ten Maxims for German — Harry Hanson, The 

Chicago Daily News 342 

Soldiers — Protest Against Turco — The Fatherland 120 

Spain and Portugal — Some Neutral Nations 203 

Submarines — See also : Navy — 

All Are of Recent Date 287 

Can Cruise for a Month 288 

German Undersea Terrors — History of 287 

In the Sea and Zeppelin in the Air 171 

Rewards for Ramming 225 

The U-9— The Beginning of the End 197 

Sudan — Keep Conquest Secret 294 

Swedish Poet About the German Army — A — Editor, The 

Crucible 172 

T 

Talleyrand Diplomacy — The Editor, War Echoes 15 

Teuton Defends — What the — Dr. Herbert Sanborn, The 

Milwaukee Free Press 199 

Teutonic Nations and Belgium — The 91 

Treaties — See also : Entente, Alliance — 
Affected by Changed Conditions — Topic Under : War 

Hypocrisy Unveiled, Albert E. Henschel 83 

Belgian Protection Under the Powers 82 

Gladstone on Treaties 98 



352 



If Old Treaty Valid, No New Treaty Necessary — Topic 

Under : War Hypocrisy Unveiled. Albert E. Henscliel 82 

Made and Broken — Neutrality Guaranteed 85 

Practical Interpretation of Treaty of 1839 — Topic 

Under : War Hypocrisy Unveiled. Albert E. Henschel 78 

The Right of Self-Protection Nullifies 84 

Violations of — The Fatherland, New York City 68 

Treitschke 39 

Triple 'Alliance — Italian War Minister, Friend of — Re- 
signs — The Chicago Examiner 236 

Triple Alliance — The Withdrawal of Italy from the — 

H. Ridder, The New Yorker Staats-Zeitung 235 

Turco Soldiers — Protest Against — The Fatherland 120 

U 

United States — See also America — 

And the War — Two Extreme Views of the 54 

Congressman Bartholdt Calls Press Unfair 143 

England and the — Hamburger Fremdenblatt, Hamburg, 

Germany 227 

In the World War— Official Neutrality of the 217 

In the World War— Popular Neutrality of the 207 

Pulling English Chestnuts Out of the Fire 290 

The Press Room Campaign in the 305 

The Case of Belgium and 91 

The People of the — Deluded — Herbert Corey, St. Paul 

Dispatch 256 

Upholds Germans in Belgium 93 

V 

Vandalism — Blames Louvain Citizens for 252 

Vandalism — War or — Editorial, The Illinois Staats- 
Zeitung 262 

Victory — In the Field — 

Germans Expect — The Chicago Tribune 284 

Near Metz — On — Kaiser's Speech 237 

W 

War — See also : Warfare, Fighting, Modern Warfare — 

After the War— A Forecast 103 

Ammunition — Convert Them All — Governor Included.. 212 
An American General on the War — The Crucible, Edi- 
torial, Richmond, Va 344 

Anti-Macchiavelliism and the — Dr. Paul Carus, The 

Open Court 15 

Austria's Part in the War — The Crucible 279 

Cheating the World 256 

Bismark's View and the War — Dr. Paul Carus, Editor, 

The Open Court 7 

Blame for the War — F. E. Schrader, The Fatherland.. 104 

Colored Troops in France 244 

Comment and Speculation on Results of the War 342 

Could the War Have Been Avoided? 12 

Discredits Belgian Pretext for 67 

Dropping Shells from Air 244 

Draft Peace During 48 

Fairness and Impartiality a Plain Duty , 30 

Germany and the Great War — The German Ambassa- 
dor, The Independent 243 

Germany had No Desire for 85 

Great Britain's Motive for War — Herman Ridder, New 

Yorker Staats-Zeitung 72 

Growing Militarism and the War — Dr. Paul Carus, The 

Open Court ^ 340 

How the Kaiser Worked to Avoid War 46 

Hypocrisy Unveiled — Albert E. Henschel 78 

Is War a Necessity? — Dr. C. P. Dumba — Leslie's 

Weekly 335 

Is War Immoral? — Herman Ridder, New Yorker 

Staats-Zeitung 326 

Italy's Action to Prolong the War — The Chicago Trib- 
une 284 

Italy's Cause in the 282 

Italv's Entry Into the War — The Militarv Expert of the 

Fatherland 281 

Japan and the War — Dr. Paul Carus, The Open Court. 133 
Lessons of the War — Editor, Dr. Paul Carus, The Open 

Court 315 

"Made in Germany" Real Cause of the War — Sam. H. 
Clark 285 



Militarism and the War — Dr. Paul Carus, Editor, The 
Open Court 337 

Modern Warfare and the Present War — Dr. Paul Carus, 
Editor, The Open Court ■. 268 

Mystery of Diplomacy — International Politics — Vital 
Causes of the War 43 

News — Sick of It! Editorial, Milwaukee Free Press.. 118 

Not the British People — The British Government 
Wanted War 85 

On Austria — Mobs in Italian Cities Cry for War — The 
Chicago Examiner 236 

Pan-Slavism and the War — Dr. Paul Carus, The Open 
Court 20 

Planned War Months Ahead — The Fatherland 311 

Poem — "Prize Poem" — The Boston Advocate 207 

Since 1870 — England's Wars — The Chicago Tribune.... 168 

The Duty of Preparedness for War — Dr. C. R. Hender- 
son, Chicago Tribune 183 

The English Point of View and the War — Dr. Paul 
Carus, Editor, The Open Court 24 

The German Cause and the War — Dr. Paul Carus, Edi- 
tor, The Open Court 153 

The Morals of the — Dr. Hugo Muensterberg 225 

The Newspapers and the European War — The Vital 
Issue 311 

The Position of Holland in the European War — Albert 
Oosterheerdt 203 

The Root of the World War— Address, Dr. Paul 
Rohrbach. to the Protestant LInion of Hamburg, Ger- 
many — Hamburger Fremdenblatt 3 

The Slavic Peril 244 

The Teutonic Nations and Belgium — Meaning of Align- 
ment 91 

Thinks Germany was Forced Into the War — Raymond 
Swing, The Chicago Daily News 150 

Unavoidable? — Was the ^\'ar — Dr. Paul Carus, Editor, 
The Open Court — Topic under : Lessons on the War 321 

United States and the — The 228 

Vandalism or War — Editorial, The Illinois Staats- 
Zeitung 262 

What Caused the War? — Editorial, The Crucible, Rich- 
mond, Va 122 

Who Provoked the War? — Frederick E. Schrader. The 
Fatherland, New York City 104 

Why We are at War — Editorial, The Crucible, Rich- 
mond, Va 122 

Why We are at War — J. Ramsay Macdonald — The 

Open Court 97 

War-Makers — Further Evidence of the Work of the.... 54 
War-Makers — German — A Critical Study — Noel Sargent, 

The University of \\"ashington 37 

War's Most Important Outcome..... 107 

"War-Seeker" — .A. General Suggestion About Germany 
the — The "Barbarian" Hallucination — L. Niessen- 
Deiters, Bonn, Germany 108 

War-Subscription — The German 143 

War with Austria — The Seven Weeks' 18 

Washington Cabinet Notes 231 

Washington — Remember the Words of George 231 

Washington — When It Was Burned — The Boston 

Herald 110 

White Papers — The British and German 55 

William II's Letter to Lord Tweedmouth — The Morn- 
ing Post. London 116 

William the Man — Emperor — Professor Hugo Muen- 
sterberg, Everybody's Magazine 182 

Wilson Note— British Finding More Fault 292 

Wilson's Answer to Germany — Full Text of President 
— Robert Lansing, Secretary of State, The Chicago 
Daily News 226 

Wilson's Greeting to the Belgian Royal Commission — 

President — Chicago Daily News 219 

Women— German Soldiers Respect— Tribute by French 

Writer — The Fatherland, New York City 166 

Women — The Mobilization of German 273 

Women — To German 273 

Z 

Zangwill Israel— An Open Letter to— The Fatherland... 127 

Zangwill Asks Jews in the U. S. to Support Allies 130 

Zeppelin in the -Air — Submarine in the Sea and 171 

Zeppelin— Count— In Alsace m 1870— Karl Klein. The 

Open Court '23 



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